PANAJI
Sakshi Ramnathkar, Joshua Blaze Pereira and Prajakta Palekar, all students of final year Mechanical Engineering from Padre Conceição College of Engineering (PCCE) have developed a project titled ‘Design and Analysis of Food Storage Box Incorporated with PCM’ under the guidance of Prof Gaurak Madhu Phaldessai. This food box allows food to remain fresh for longer hours and would prove as a solution to those who carry tiffin to schools and work.
This project was developed in association with Croda Energy Technologies which provided the material and all the necessary help in this project. The entire cost of this project was Rs 2,085 which will come down further after mass production, claims the team.
As the temperature of stored food drops and enters the danger zone (40-60℃), the food becomes unhealthy for consumption due to microbial growth. Phase change materials (PCM) can absorb and release large amounts of heat in the form of latent energy during melting and solidifying. It can thus maintain a temperature within a specific range by changing its phase from liquid to solid or vice versa, to absorb or release latent heat. Type of phase change material used will vary depending on the type of application.
After experimentation with food items like rice and curry, it was observed that the food box without PCM maintained temperature for only 45 minutes on average and the food box with PCM maintained the temperature at 60 °C for more than 210 minutes (3.5 hours). It could maintain food above 50 °C for more than 4.5 hours. The observations may vary for different food items.
