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Publications and Resources

Information on Evaporative Cooling Technologies for Fruit and Vegetable Storage

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Construction and Training Guides

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A Guide to Assembling, Using, and Maintaining Clay Pot Coolers

This illustrated guide was designed for use in clay pot cooler trainings to give participants a reference point after the training and to share information with others. The guide is available in 6 languages and can be printed to form a booklet.

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Portable Forced-Air Evaporative Cooling Chamber

CoolVeg's portable forced-air evaporative cooling chambers are easy to construct, can be tailored to meet users' capacity requirements, and can be carried by 6 people or transported in a small truck for deployment in remote areas. These chambers have been deployed in India and Nigeria. Open source design documentation is available here.

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Mobile Forced-Air Evaporative Cooling Chamber

CoolVeg's mobile forced-air evaporative cooling chambers are designed to allow fruits and vegetables to be picked up at farm gates and be transported on a trainer, small truck, or cargo tricycle. The designs provided here are for a chamber mounted in a trailer that was deployed in Nigeria with a storage capacity of 32 crates.

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Shipping Container Based Fruit and Vegetable Cooling Chamber

An MIT research team published detailed open-source designs that provide guidance on constructing a forced-air evaporative cooling chamber. This cooling chamber can provide rapid pre-cooling at half the cost of refrigerated cold rooms with a similar capacity.

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Evaporative Cooling Decision Making Tool

An interactive Microsoft Excel-based decision-making tool to help determine if evaporative cooling devices are suitable for a specific context, and to guide the calculation of potential financial savings.

Research Reports

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Clay Pot Cooler Training in Niger - Yalwa Project Report

Through a collaboration with Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA), over 7,000 people from the Tillabéri, Maradi, and Zinder regions of Niger participated in CoolVeg's training program in CoolVeg's clay pot cooler training program. Read more here.

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Portable and Mobile Forced-Air Evaporative Cooling Chamber

CoolVeg developed new forced-air evaporative cooling chambers, supported by the Efficiency for Access R&D Fund, and in collaboration with our partners Artisana in India and ColdHubs in Nigeria. This report details the chamber designs, thermal and shelf-life performance testing results, user research, and economic analysis.

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Clay Pot Cooler Training - Infographic

This infographic provides an overview of clay pot coolers and data on the adoption of clay pot coolers after participants attended a training session, the benefits realized by clay pot cooler users, and pathways for sharing information beyond the training.

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Force-Air Evaporative Cooling Chamber

This technical report describes the first forced-air evaporative cooling chamber developed by the CoolVeg team and MIT. This chamber, based on a 20' shipping container, is designed for rapid pre-cooling and can store 168 standard vegetable crates.

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Clay Pot Cooler Training in Mali - Impact Study

Based on data from 264 interviews, this report discusses the adoption of clay pot coolers after attending a training, the benefits realized by clay pot cooler users, and pathways for sharing information beyond the training.

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Preserving Fruits and Vegetables with Clay Pot Coolers: 2016-2021

A summary of the collaboration between MIT D-Lab, the World Vegetable Center, and Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER) in Mali. This ongoing project has included clay pot cooler performance testing, user research, and dissemination through a training program.

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A heat and mass transport model of clay pot evaporative coolers

This study describes a transport model for pot-in-pot and pot-in-dish coolers that have been validated with experimental data.

Assessment of the Use and Barriers of Evaporative Cooling Technologies by Small Holder Far

Engineering for Change and MIT D-Lab Research Collaboration

The project report addresses the awareness, use, and barriers to the adoption of Evaporative Cooling Technologies (ECTs) in the Embu and Machakos Counties of Kenya.

Evaporative Cooling in Rwanda and Burkina Faso

MIT D-Lab, in partnership with Agribusinesses Associates and the Horticulture Innovation Lab at UC Davis, conducted an evaluation of technologies designed to improve the storage of vegetables using evaporative cooling.

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Evaporative Cooling Technology Evaluation in Mali

MIT D-Lab, in partnership with the World Vegetable Center, conducted an evaluation of technologies designed to improve the storage of vegetables using evaporative cooling.

Blogs

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Increasing Access to Fresh Fruit and Vegetables with Forced-Air Evaporative Cooling Chamber

Sep 27, 2023 - Agrilinks blog by Eric Verploegen and Leon Glicksman

Reducing Fruit and Vegetable Losses with Clay Pot Coolers: An Ancient Technology for the Current Moment

Sep 11, 2023 - Agrilinks blog by Eric Verploegen

Reducing Household Food Waste and Improving Nutrition with Simple Technologies

Sep 29, 2022 - Agrilinks blog by Eric Verploegen

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The Off-Grid Fruit and Vegetable Refrigerator in Mali

Oct 15, 2021 - Medium blog by Eseroghene Oruma

Designing off-grid refrigeration technologies for crop storage in Kenya

Oct 16, 2020 - MIT News article by Oona Gaffney

Clay Pot Coolers: Keep Produce Fresh Without Electricity

Mar 30, 2021 - Engineering for Change blog by Eric Verploegen and Melissa Mangino

Disseminating evaporative cooling technologies in rural Uganda

Nov 13, 2019 - MIT D-Lab blog by Eric Verploegen

Affordable & Scalable: Evaporative Cooling Can Fight Food Loss

Jan 15, 2019 - Engineering for Change blog by Eric Verploegen

Videos

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Passive Cooling in Action - Lessons from West Africa

October 22, 2025 - Global Your VCCA E-Summit organized by BASE Foundation

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Clay pot coolers for fruit and vegetable preservation in Mali

August 2021 - Kadidiatou Magassa and Eric Verploegen

This video describes work done by MIT D-Lab, the World Vegetable Center, and the Institut d'Economie Rurale (IER) in Mali between 2017 and 2021.

Storing fruits & vegetables using a clay pot cooler to reduce spoilage and prevent post-harvest loss

February 27, 2024 - Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO), CoolVeg, and Institut d'Economie Rurale (IER)

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CoolVeg clay pot cooler training in Mopti with Institut d'Economie Rurale (IER) and CARE Mali

September 20, 2024 - CARE Mali

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Forced-Air Evaporative Cooling Chamber Introdcution

October 5, 2023 - Heewon Lee and Eric Verploegen

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Forced air evaporative cooling chamber in Kenya

February 11, 2024 - Solar Freeze, CoolVeg, and Stephen Nyamai

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