A field practice report on cold storage of cavendish banana (Musa acuminata Colla) at SUMIFRU (Philippines) Corporation, Davao City

Date

12-2015

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering

Major Course

Major in Agricultural and Bio-Process Engineering

College

College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology (CEAT)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Ma. Cristine Concepcion D. Ignacio

Restrictions

Restricted: Not available to the general public. Access is available only after consultation with author/thesis adviser and only to those bound by the confidentiality agreement.

Abstract

Banana is the best agricultural product of the Philippines which makes the Philippine banana export industry the second largest in the world. Cavendish banana Musa acuminata Colla) is the cultivar utilized for export. To reduce postharvest losses and more importantly to achieve the goal of providing the world with product of freshness and top quality, one of the most significant postharvest operations done in banana is its placement to cold storage facilities after packinghouse operations. ASHRAE (2010) suggests that the storage requirements for banana are 13 °C to 15 °C storage temperature and 90 % to 95 % relative humidity. The report evaluated the cold storage facility of Sumifru (Philippines) Corporation, a leading banana exporting company located in Davao City. The cold storage room with floor area of about 6,500 m2 has a capacity of 250,000 boxes or crates of Cavendish bananas arranged in pallets. The different processes done inside the cold storage room include receiving, pulp temperature monitoring, metal detection, palletizing and strapping, quality inspection, mixing, repalletizing, storage in racks, and releasing. Improved handling, palletizing, strapping practices, sanitary practices for pulp temperature monitoring, checking efficiency of metal detectors, and solving the problem of fresh latex of bananas are the points recommended for improving the processes. The set point storage temperature used by the company is 13.3 °C. The lower and upper critical limit are 12.5 °C and 14.5 °C, respectively. It was observed that the temperature inside the cold storage room does not reach the upper nor the lower critical limit but is highly fluctuating from the required set temperature. After computation, the actual refrigeration load of the cold storage room (640.10 kW) is lower than the total power (741.50 kW) that is provided by the components of the cooling system indicating that the capacity of the cooling system is sufficient to remove the total refrigeration load of the cold storage room. However, it is recommended that sources of refrigeration load may be minimized and pipes are cleaned to prevent high fluctuation of temperature and to achieve efficient cooling. Also, maintenance procedures concerning the safety of the refrigerant used were recommended.

Language

English

Location

UPLB Main Library Special Collections Section (USCS)

Call Number

LG 993 2015 A2 /B37

Document Type

Thesis

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