A new type of constant air‐temperature thawing system using compressor casing thermal storage
2020
The commonly used normal‐temperature air‐thawing method is time‐consuming and cannot achieve constant temperature thawing. Furthermore, microwave thawing consumes a considerable amount of electricity. These two common thawing methods cannot guarantee food quality. Thus, a new type of constant air‐temperature thawing system (CATT) that uses compressor casing thermal storage is designed and tested in this study. Results show that the CATT has faster speed than the air‐thawing method. Furthermore, although the thawing speed of CATT is slower than that of microwave thawing, food with 274.25 g thawing quality can save 0.2 kW h of electricity per iteration. The weight loss of CATT at 34°C was 64.6% of that of microwave thawing. The weight loss of CATT at 46°C was 40.8% of that of microwave thawing. When thawing at a constant temperature of 46°C, the thawing time required for the central temperature of chicken meat to increase from −8 to 10°C is 2 hr. The thermal storage material can decrease compressor noise effectively by 17.65%. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The thawing of frozen food is a common problem. Hence, this paper proposes a new thawing method based on the residual heat of the refrigerator compressor casing. This method does not need to consume other energy and instead uses directly waste heat generated by the compressor casing to thaw frozen food. Frozen food can be thawed naturally at a constant temperature by controlling the temperature of the thawing chamber, and consequently, the disadvantages of long‐term air thawing and poor quality of microwave thawing are improved. The application of this method can increase the thawing function of the refrigerator and has considerable application prospects.
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