Perancangan Cold Box Sederhana Menggunakan Insulasi Campuran

The increasing demand for effective, economical, and environmentally friendly cooling boxes (coldboxes) drives the research into alternative insulation materials to replace conventional substances like styrofoam. This study aims to design, construct, and test the performance of a simple cold box utilizing a composite insulation based on agricultural waste: a mixture of rice husk and coconut fiber bound with resin. The research methodology included optimizing the mass composition of the composite material to achieve the best mechanical strength, followed by prototype construction and performance testing. Mechanical testing was conducted to determine the flexural load, while thermal testing compared the ability of the mixed-insulation coldbox to maintain fish temperature over a 12-hour (720 minutes) period against a styrofoam cold box and a plastic coldbox. The mechanical test results indicate that the optimal mass composition for rice husk : coconut fiber : resin is 3 : 1 : 2.5, which yielded the highest flexural load value of 262.193 N/mm², confirming the material's structural viability. At the end of the test (720 minutes), the fish temperature in the rice husk coldbox was the lowest (11,9 ºC to 12,4 ºC), while the styrofoam and plastic boxes reached 12,7 ºC and 13,3 ºC, respectively.