Krishna Kumar Mitra has spent more than 36 years focusing on Thermal Insulation system of Buildings widely covering applications, new developments, energy efficiency and pathway to Decarbonisation and sustainability. KK has also focused on modern energy efficient Cold Storage construction and Insulation system.
KK is a Science Graduate with specialisation in Physics and Post Graduation and Masters in the field of Planning and Operational Management. He has worked in the departments of product development, R&D, energy audit, Building performance simulation Study and decarbonisation aspect in a Building due to Thermal Insulation. He has done training at several countries. He is presently the President of Lloyd Insulations (India) Limited, stationed at Kolkata in Eastern part of India. He is associated with this company for more than 36 years having joined as Executive – Trainee and reaching upto the level of President.
KK is an active participant in the standards and code development at Bureau of Indian Standards, Govt. of India as well as development of Energy Conservation Building Code of India and National Building Code of India contributing on the Thermal Insulation aspects. He was an active participant for the development of the national code and specifications for Cold Storage construction contributing to the Thermal Insulation Chapter.
KK have been member of ASHRAE (The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) for last 13 years. He has been President of ASHRAE India Chapter. He has held the position of Chair CTTC of local Committee. Subsequently, worked as ARVC, CTTC Sub region II of RAL. Presently selected as RVC, CTTC for Region XV. He has presented paper titled ‘Thermal Insulation System for energy efficient and green buildings’ at ASHRAE Winter Conference, Las Vegas in 2017 and also ASHRAE Conference ICERD, Kuwait in 2016. Has been attending ASHRAE CRC Meetings since 2014.
KK is also RAL Regional Lecturer (RRL) since 2019 when RRL was started. KK has presented technical papers and published articles at national and international level. He is a frequent speaker at various national conferences in India. He has presented paper titled ‘Building Insulation System for tropical climates - Pathway to Decarbonisation and sustainability’ at 3rd Developing Economy Conference of AHSRAE at Mumbai in 2023.
MODERN ENERGY EFFICIENT COLD STORAGE CONSTRUCTION & INSULATION SYSTEM IN TROPICAL COUNTRIES
India has a wide variety of Horticulture Crops harvested through out the year and spread all over the country. There are altogether seven varieties out of which vegetables have 58.93 percent share followed by fruits of 31.74 percent, plantation crops of 6.09 percent, spices of 2.76 percent and 0.48 percent others.
In vegetables sector, Potato has the maximum share of 28 percent and in fruits sector Banana has 31.86 percent, Mango 21.34 percent and citrus 10.82 percent. But out of huge production done a major chunk gets wasted in the field or transportation or due to improper storage. India is a tropical country and major parts experience higher day temperatures which has an impact on the farm produces deterioration. An ambient of 40 deg.C can cause 25 percent loss of agriculture produce per day.
But unfortunately existing system does not take care of all the above factors, barely 40 percent. What we have, is not so efficient Cold Chain practices at every level. The produce is voluminous but what the ultimate customer gets is awful and limited. The fresh produce should be treated as a living human being which breathes, releases heat, looses moisture and can get sick and even die. So there is an urgent need for protection at different levels for fresh produce like :
- Collection centres
- Multi-product – Multi Chambered Cold Store
- High humidity cold stores associated with pack houses.
- CA Cold stores
- Pack houses
A Cold Storage is defined as a building with a controlled atmospheric temperature conditions for storing food products for a time period without altering its taste and physical condition. In a Cold Store operation, refrigeration system brings down the temperature initially during start up but thermal insulation maintains the temperature later on continuously. In Conventional cold store, thermal insulation had several draw backs and it was a procedure of simple cold insulation application. There had been rapid failure of thermal insulation system leading to products decay. One of the main causes for conventional cold storage closure has been due to failure of insulation. With improper insulation heat ingress increases, leading to more running of refrigeration compressor and finally electricity consumption shoots up. The complete insulation system needs a switch over to modern techniques, materials & application. There is a major shift of the total civil engineering construction with the conventional RCC & brick replaced with steel structure and pre-fab panels. This technical paper will highlight the Conventional Cold Store failure reasons, concept of Modern Cold Store Construction, Revamping of existing cold stores by just replacing the insulation system, with detail coverage on materials, procedure, safety, hygiene etc. The interesting concept of ETICS application involving direct insulation application on the external walls will be covered. Refrigerated vans made from steel structure and pre-fab panels the most efficient transport vehicle will be presented. The modern technology concept of prefab panels and the aspect of Energy Conservation vis-à-vis Conventional Cold Store will be covered in detail. The concept of Field Collection center, Pack House, CA Cold Store will be covered in the technical paper. Brief coverage on Local Government, Technical Standard and Protocol for Cold Chain and the latest National Standard Code on - Thermal Insulation of Cold Storage – Code of Practice will also be covered briefly pertaining to Thermal Insulation Chapter.
This paper will cover in details about the modern energy efficient Cold Storage construction methodology with specific stress on the energy efficient Thermal Insulation system. The paper highlights about the advantages of Pre-fabricated construction methodology for Cold Stores construction. The paper also highlights regarding the fire safety in Cold storage construction.
THERMAL INSULATION SYSTEM FOR ENERGY EFFICIENT & GREEN BUILDINGS IN TROPICAL CLIMATES AND PATHWAY TO DECARBONIZING & SUSTAINABILITY
Building construction has gone for tremendous changes during the last decade. With the improvement in quality of life, earnings, living style, the building construction methodology and construction materials have got modified to suit the life style of people. The art of living has changed and human comfort is given a lot of importance. With the increase in electronic gadgets in the houses along with air conditioning system energy consumption becomes enormous. It is in this context of energy consumption and human comfort the function of Thermal Insulation in buildings has become an important construction element. Thermal insulation is directly linked to human comfort and reducing energy consumption.
Energy consumption in building sector is up to 40% of energy produced. Therefore, building sector has substantial opportunity to reduce energy consumption through implementation of energy efficient building elements.
Building envelopes are most vulnerable and allows enormous heat ingress in tropical countries where ambient temperature is above 25oC for 9 months. This enormous heat has direct impact on Airconditioning system working, Electricity consumption, fossil fuel burning and ultimately Green House Gas emission.
Thermal Insulation system is a composite of material and the endeavour provisions of how it is applied with various holding systems on building envelope. Thermal insulation is a combination of insulation and ancillary materials which creates a barrier to the flow of heat and cold from the environment to the inside of buildings. The insulation after application on roof and wall needs to be properly covered with a permanent finishing arrangement. Thermal Insulation is applied both from inside the building as well as on the external side of the building. When insulation system is applied on external side the effect is much more because insulation then covers the basic mother construction elements like RCC roof or the Brick wall. This way the RCC roof and Brick wall is never exposed to direct environment heat rays or cold wave. Whereas in case of application from inside it has to be properly protected by solid barriers because the roof and wall will be in direct contact with human being.
Office Buildings, Healthcare Buildings, even Residential Buildings are now a days consume large amount of Energy and draw large amount of Electricity from the Grid. Thermal Insulation on Roof and Wall by minimizing heat inflow will reduce HVAC Compressor running time leading to HVAC capacity reduction and Electricity consumption contribute to De-carbonization.
This paper will cover in details about Thermal Insulation System in a Building, Standards and Codes, Building Envelope Modelling cases, Building Insulation Case studies, Carbon Emission savings and Energy savings potential. Also glimpse of a simulation Tool to find out Energy Efficiency and Carbon Footprint of a Building by application of Insulation as per local standards.