Eutectic: Phase Change Material for Food Storage

Abstract

Eutectic plates are widely used in refrigerated vehicles to keep the temperature of the container in desired range, eliminating or including the refrigeration unit. Eutectic is a phase change material which remains unaffected by cyclic heating and cooling. Eutectic plates consists a mixture of two or more compounds which has low melting point than that of each individual compound. Eutectic is a solution which has phase change temperature below 0°C (32°F). Eutectic plates consume energy for freezing during night and during day period it operates to keep the storage container at a constant prearranged temperature by absorbing and dissipating large amount of thermal energy, without consuming energy. The eutectic material is stored in stainless steel, aluminium and high density polyethylene pipes. Using eutectic plates on refrigerated boards eliminate the use of bulky refrigeration unit which reduces chances of failure of the system components due to vibrations during transportation and make the system simple. Also the CO2 emission contracts to a greater extent. Eutectic plate system reduces energy cost of refrigeration unit by 86.4% as reduction in usage of diesel and electricity. It also performs noiseless operation.