Development of Refrigeration System for Storage and Preservation of Yam Tubers

• M. A. Akintunde

  Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Federal University of Technology, Akure

• K A ADETORO

  Dept of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Akure

• T. J. Abioye

  3Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering and Engineering Technology, The Federal University of Technology, Akure

It is a known fact that post-harvest storage facilities for yam tubers is not common.  Sequel to this most of the harvested yam tubers are wasted, because they cannot be preserved for long period of time under normal atmospheric conditions.  In this work, it was observed that when yam tubers are kept within certain conditions of temperature, aeration and humidity, they can be preserved for a longer time.  It was discovered from literature that for longer storage of yam tubers, a temperature ranging from 13°C and 18^°C, with relative humidity ranging from 50% to 80% cum air flow rate between 0.6 m/s to 2 m/s the rate of weight loss of yam tuber will be minimized.  In this work, a special refrigeration system, with condenser temperature of 40°C and evaporator temperature of 12°C was designed to store and preserve yam tubers.  The system was used to store yam tubers for a period of 8 months.  Lost in weight of the yam stored in the system becomes noticeable after six (6) months.  This lost in weight ranges between 1% to 1.5% depending on the period between harvest and time of transfer to the storage system.  The system was evaluated to be 76.79% efficient.

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