| Abstract: | The economic impact of refrigeration technology throughout the world is already very impressive, and more significant than is generally believed. While the yearly investment in machinery and equipment may approach US$100 billion, the value of products treated by refrigeration is perhaps ten times this amount. The importance of refrigeration is bound to increase since it will be an essential factor in solving two major problems of the future: the supply of enough food and the development of new energy sources. The use of low temperatures constitutes a major means of conservation of perishable foods during storage and distribution and it is widely applied in the developed countries. In the Third World, however, the use of low temperatures is mainly limited to food for export and the needs of the ‘well-to-do’ sector of the population. Refrigerated or frozen foods, in their present form, are generally priced too high for the undernourished poor. There is a pressing need for simple and inexpensive cooling methods to enable efficient low cost mass production and distribution under more primitive conditions. The future of man, and his food supply in particular, depends on the availability of sufficient energy. At present, fossil fuels carry the main load, but in the course of the next century new energy sources, such as nuclear fusion, will have to be commissioned. Refrigeration technology will play an important part in this development. |
