Prakash S.P* and Nithyalakshmi V
Typically milk is chilled by using refrigeration systems such as bulk milk cooler, cold storage, cooling rings, surface coolers ice cones, ice bank cooling, direct expansion cooling which is not cost effective and energy effective as it involves bulky piping and mechanical compressors. This refrigeration system produces a cooling effect by using refrigerants like freon, ammonia, etc., which leads to global warming and also these systems are not reliable and economical, where compact design and noiseless operation is required. Existing cooling methods are only suitable for cooling large quantity of milk and it is also uneconomical to use for small holder dairy farms. To overcome these problems (small quantity milk producer, delayed milk cooling and global warming due to refrigerants), there is a need for energy efficient, green and eco-friendly technologies to cool the milk to 4℃ immediately after milking for small scale level. Thermoelectric cooling is one of the convenient options to lower the temperature of the milk to a desirable temperature of 4℃ at farm level as an alternative to a conventional cooling system. Thermoelectric devices are solid state devices, meaning that doesn’t have any moving parts and have a lot of applications in different fields like food preservation and processing, storage applications, electronic cooling, military field, automobiles cooling, pharmaceutical products storage, air conditioning and refrigeration field.
Published Date: 2023-09-04; Received Date: 2023-06-28
