Ultrahigh efficiency ethylene scrubber to increase shelf life of fresh produce

Fruits and vegetables are a fundamental food resource, and prolonging their shelf life and quality is a critical challenge, especially during long-term storage and shipping. One approach to improving postharvest shelf life is to reduce the amount of ethylene in the storage environment. A plant hormone, ethylene promotes ripening, but it can also lead to a deterioration of produce quality for produce exposed to high ethylene levels. It has been shown that ethylene mitigation in the postharvest cycle will alleviate the temperature requirements for optimum produce storage, thereby decreasing costs associated with food loss and cold storage. The goal of the project is to develop a reliable, cost-effective approach to ethylene control that can be widely adopted across many parts of the postharvest cycle to prolong the storage life of fresh fruits and vegetables. The strategy relies on an oxidation catalyst and purification module designed fortypical storage environmental conditions, specifically high humidity (85-95% relative humidity) and low temperatures (30-50 °F). Project objectives are: 1) optimize a catalyst for the photooxidation of ethylene in a high-humidity, low-temperature environment with properties that translate to a reduction in energy costs for system operation; 2) develop a purification modulefor photooxidizing ethylene off-gassed from fresh fruits and vegetables under typical storage conditions; 3) fabricate a prototype ethylene scrubber for use in cold-storage systems; and 4) determine ethylene removal rates and shelf-life enhancement of fresh fruits and vegetables provided by the prototype system.