Exergetic performance of production unit operations of a frozen fruit: a case study for sweet cherry

In the present study, energetic and exergetic assessments were conducted in a frozen cherry production process. Actual operational data were used to indicate energy and exergy efficiencies and irreversibilities of each operation units. Production process was divided into four main operations of pre-washing, stemming, pitting and individually quick frozen (IQF). Energy and exergy efficiencies of the entire system were found as 65.74% and 8.95%, respectively. Exergy analysis revealed that IQF Freezing was responsible for the most of the exergy destruction (over 90%) followed by pitting process (3.38%). Use of an effective pre-cooling unit operation before freezing was suggested to improve the energetic and exergetic performances of the system.