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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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Open-Source 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.

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Evaporative Cooling Best Practices Guide

This guide provides guidance on best practices for determining the suitability of evaporative cooling technologies, construction and usage of brick evaporative cooling chambers and clay pot coolers, and dissemination approaches.

Research Reports

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Clay Pot Cooler Training in Mali - 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

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