A dehumidification evaporator with ice-slurry has been proposed and applied in a small-scale modeling cold storage for the precooling of fruits and vegetables.Performance comparison experiments were conducted by changing the types of fillers

i.e.

metal

plastic

and paper

and cold medium

i.e.

cold water and ice slurry

under no-load conditions in the cold storage with the storage temperature and relative humidity as evaluation parameters. Then

a load precooling experiment was conducted with a baby cabbage as a sample. Results showed that under the experimental conditions

the heat transfer performance of metal and paper fillers were better than that of the plastic fillers; the precooling time

with ice slurry as the cold medium

was 1/6 shorter than that when cold water was used

and the relative humidity in the cold storage could be maintained at above 90%. In addition

the load precooling experiment showed that the weight loss rate of the sample was 0.19% smaller than that of cold water. In comparison with the evaporator with water

the evaporator with ice-slurry could be operated reliably in the cold storage and achieved the working conditions of the low temperature (3–6 ℃)and the high humidity (>90%RH) for precooling more efficiently

and thus

is suitable for precooling and preserving of fruits and vegetables.