Purpose of the Trip : To get an idea about the existing technological challenges and future

technological needs in India cold storage industry.

Location 1: Narayan Coldstorage

Person Visited : The Operator
Narayan Cold Storage : 4 kms from Kharagpur on Bombay Highway
Total Storage Capacity : 75,000 quintal
Storage Floor Area : ca. 180 ft. X 100 ft.
Additional Facilities Available : Drying, Grading (Manual)
Total Floors : 3+ground
Electric Input :125 HP for one continuously running high speed compressor.
Technical Parameters : Water Cooled Condenser, high Speed Compressor, Ammonia based
system
Total Compressors : Two High Speed Compressors by Superfreeze India Ltd and two low
speed compressors by Sinco Ltd.
Temperature maintained : 36o F
Regular Operation Mode : One High Speed compressor. Additional one high speed and two
low speed compressors added to start the cooling and also as a stand by.
Electricity Bill: 3 - 3.5 Lakhs INR
Insulation : Thermocol
Current utilization : 60% of total capacity
Storage Items : Mainly potatoes but ground nut and flowers were also kept at the same
storage temperature
Rent : 55 INR for a sack containing half a quintal of potatoes or 110 INR per quintal.
Cost of Construction of the whole unit : 3 crore INR (10 years back)
Back up power option : A generator of 125 kvA is used to provide backup in case of power
failure, consumes around 20 l/hour, used after 2 hours of power failure to sustain the
temperature.
Storage season : Feb - march : Potatoes are brought to the cold storage
May - December : Potatoes are taken out of the store
December - Feb : maintenance of the store
Operational issues : Poor insulation resulting in higher electricity bill, pests, inadequate
atmosphere control & heat transfer techniques which results in inadequate oxygen supply and
temperature difference of at least 2 degrees between the lower and upper sack in the racks . A
bunker type cooling coil with ceiling fans is used to maintain the air flow around the cold
store.
Suppliers : Cost, performance and durability are three important criteria which cold store
owners consider before ordering refrigeration units. However, the erection, installation and
commissioning in this store was done by thumb rule without employing any technical
knowhow.
Future technological expectations: Cheaper and effective insulation (In the present case, rats
eat away some of the insulation material resulting in higher electricity costs)
Effective and economical cooling mechanism than using bunker cooling coils to save power
and amount of ammonia gas consumption and maintain uniform temperature in the store to
reduce wastage
Picture 1: A high Speed Compressor at narayan coldstorage

Picture 2: Sorting,Drying and Grading at narayan cold storage

Picture 3: Refrigerant pipes at narayan cold storage

Location 2: PANSKURA COLD STORAGE Pvt. Ltd.

Person : Mr Jitendra Patnaik, BE Electrical Engineering - Owner.
Contact No. - 9732667887
Location : Panskura, west bengal
Total Storage Capacity : 2 lakhs quintal
Additional Facilities Available : Drying, Grading (Manual)
Storage area : 20,000 sq. ft.(Five storeyed building)
Total area : 2.19 acre
Total Compressors : Two High Speed Compressors by Kirloskar of 90 tonnes capacity each
and two low speed compressors by Sinco Ltd. of 30 tonnes capacity each
Temperature maintained : 36o F
Regular Operation Mode : One High Speed compressor. Additional one high speed and two
low speed compressors added to start the cooling and also as a stand by.
Electricity Bill: 3 - 3.5 Lakhs INR
Insulation : Thermocol
Current utilization : 60% of total capacity
Storage Items : Mainly potatoes but ground nut and flowers were also kept at the same
storage temperature
Rent : 55 INR for a sack containing half a quintal of potatoes or 110 INR per quintal.
Cost of Construction of the whole unit : 3 crore INR (10 years back)

Refrigeration system : Ammonia based high speed compression system, water cooled
condenser, bunker cooling coil with ceiling fans
Temperature maintained : 34 - 360 F
Compressors : 2 high speed compressors from kirloskar (Model KC 4) were used of capacity
90 tonnes each and two low speed compressors were used from Sinco of capacity 30 tonnes
each.
Regular Operation Mode : One High Speed compressor and one low speed compressor were
installed as stand by.
Electricity Bill: 3.5 Lakhs INR per month
Insulation : Thermocol
Storage Items : Mainly potatoes but locally made sweets and flowers were also kept
Rent : 55 INR for a sack containing half a quintal of potatoes or 110 INR per quintal
Storage season : Feb - march : Potatoes are brought to the cold storage
May - December : Potatoes are taken out of the store
December - Feb : maintenance of the store
Operational issues : Same as above and in addition to that the electricity supply
Suppliers : Same as above.

Future technological expectations: Same as above and also an inexpensive method to turn the
storage into a multi commodity without many modifications. A better atmosphere control
system that is automated.

Picture 4: Inside Panskura Coldstorage with Potato and flowers stored in bags

Cold Storage Owner:

Sheoraphuli Cold Storage - Mr Ajay Agarwal
This cold storage was built in 1957 using imported machines from US manufactured by Frex
Inc. It is a 3600sq ft multi commodity cold storage running on Freon based system. The
cooling mode employed was diffuser based. The cold storage operated at two temperatures.
The area was divided in two rooms of 1800 sq ft each. One room was kept at 36F to store
tomatoes, potatoes, eggs & carrots and other was maintained at 45F mainly to store seeds.

This cold storage used less efficient systems and had a very old technology operating and was
struggling to maintain profits.

Total Storage Capacity: 4500 Quintals

Refrigeration Capacity: 21 tonnes
Electricity Cost : INR 60,000/month
Suppliers of Refrigeration system
PIONEER REFRIGERATION :
Mr. Anwar bhati - 9831261862
Services Offered: Design, installation and maintenance of refrigeration system for cold
storages.
Compressors: Compressors of different capacities were supplied depending upon customer’s
requirements manufactured by Kirloskar
10 tonne - 30 tonne capacity
Valves and fluid handling devices : Super mini and Danfoss
Customers : Cooperative Society
Cost of a 5000 metric tonne capacity compressor supplied by them is around 65-70 lacs
rupees
Also , they were supplying freon based refrigeration system with air handling unit employing
new intercool system instead of water cooled system

They informed us that screw compressors were more efficient and save electricity costs
substantially but were avoided by customers owing to its high cost.
They undertake the installation of the whole refrigeration system with a one year guarantee
and also provide maintenance service to existing cold storages.

TECHNO COOL INDIA

Siddharth 9837258533
Provide complete refrigeration system for cold storage owners plus spare parts, insulation and
racks
Capacity : 1000 - 5000 metric tonnes manufactured by kirloskar
Informed us that imported compressors could not give satisfactory results in India and hence,
not much in use.
Again, he also stressed on the fact that screw compressors perform better but are not much in
use due to its high cost.

Conclusion:
The basic crux of the discussion was that this people design systems based on the thumb
rules. The notion of calculating heat loads, heat circulation and other important heat transfer
parameters are absent or are not considered seriously. The thumb rules have a relationship of
amount of potato to be stored, the capacity of compressor needed for that and the thickness of
pipe required. The community did not possess many qualified thermal engineers and a lack of
knowledge on the part of owners resulted in such inefficiencies.

All the parties unanimously agreed that now for a cold storage to be economically viable they
need to build storages that have capacity in excess of 200,000 quintal and that of multi
commodity storages. One of the exisiting problem was that it is not easy for them to change
their cold storage to a multi commodity one as it would require a significant amount of
investment. The government regulated prices and unpredictable nature of potato crop was
also a hindering factor to the investor confidence. Multi commodity cold storages are not in
high demand in their opinion as economics doesn’t work out in favour of most crops to store
them in cold storages. A huge operational cost is the biggest problem for all of them.
Mr Bhati from Pioneer Refrigeration knew about IR products but they complained that most
of this products are designed for use in european and americal climate condition and don’t
perform very well with Indian humid and hot climate besides they are much more expensive
compared to their India Counteparts.