JPH06217685A - Freshness-keeping apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a freshness-keeping apparatus exhibiting excellent ethylene gas decomposing capability and sterilization performance, having high safety and producible at a low cost. CONSTITUTION:An ultraviolet lamp 3 is placed in a duct 1 having an opened end and the lamp is surrounded by a photo-excitation catalyst 4 which generates OH has radical by ultraviolet radiation to effect the oxidative decomposition of ethylene gas. A germ-collecting filter 5 connected to the outer atmosphere is placed on the side face of the duct 1 and irradiated with ultraviolet ray passed through the photo-excitation catalyst 4. A blower 6 to pass air from the germ-collecting filter 5 through the photoexcitation catalyst 4 to the opened end of the duct 1 is placed in the duct 1 at the downstream side of the photo- excitation catalyst 4 in the direction of the air flow.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a freshness keeping device for keeping freshness of fruits and vegetables.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When fresh produce of fruits and vegetables is stored and stored in a storage, ethylene gas generated by the aging of the fruits and vegetables increases the ethylene concentration in the storage to accelerate overripening of the fruits and vegetables, thereby improving freshness. descend.

Conventionally, in order to suppress overripening of fruits and vegetables stored in the storage, a high concentration ozone is used to decompose and remove ethylene gas in the storage and to sterilize the storage in the storage at the same time. There is.

[0004]

On the other hand, in the case of using the above-mentioned high-concentration ozone, since it is necessary to provide an ozone detector for safety, the device becomes large and expensive, and the safety is high. Since it is necessary to provide the ozone decomposition catalyst from above, maintenance costs of the catalyst are incurred due to deterioration of the catalyst, and there is a problem that the sterilization ability is low due to the reaction by ozone in the gas phase.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and is a safe and inexpensive freshness-keeping apparatus for fruits and vegetables, which has a high decomposition and sterilization ability of ethylene gas generated in a storage without using ozone. The purpose is to provide.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an ultraviolet lamp for irradiating ultraviolet rays, and an ultraviolet lamp provided around the ultraviolet lamp and excited by irradiation of ultraviolet rays from the ultraviolet lamp. Together with a tubular photoexcited catalyst that transmits ultraviolet rays, a tubular duct with one end opened to accommodate this photoexcited catalyst and the ultraviolet lamp, and a side surface of this duct are provided to ventilate the outside and the inside of the duct. A technical means having a configuration including a sterilizing filter which is in communication with the sterilizing filter, and a blower which passes the photoexcited catalyst from the sterilizing filter and circulates air to the open end of the duct is used.

[0007]

According to the above-mentioned means, when the ultraviolet lamp is turned on and the blower is operated, the photoexcited catalyst is excited by the ultraviolet rays emitted from the ultraviolet lamp, and the O having a strong oxidizing power.
H radicals are generated on the surface of the photoexcited catalyst, and the generated OH radicals come into contact with the air sucked into the duct by the operation of the blower.
It is oxidized by H radicals and decomposed into harmless carbon dioxide and water.

On the other hand, the fungi floating in the air are collected by the sterilization filter by the operation of the blower, and the ultraviolet rays transmitted through the photoexcited catalyst are irradiated to the sterilization filter, so that they are collected by the sterilization filter. The fungi which are present are effectively killed by this ultraviolet light.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A freshness preservation device of the present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing the structure of the freshness preservation device of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a cylindrical duct, and the inside of the duct 1 is partitioned by a partition wall 2 into a front duct 1a and a rear duct 1b, one end of which is opened. The front duct 1a and the rear duct 1b are The holes 2 a opened in the partition wall 2 communicate with each other.

A rod-shaped ultraviolet lamp 3 connected to a power source (not shown) is arranged in the center of the rear duct 1b. The ultraviolet lamp 3 is surrounded by, for example, TiO _{2 which} is excited by irradiation of ultraviolet rays. A transition metal oxide consisting of
A cylindrical photoexcitation catalyst 4 in which cordierite carries a mixture of conductive inorganic substances such as Pt is arranged.

The side surface of the rear duct 1b is provided with a sterilization filter 5 made of, for example, glass fiber or polypropylene and having pores of 0.1 micron or less. And the inside is ventilated.

In the front duct 1a, as shown by the solid line arrow, a blower 6 is arranged to pass the photoexcited catalyst 4 from the bacteria-collecting filter 5 and to circulate the air to the open end of the front duct 1a. The blower 6 is connected to a power source (not shown), and the freshness preservation device 10 is configured as described above.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an application example of the freshness preservation device 10 described above. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 30 is a storage for storing fruits and vegetables A, and the storage 30 is provided with a temperature / humidity adjuster 20 for adjusting the temperature and humidity inside the storage.
In the opening 20a of the temperature / humidity adjuster 20 in 0, the freshness preservation device 10 of the present invention is arranged.

The temperature / humidity controller 20 is composed of a well-known refrigeration cycle. A refrigerant condenser 21 is installed outside the storage 30 and a refrigerant evaporator 22 is installed inside the storage 30, and a refrigerant compression (not shown) is provided. By the ON-OFF control of the machine,
The temperature inside the storage 30 is about 5 ° C and the absolute humidity is about 9
It is adjusted to around 0%.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described. In FIG. 1, when the ultraviolet lamp 3 is turned on and the blower 6 is operated, the irradiation surface of the photoexcitation catalyst 4 is excited by the irradiation of the ultraviolet rays from the ultraviolet lamp 3 and OH radicals (free hydroxyl groups) having strong oxidizing power are generated. Although generated on the surface of the photoexcited catalyst 4, the generated OH radicals oxidize and decompose ethylene gas in the inside air passing through the surface of the photoexcited catalyst 4 by the operation of the blower 6.

Therefore, as shown in FIG.
By installing the freshness preservation device 10 inside, the storage 3
Since OH radicals are generated in the freshness preservation device 10 inside 0, ethylene gas (C ₂ H ₄ ) in the storage 30 generated by the ripening of the fruits and vegetables A flows through the freshness preservation device 10 by the operation of the blower 6. When passing through, it is oxidized by OH radicals and harmless carbon dioxide gas (CO
₂ ) and water (H ₂ O).

[0017]

[Chemical 1]

On the other hand, the operation of the blower 6 causes the storage 30
The air in the inside passes through the photoexcitation catalyst 4 from the bactericidal filter 5, flows out into the storage 30 from the opening end of the front duct 1a, and circulates. In this process, it floats in the air in the storage 30. The fungi are collected by the bacteria collection filter 5.

Since the fungus collected by the bacteria-collecting filter 5 is irradiated with the ultraviolet rays generated from the ultraviolet lamp 3 which has passed through the photoexciting catalyst 4, fungi floating in the air in the storage 30 are effective. To be sterilized.

Next, in this embodiment, the blower 6 is arranged in the front duct 1a on the downstream side of the photo-excited catalyst 4 for blowing air, but it may be provided on the upstream side of the photo-excited catalyst 4 for blowing air. It may be provided at any place where a flow of air flowing in from the bacteria filter 5, passing through the photoexcited catalyst 4, and flowing out from the open end of the duct 1 is generated.

Further, in the present embodiment, the duct 1 and the photoexcitation catalyst 4 are formed in a cylindrical shape, but may be, for example, an elliptic cylinder or a polygonal cylinder, and the essential point is that they have a cylindrical shape. The tubular photoexcited catalyst 4 does not necessarily have to be integrally molded, and a plurality of tubular molding units may be joined together.

[0022]

As described above, the freshness preservation device of the present invention uses the strong oxidative decomposition action of the OH radical excited and generated by the irradiation of the photoexcited catalyst with ultraviolet rays, and therefore is generated by the aging of fruits and vegetables. As the ethylene gas in the air is effectively decomposed and removed, and the bacteria suspended in the air captured by the bacteria-collecting filter are irradiated with ultraviolet rays, the bacteria are effectively sterilized. Moreover, since ozone or the like is not used at all, it has an excellent effect that it is highly safe and can be manufactured at low cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of a freshness preservation device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram in which the device of FIG. 1 is applied to a storage.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Duct 3 Ultraviolet Lamp 4 Photoexcited Catalyst 5 Bacteria Filter 6 Blower 10 Freshness Preservation Device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ultraviolet lamp for irradiating ultraviolet rays, and a cylindrical photoexcitation catalyst which is provided around the ultraviolet lamp and is excited by the irradiation of the ultraviolet rays from the ultraviolet lamp and transmits the ultraviolet rays. A tubular duct with one end opened to accommodate the ultraviolet lamp, a bactericidal filter provided on the side surface of the duct to ventilatively communicate the outside and the inside of the duct, and the photoexcitation catalyst is passed from the bactericidal filter. A freshness preservation device comprising: a blower for circulating air to the open end of the duct.