Development of a carbon-heat hybrid ethylene scrubber for fresh horticultural produce storage purposes

A scrubber to remove ethylene continuously from stored environments was developed. The device comprised a cartridge heater tightly joined to the activated carbon-1% Pd. The application of heat pulses led to an increase in ethylene oxidation and to auto-regeneration of the activated carbon. The efficacy of ethylene removal was higher with the number of heat pulses. Several combinations of exogenous ethylene concentrations and heater core temperatures (100-325 °C) of the device were assayed to determine their effectiveness in removing ethylene from the storage area. The results indicated that increasing the heater temperature led to enhanced percentages of eliminated ethylene but also increased CO2 concentrations. This CO2 could come from the activated carbon due to its breakthrough. Thus, temperatures ranging between 150 and 200 °C eliminated 96-99% of ethylene, with low CO2 accumulation (0.10-0.18 kPa) and without affecting the temperature of the storage environment. Thus, this device might be a promising tool for scrubbing ethylene from storage areas for fresh horticultural produce in which ethylene can induce detrimental effects.