21% of the world’s population lacks access to electricity, and without it the preservation and distribution of fresh food is impossible except on a very local scale.
According to the American company Evaptainers, 45% of the crops harvested in Africa go bad before reaching the consumer. To help remedy the problem, this start-up has created a refrigerator that relies on the age-old evaporative cooling system to keep food in good condition.
Evaporative cooling is a physical process that we all experience. When our bodies get too hot, we sweat, and when it evaporates, the sweat cools the surface of the skin. The Evaptainers refrigerator applies this same principle: it is a container with two layers. The interior is plastic and stores food. The exterior is made of a material that favors evaporation: the water that is poured on it evaporates with the heat and, in doing so, takes the energy from the equipment and cools it. It is a method that was already used thousands of years ago with clay containers whose compartments were separated with wet sand.
According to the creators of the ingenuity, this allows food that is kept in good condition for two or three days in dry and hot climates to last up to two weeks. One liter of water is enough to run for two days, and the idea is that Evaptainers cost between 20 and 25 euros, a price that seems ridiculous in Spain, but which represents a great sacrifice for families in many parts of the world, who often they do not even reach 100 euros a month of income.
Evaptainers, which could have a major impact on food safety, is being tested this summer in Morocco, and is expected to be available throughout 2017.
In this video you can learn more about the project.
