Assessing the Thermal Load of Low-Cost Cold Storage for Perishable Agricultural Products Used in Rural Areas of Bangladesh

Abstract Bangladesh is an agricultural country with a low food storage facility. More than 20-40% of perishable products waste which amounts to $2.4 billion. Field survey shows that people want fresh nutrient goods and farmers need enough time to sell their harvested goods at a fair price. The supply chain authorities also prefer to reduce perishable waste to increase their profit. To ensure food safety and proper supply management the implementation of low-cost cold storage will be an immediate solution. Areas (Districts) without storage facilities (e.g., Khagrachari, B.Baria, Mymensingh, Narial) can be covered as a storage-rich zone as well as can fulfill the government's scheme. Because of that objective, low-cost cold storage has been designed that comprises 28 m3 of space size with a storage capacity of 5000 kg of perishable fruits & vegetables. The product incoming rate is 1000kg/day and rice husk particles are used as an insulating material to minimize the cost. In the designing process, the cooling loads of different perishable fruits & vegetables are obtained using MATLAB coding. After considering the perishability rate and availability in the local market potato, mango watermelon and cauliflower are selected for this study.