Assessment of benefits of employing natural refrigerants in seafood cold chain in India

Abstract

In this paper we present a comprehensive assessment of benefits from adoption of suitable natural refrigerants at various stages of seafood cold chain in Indian scenario. This includes cooling demands during fish harvesting, transport of fresh catch, sorting and processing, and long-time storage. For each stage, the cooling demands are estimated and simple refrigeration cycle configurations are simulated to estimate the annual energy consumption and total equivalent warming impact for suitable natural refrigerants from among NH3, CO2, and hydrocarbons such as R170, R290, and R1270. The same is compared with synthetic refrigerants presently used for such application like R22, R134a and R404A etc. Field data from a surimi supply chain in west coastal region and shrimp supply chain in east coastal region of India are used for the study. The results highlight the potential benefits from use of natural refrigerants in seafood sector. Further, the various barriers in terms of technological, economic and policy related are highlighted.