Evaluation of a smart horticultural cooler for minimizing post-harvest losses of perishable crops in Bangladesh

Postharvest losses in Bangladesh remain high due to the lack of field-level cold storage facilities. Two-ton capacity BAU-ADI HortiCool cold storage solution is developed to operate through single phase 220 V line to overcome this problem. This hybrid system is powered mainly by solar, then back up power with a lithium iron phosphate battery (LiFePO4 battery), and also by grid power during cloudy weather and night time. A programmed AgriCool system and a humidifier were incorporated to maintain desired temperature and relative humidity, respectively inside the HortiCool. Temperature, relative humidity and power consumption data of HortiCool were monitored with smart mobile application and recorded in the cloud in real time. Experimental results showed that the BAU-ADI HortiCool was able to maintain the required temperature and relative humidity of 10.21 ± 2.30 °C and 85.69 ± 4.88%, respectively. The HortiCool required 142.65 kWh of electricity for 21 days of operation. About 54.9% electricity demand of HortiCool was fulfilled by solar power while grid power met up the rest 45.1%. HortiCool successfully preserved tomatoes, green chili, mangoes, cucumber and okra in fresh condition for 16, 18, 16, 03 and 05 days, respectively as compared to ambient storage. The postharvest loss of stored tomatoes, green chili, mangoes, cucumber and okra could be reduced by 5.17%, 17.2%, 10.47%, 6.85% and 42.87%, respectively compared to the ambient condition. Thus, BAU-ADI HortiCool solution has showed an edge over ambient condition for storing the selected fruits and vegetables.