[{"command":"settings","settings":{"ajaxPageState":{"theme":"hm_theme","theme_token":"y8d0hJkdU8I9Ae0BgJAxudNU0CUnFWBBGwpEjUn2Wgs","libraries":"eJwDAAAAAAE"},"ajaxTrustedUrl":{"form_action_p_pvdeGsVG5zNF_XLGPTvYSKCf43t8qZYSwcfZl2uzM":true},"pluralDelimiter":"\u0003","user":{"uid":0,"permissionsHash":"2af85631393b514cbde3779a1f71d92618d53b94b54ea1960d28b2e2d121ff12"}},"merge":true},{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/8799\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EQ\u0026amp;A: We need to think differently about how we cool things down\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat is the \u2018cold chain\u2019 and why is it important?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EVaccines and medicines in hospitals, along with much of the food we buy from supermarkets, get to these places through a long logistics chain that is temperature controlled. It is not just cold storage, but all of the elements \u2013 from a farm, for example, right through to the refrigerator in our homes \u2013 and how they work together seamlessly to keep food fresh. As soon as food is harvested, it is essentially dying, so keeping it cool helps to slow down that process. I found it very concerning when everyone was talking about developing vaccines against Covid-19 in February and March 2020, but no one was talking about how to deliver it and keep it cold.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat are the consequences of an inadequate cold chain?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn Africa and India about 25% of vaccines are lost due to broken cold chains. There is no point having expensive temperature-controlled processes to deliver a vaccine when for the final couple of miles to a clinic, it is put in a bag on the back of a bike and it spoils. All that effort and energy earlier in the chain is wasted. When we are talking about the kind of volumes needed for the Covid-19 vaccinations, 25% is pretty important. Likewise, in Africa, they can lose 40% of food due to inadequate cold chains.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat are the problems that you think need to be fixed?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe real challenge is how do we ensure cold chains are resilient while also meeting the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/clima\/policies\/strategies\/2050_en\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Enet-zero targets\u003C\/a\u003E on carbon emissions needed to tackle climate change? The cold chain today is very dependent on diesel and fossil fuels to drive the cooling demand of a warehouse and in the vehicles moving everything around. And while the diesel engines that drive refrigerated trucks have to meet stringent emissions standards in Europe, the refrigeration unit on the back also runs on diesel and is relatively unregulated by comparison. Yet it accounts for about \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S135943110800286X\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E12%-20% of the energy consumption\u003C\/a\u003E of that vehicle, and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.birmingham.ac.uk\/Documents\/college-eps\/energy\/Publications\/Clean-Cold-and-the-Global-Goals.pdf\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Esix times more nitrogen oxide emissions and 29 times more particulate matter\u003C\/a\u003E than the engine pulling it around.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThere is actually little really good data about what the direct emissions of the cold chain are, and that is part of what my colleagues and I are trying to understand through our research. But (emissions) exist on a number of levels. Food wastage is a huge source of unnecessary emissions. About \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.unep.org\/thinkeatsave\/get-informed\/worldwide-food-waste\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E1.3 billion tonnes\u003C\/a\u003E of edible food is lost or wasted each year \u2013 think of all the resources that went into producing and transporting that. It is responsible for about \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.fao.org\/3\/bb144e\/bb144e.pdf\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E4.4 gigatonnes\u003C\/a\u003E of carbon dioxide each year, and around \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ozone.unep.org\/system\/files\/documents\/MOP31-Sustainable-HL_Briefing_Note.pdf\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E1 gigatonne\u003C\/a\u003E of that is due to a lack of cold chain. In the developing world, this is a particular cause of food loss.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cfigure role=\u0022group\u0022 class=\u0022@alignleft@\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cimg alt=\u0022In Africa and India about 25% of vaccines are lost due to broken cold chains, says cold economy expert Prof. Toby Peters. Image credit - Toby Peters\u0022 data-entity-type data-entity-uuid height=\u0022989\u0022 src=\u0022\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/IMCEUpload\/02_toby_cropped_2.jpg\u0022 title=\u0022In Africa and India about 25% of vaccines are lost due to broken cold chains, says cold economy expert Prof. Toby Peters. Image credit - Toby Peters\u0022 width=\u00221350\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cfigcaption class=\u0022tw-italic tw-mb-4\u0022\u003EIn Africa and India about 25% of vaccines are lost due to broken cold chains, says cold economy expert Prof. Toby Peters. Image credit - Toby Peters\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\n\u003C\/figure\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow is the demand for cooling likely to rise in the future?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECooling currently accounts for about \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk\/documents\/POST-PN-0642\/POST-PN-0642.pdf\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E7% of global greenhouse gas emissions\u003C\/a\u003E. As many parts of the world become wealthier, that is being accompanied by \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.eiu.com\/graphics\/marketing\/pdf\/TheCoolingImperative2019.pdf\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ea massive, rapid growth in demand for air conditioning and refrigeration\u003C\/a\u003E. At the same time, as global temperatures increase due to climate change, there is going to be more and more need for cooling. And it is not something we can do without, as without it we lose food, we lose productivity when it is too hot. Even cows produce less milk when they overheat, so need to be kept in air-conditioned facilities in some parts of the world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat\u2019s the solution?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt is going to need a different way of thinking. Generally, when we talk about green energy, we mean electricity. But cooling is really a thermal energy issue \u2013 we don\u2019t necessarily need to convert energy to electricity to cool things down. What is the point of charging up a battery with solar energy to run a fridge through the night, when you can just freeze a block of ice and use that to keep your fridge cool?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThere are large amounts of low-grade waste heat from industry, for example, that could be used to enhance cooling with the help of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0R84hLprO5s\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Eabsorption chillers\u003C\/a\u003E (which refrigerate through a sudden change of pressure, driven by heat).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERefrigeration units also produce a lot of heat out of the back end, and that could be used to provide hot water and heating for nearby buildings. Buildings and systems can also be designed better to mitigate the need for cooling. A good example of this is a project in Africa set up by a drone company called Zipline to deliver blood to rural clinics. They have a central warehouse where they store the blood, it is taken out of the chiller, put into an insulated pack and flown to the location in 20 minutes and parachuted down. It has negated the need for refrigerated transport vehicles to be driving along the uneven roads for hours.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt is about changing the way our systems work and this is what is known as the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.birmingham.ac.uk\/research\/energy\/policy\/cold\/cold-energy.aspx\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ecold economy\u003C\/a\u003E \u2013 making the cooling systems and business models we use as efficient as possible.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESo how might the cold economy work?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhat is important to remember here is that there isn\u2019t going to be a single panacea solution. We are going to need a portfolio of solutions that have strengths and weaknesses spending on their use. Running refrigerated transport on batteries, for example, isn\u2019t necessarily the optimum solution.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne alternative is to use liquid air. I am one of the co-inventors of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ease-storage.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/EASE_TD_Mechanical_LAES.pdf\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Eliquid air energy storage\u003C\/a\u003E, which means renewable energy can be used to cool air to the point where it turns into a liquid and is currently used as large scale energy storage. When you expose the liquid air to ambient temperatures again, you get a rapid expansion, producing a high-pressure gas that can drive a turbine or a piston in an engine. The cold can also be cycled back to the liquidation end to increase efficiency.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIf you were to put this into something like a transport refrigeration unit (as a \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/av\/technology-36402751\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EDearman engine\u003C\/a\u003E that uses the expanding gas to move a piston), you can use the liquid air to drive the vehicle, harnessing the cold and power to keep the stuff in the back cool.\u0026nbsp;This is something we have been exploring as part of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cryohub.info\/en-gb\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ECryoHub project\u003C\/a\u003E, which is led by Professor Judith Evans at London South Bank University.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat are you hoping to do with CryoHub?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe aim is to put liquid air energy storage to work in a supermarket refrigerated warehouse, so CryoHub was investigating the potential to do this on a large scale. It installed a demonstrator at a cold storage warehouse in Lommel, Belgium, and that is now being tested to see how it performs. But if it is successful, there are \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cryohub.info\/public\/downloads\/vF6SE\/Cryohub%20Briefing%20Note%20May%202021.pdf\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Emore than 1,000 sites across the EU\u003C\/a\u003E and UK that could have a system like this integrated into their cold storage warehouses.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018It\u2019s not all about the technology. A lot of it is about behaviour and the way cooling is approached.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProf. Toby Peters, University of Birmingham, UK\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAre there things that could be done more immediately?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe could take the example of liquid natural gas \u2013 the gas is taken out of the ground, cooled to -162\u00b0C to make it easier to transport and then shipped around the world. When it reaches its destination it is heated again (to turn it back into gas), and all that cold is discarded into the sea. We are theoretically throwing away billions of Euros (worth) of cooling, as well as burning fossil fuels to create electricity to drive cooling systems. We could use that cold by transferring it to other cooling systems (in warehouses or data centres) or use it to create district cooling systems (where cold is piped into homes in a nearby community) and so reduce the demand for electricity to run air conditioners.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat\u2019s stopping us?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s not all about the technology. A lot of it is about behaviour and the way cooling is approached. One of the biggest problems is getting all parts of the system working together so that temperature management is seamless. For food, it has to work from the field, to the packhouse, to the retailer and into our homes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut we are also facing a lack of skills and training in many parts of the world. By simply cleaning and maintaining existing refrigeration systems, we could often deliver a 25% increase in energy efficiency (compared to unmaintained equipment). And as we move towards more cooling to meet demand and new types of systems, we are going to need more skilled people able to manage the new technologies.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGovernments are also going to need to start thinking about how they can build more integrated and resilient cold chains. At the moment it is mainly left up to industry and most people are largely blind to the cold chain despite how important it is for a resilient society.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat impact could a better cold economy have?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor me, the reason why this is really important is when you think about the three big goals the world has set itself. There are the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sdgs.un.org\/goals\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EUN Sustainable Development Goals\u003C\/a\u003E, the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/unfccc.int\/process-and-meetings\/the-paris-agreement\/the-paris-agreement\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EParis Agreement\u003C\/a\u003E on climate change and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.unep.org\/ozonaction\/who-we-are\/about-montreal-protocol\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EMontreal Protocol\u003C\/a\u003E, along with the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.unep.org\/ozonaction\/resources\/factsheet\/kigali-amendment-montreal-protocol-hfc-phase-down\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EKigali Amendment\u003C\/a\u003E, on refrigerant use. The cold chain underpins all of them. If you want to feed the world, you need more resilient food supplies that can deliver food and reduce waste. Less waste means less water is being used and fewer resources, while farmers\u2019 incomes increase. Equally, if you can keep medicines and vaccines at the right temperature up to the moment they are delivered, you can improve health. Then there is the impact of the cold chain on the climate \u2013 all the energy used and emissions that come from burning fossil fuels to keep them running. And finally, the refrigerants themselves are also potent greenhouse gases. If we want to meet these goals, then solving the problems of the cold chain is going to be essential.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe research in this article was funded by the EU. 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