A countertop produce-preservation device is provided herein. The countertop produce-preservation device may include a housing, a fan, and a porous evaporative medium. The housing may include an outer shell and an inner shell partially enclosed within the outer shell to define an air passage therebetween. The inner shell may define a produce opening and a preservation chamber to receive produce therein. The outer shell may define an air inlet and an air outlet in fluid communication with the air passage. The fan may be in fluid communication with the air passage to motivate an airflow from the air inlet to the air outlet. The porous evaporative medium may be positioned within the outer shell along the air passage.

Disclosed herein a technique for producing a gas mixture for controlling an oxygen concentration in the interior of a container while reducing the overall weight of the apparatus. For this purpose, a gas mixture supply device is provided for a container refrigeration apparatus. The gas mixture supply device is provided with adsorption columns. If one of the first and second adsorption columns is supplied with air, the adsorption columns are pressurized, and nitrogen in the air is adsorbed onto an adsorbent. If air is sucked from the other of the first and second adsorption columns, the adsorption columns are depressurized, and nitrogen adsorbed onto the adsorbent is desorbed. A gas mixture including the nitrogen desorbed from the adsorbent is supplied to the interior of a container.

A method and apparatus is disclosed relating to controlled environment agriculture (CEA), food processing facilities, and commercial kitchens. The inventive smart and scalable extreme vacuum cooling (EVC) equipment is based on a scalable and modular design that allows one or multiple food chamber modules to connect to one utility module so that all food chambers can share the available vacuum cooling capacity dynamically.

A scalable EVC system can be built, shipped and assembled with as few as one food chamber module and one utility module to a number of food chamber modules and a utility module. The food chambers are designed with different sizes in dimension and power requirements but with the same interface to the utility module. In this way, multiple food chamber modules can operate for food rapid cooling and flavor infusion supported by only one utility module.

In a CEA farm, leafy greens are harvested daily and need to be chilled rapidly to comply with USDA food safety standards. Leafy greens can occupy a lot of space with a small vapor payload in vacuum cooling. The multiple food chamber modules to a single utility module design can save the total system cost, space, and energy.

For food flavor infusion in a commercial kitchen, brining and marinating take time. During the wait time, the food chamber is held at a low pressure condition without the need for pumping air out. During this time, the utility module can serve other food chambers. In this regard, an EVC system with multiple food chamber modules and a single utility module design will work well for food flavor infusion.

The smart and scalable EVC technology and equipment can make a big impact on commercial food preparation and controlled environment agriculture (CEA) for rapid chill to comply with food safety regulations. They are also very useful for food flavor infusion in commercial kitchens and food foundries.

An exemplary method for preserving fresh herbs includes obtaining fresh trimmings from a plant, grinding and/or chopping the fresh trimmings to form processed trimmings, packaging the processed trimmings in a container, and freezing the processed trimmings in the container. Freezing the processed trimmings may include subjecting the processed trimmings to a dry ice atmosphere.

Air electrode, preparation method and application thereof are disclosed. The air electrode includes a first diffusion layer, a current collecting layer disposed on the first diffusion layer, a second diffusion layer disposed on the current collecting layer and a catalyst layer including catalytic active component, where the catalytic active component includes silicon powder.

A device for fruit and vegetable phase-temperature precooling compatible multi-coupling anti-aging treatment comprises a refrigeration house with a plurality of differential pressure precooling devices placed therein. The differential pressure precooling device comprises a hermetic seal tunnel precooling box, a separator plate is fixedly mounted at an upper part inside the tunnel precooling box and in parallel to a top wall of the tunnel precooling box with a space formed therebetween; the separator plate extends to the bottom of the tunnel precooling box; a venting plate is fixedly mounted to one side of the separator plate and in parallel to a side wall of the tunnel precooling box with a space formed therebetween; a section of wind shield is vertically and downwardly mounted to an end of the other side of the separator plate; an axial flow fan is mounted at a corner of the tunnel precooling box between the separator plate and the venting plate.

Disclosed herein are compositions and methods related to preservation of plants, including trimmings and portions of leafy green plants A exemplary method for preserving fresh herbs may comprise: a. obtaining fresh trimmings from a plant; b. grinding and/or chopping th fresh trimmings to form processed trimmings; c. packaging the processed trimmings in a container; and d. freezing the processed trimmings; wherein the interior environment of the container contains substantially no oxygen.

A container refrigeration apparatus includes: a casing which forms an external storage space communicating with the exterior of the container and an internal storage space communicating with the interior of the container; a refrigerant circuit; an external fan; an internal fan; and an inside air control system including an exhaust passage which allows a space on a blowout side of the internal fan in the internal storage space to communicate with the external storage space, and controls composition of the inside air in the container. An external end of the exhaust passage is open on a suction side of the external fan in the external storage space.

A method for controlling the concentration of a gas in a crisper drawer (100): by capturing the concentration of a freshness-preserving gas in a storage chamber (10) and comparing with a preset threshold, determining whether to feed the freshness-preserving gas into the storage chamber (10), or employing a timed feeding method to control whether to feed the freshness-preserving gas into the storage chamber (10). The method selectively feeds the fresh-preserving gas into the storage chamber (10), thus controlling the concentration of the freshness-preserving gas in the storage chamber (10) to be kept above a target concentration, significantly extending the time during which food is kept fresh, and at the same time, taking into consideration the economy of using the freshness-preserving gas.

An electric bayberry picker with direct cooling and fast encapsulation based on machine vision includes: a mechanical claw with at least three flexible fingers, wherein each flexible finger is equipped with a pressure sensor on one side facing the bayberry, and a collecting pipe is arranged at an enclosing center of all the flexible fingers; an image recognition device configured for positioning and recognizing maturity of the bayberry; a carbon dioxide spraying device for spraying carbon dioxide on a fruit stalk and around the bayberry to freeze the fruit stalk and reduce the surface temperature of the bayberry; a photoelectric sensor for detecting whether a bayberry exits an outlet of the collecting pipe; a liquid polyurethane foam spraying device for wrapping the bayberry exited the outlet of the collecting pipe with the liquid polyurethane foam; and a transportation device.