Experimental investigation and life cycle assessment of a phase change material (PCM) based thermoelectric (TE) refrigerator
Mehran Bozorgi, Poritosh Roy, Abu Raihan Mohammad Siddique, Kumar Venkateshwar, Syeda Humaira Tasnim, Shohel Mahmud
Abstract
The advent of innovative engineering concepts and technologies to improve traditional systems for refrigeration, storage, and transportation of foods is inevitable to reduce energy consumption and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the food sector. In this study, a Phase Change Material (PCM) based Thermoelectric (TE) refrigerator has been presented. As a novelty, the proposed prototype is evaluated experimentally with different tests by using the wind tunnel and temperature controller. The results indicate that the PCM-based TE refrigerator can maintain the temperature of a variety of food products for applications such as refrigerator vehicles. The suggested system can keep materials at temperatures below 5 ºC for 7 h without electricity. Based on the findings, by using PCM, the proposed refrigerator can maintain the temperature of the food items below 5 ºC without electricity for 29.4% of one week's hours facilitating the system for applications with unstable access to electricity. Furthermore, the life cycle environmental impacts (including global warming potential and ozone depletion) of the PCM-based TE refrigerator have been determined and compared with conventional refrigerators. The global warming potential, ozone depletion, smog, acidification, and eutrophication of the proposed refrigerator are found to be, 1190 kg of CO2 e, 1.29E-06 kg of CFC-11, 58.5 kg of O3, 15.8 kg of SO2, and 0.242 kg of nitrogen, respectively, which is about 28% lower than the magnetic refrigerator's CFC-11 emissions. Consequently, the results conclusively demonstrate that transitioning to a PCM-based TE refrigeration system significantly reduces the environmental impacts of the food transportation and storage sector.