Iranian Researchers Design, Build Clay Cold Storages to Keep Fresh Crops, Vegetables, Meat
“We found out that one of the country's problems is shortages of enough and modern cold storage facilities, therefore, after conducting field research in this field, we managed to identify the major problems of the country's cold storage industry and decided to tackle the problem with a combination of modern and ancient sciences,” Morteza Chaboki, the managing director of the knowledge-based company told ANA.
“We tried to build a modern clay cold house at the least cost, which is considered a real revolution in this important and expensive industry. Since in the Southern part of the country, for instance, Hormozgan province, out of 27 cold warehouses, only eight are operating and the rest are not, therefore it was necessary to take action,” he added.
Underlining the company's will to find a solution to revive the cold storage industry, Chaboki added, “Dates are produced in Bam County [in Kerman Province] at a very high quality; but because there is no cold storage, these products are sold at a very low price [because they cannot be kept fresh longer.] Also, 98% of the barberis in the world are produced in South Khorasan Province and 120,000 tons of this crop are produced in this province every year, but the cold warehouses in the country have the capacity to store only 3,000 to 4,000 tons of barberis. For that, constructing cold storages can be highly profitable.”
The managing director of the knowledge-based company pointed to the materials used in the terracotta cold storage, saying that, “This project was completed after 10 years of doing research and we registered the cold warehouse in Qazvin Science and Technology Park. In the construction of this type of clay cold storage, clay sandwich panels and clay skeleton are used with a combination of clay pipe and special flower Kielbasa, which are the main components of the clay cold storage.”
He stated that one of the advantages of the clay cold storage is that it is reasonably priced compared to other cold storages, adding, “Clay cold storages have a great impact on agricultural and poultry industries. This clay cold storage can be built for keeping different fruits, vegetables and crops, medical and health products, storing meat, poultry products and even blood platelets.”
“The clay cold storage is one of the most complete complex of cold storages that has been introduced in the world so far. It also saves energy,” Chaboki further noted.
He added that the company has been able to solve the country’s problem with the clay cold storage solution, adding that building such cold storages is done at a much lower cost as compared to its counterparts.
He added that the structure has a rotating design and products are transferred between the two loading and the pre-cooling halls, and the wagon carries them from the docks and transfers it to the pre-cooling hall at the least energy consumption. He added that the design is considered to be a great advantage over normal cold storages,” he added.
“The incoming air from the halls is significantly reduced with the use of ceramic jets that rotate and flow in a clockwise direction, and most importantly, the incoming air reaches the entire cold store about 5 degrees above zero, which is due to the ceramic jet system and ceramic structure,” he explained more.
“The temperature of clay structures is approximately 8 to 10 degrees Celsius which is cooler than other normal structures,” Chaboki also noted.
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