E-COLD BIO

International audience Post-harvest losses in Senegal exceed 45% of national horticultural production, a phenomenon exacerbated by the lack of refrigeration infrastructure adapted to unelectrified rural areas. Simultaneously, the invasion of Typha australis over approximately 100,000 hectares of the Senegal River delta is damaging ecosystems and compromising agricultural yields. To address this dual challenge, this article presents E-COLD BIO, a community cold storage unit that combines three complementary components: (1) a thermally insulated envelope made from Typha pith (measured thermal conductivity λ ≈ 0.048 W/m·K according to ISO 8301, nearly twenty times lower than that of concrete); (2) a direct-compression, inverter-free solar refrigeration system using propane (R290) as a low-climate-impact refrigerant; (3) athermal storage system using a saline solution (brine), offering a simulated autonomy of 72 hours without sunlight formaintaining a 3-tonne load at 4°C. The system also integrates a digital monitoring layer (IoT, LoRaWAN sensors, RFID access control). Projections from thermal modeling and economic analysis indicate a potential 60% reduction in losses, an increase in agricultural margins of around 50%, and a significant decrease in the carbon footprint. Technological barriers and deployment prospects are discussed.Keywords: Typha australis, post-harvest losses, bio-based materials, thermal insulation, brine thermal storage, agricultural IoT, sustainable agriculture, rural areas.