Zero Emission Cold-Chain(ZECC) - Building the Road to Sustainable Cold-Chain Systems for Food Resilience
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Birmingham
Department Name: Chemical Engineering
Abstract
This project will bring together (i) world-leading interdisciplinary researchers from the UK working across the food cold chain sector and sustainable energy; (ii) stakeholder industries; (iii) new technology innovators and (iv) cold-chain customers from farmer to retailer to provide fundamental new knowledge and a whole systems approach to redefine the cold-chain architecture and map the opportunities available to reach net zero emissions by 2050 so as to deliver (i) demand and climate adaptation, (ii) resilience and (iii) decarbonisation of the cold-chain for the food industry and its stakeholders from farmer and fishers to consumers simultaneously.
The food cold chain is complex and lacks integration between sectors. Although technological challenges exist, many decarbonisation issues are techno-economic or behavioural. The project will integrate technical (engineering and food quality/safety), behavioural, financial and business aspects to provide sustainable integrated solutions to the decarbonisation conundrum. More than 60% of our food is dependent on the cold-chain, and cold-chain is a major contributor to our energy demand. The project will provide new information into in a field that has not been researched from a system approach yet.
The food cold chain is complex and lacks integration between sectors. Although technological challenges exist, many decarbonisation issues are techno-economic or behavioural. The project will integrate technical (engineering and food quality/safety), behavioural, financial and business aspects to provide sustainable integrated solutions to the decarbonisation conundrum. More than 60% of our food is dependent on the cold-chain, and cold-chain is a major contributor to our energy demand. The project will provide new information into in a field that has not been researched from a system approach yet.
Organisations
- University of Birmingham (Lead Research Organisation)
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Collaboration)
- University of Padova (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD (Collaboration)
- National University of Singapore (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF YORK (Collaboration)
- Chilled Food Association (Project Partner)
- Star Refrigeration Ltd (Project Partner)
- United for Efficiency (Project Partner)
- United Nations (Project Partner)
- Federation of Environmental Trade Associ (Project Partner)
- Hubbard Products (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Wave Refrigeration (Project Partner)
- Cold Chain Federation (Project Partner)
- British Frozen Foods Federation (Project Partner)
- Foodservice Equipment Association (Project Partner)
- Bitzer UK (Project Partner)
- Food & Drink Federation (Project Partner)
Publications
Aditjandra P
(2023)
Cold chain: what problem? Where we are and what we do not know
Aditjandra P
(2022)
Cold chain: a new challenge for sustainable road freight
Behrouz Arabi
(2024)
Investment in Zero Emission Cold Chain (ZECC) Workshop Report: Market Review
Behrouz Arabi
(2023)
Investment in Zero Emission Cold Chain (ZECC) Workshop Report
De A
(2022)
Optimization model for sustainable food supply chains: An application to Norwegian salmon
in Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review
Foster, A
(2022)
Baseline Refrigeration Emissions in the UK
Gage E
(2024)
Reducing food loss and waste contributes to energy, economic and environmental sustainability
in Journal of Cleaner Production
Hussain I
(2023)
POSTER: Zero Emission Cold-Chain (ZECC)
Maxted N.
(2023)
Adaptation and building resilience in a changing world
| Description | External reviewer for UK Parliament POSTNote on Sustainable Cooling. Number 642. |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Impact | The POSTNote report raised awareness of the government, decision makers and general public of the importance of sustainable cold chain for food and vaccination programmes. |
| URL | https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0642/ |
| Description | Advanced postharvest understanding to reduce food loss across the supply chain |
| Amount | £8,760 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2023 |
| End | 07/2023 |
| Description | Transport Industrial and Commercial Refrigeration |
| Amount | £679,978 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2022 |
| End | 09/2024 |
| Title | Data matrices for Food Loss/Waste(FLW) and global warming potential estimates for UK produce |
| Description | Two data matrices have been developed for WP4 - i) an analysis of food loss and waste estimates for UK horticultural products at specific supply chain stages and ii) estimates of environmental impacts (global warming potential) of UK fresh produce, again broken down by supply chain stage. Both have been produced from literature reviews |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Both of these areas will be combined to enable identification of food loss and waste hotspots in the UK supply chain to guide later activities |
| Title | Dataset of drivers for food cold chain demand up to 2050 |
| Description | A list f drivers are collected from the literature on their impact of food cold chain demand. The drivers cover technology, infrastructure, social, behavioural, finance and environmental aspects. |
| Type Of Material | Data handling & control |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The dataset provides useful information for developing a model to estimate GHG emissions of future food cold chain in the UK. |
| Title | Quantifying Food Loss and Waste for Fresh Produce in the UK - Stakeholder Survey |
| Description | A survey has been developed for use in the UK supply chain to quantify food loss/waste (FLW) in fresh produce and identify key FLW drivers. |
| Type Of Material | Data handling & control |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | No impacts to date, but once deployed the survey will provide up-to-date evidence for the incidence of food loss and waste in the UK supply chain, including volumes and root causes. This will be used to identify hotspots for intervention through the project, although the wider data will also be useful for benchmarking loss and waste for sector stakeholders looking to improve their current practice. |
| Description | Co-author on review paper |
| Organisation | University of Oxford |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I co-authored on a review paper of the role of cold chain, which is published. |
| Collaborator Contribution | They co-authored on a review paper of the role of cold chain, which is published. |
| Impact | Trotter, P. A., Becker, T., Renaldi, R., Wang, X., Khosla, R., and Walther, G. (2023). Cold chains for sustainable food system transitions. Journal of Industrial Ecology. Volume 27, Issue 6. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13445 |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Hosting visiting researcher and publish co-authored paper |
| Organisation | University of Padova |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I hosted a researcher from Padova University and we published a co-authored paper. |
| Collaborator Contribution | They visited me at the University of Birmingham and contributed to our co-authored paper. |
| Impact | We published the co-authored paper: Zou, Y., Wu, J., Wang, X., Liu, G., Antonio, S., Manzardo, A. (2023). An improved artificial neural network using multi-source data to estimate food temperature during multi-temperature delivery. Journal of Food Engineering. Volume 351, 111518. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2023.111518 |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Invited seminar speaker at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Organisation | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I gave a presentation of the project at a seminar hosted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the US. |
| Collaborator Contribution | They invited and arranged a seminar for me to present my project and research. |
| Impact | We have been in contact and looking for future collaboration opportunities. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Invited speaker at the Energy Studies Institute in the National University of Singapore. |
| Organisation | National University of Singapore |
| Country | Singapore |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I gave a presentation at the seminar. |
| Collaborator Contribution | They invited me and hosted a seminar with industry and academic stakeholders. |
| Impact | I was an invited speaker at the Energy Studies Institute in the National University of Singapore. I presented "A whole-systems approach for sustainable cooling and the cold chain". https://esi.nus.edu.sg/eventitem/2023/01/10/default-calendar/a-whole-systems-approach-for-sustainable-cooling-and-the-cold-chain |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Member of the STFC Food Network+ Expert Working Group on Sustainable Cold Food Chain |
| Organisation | University of York |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I became a member of the expert group on Sustainable Cold Food Chain and co-produced a report. |
| Collaborator Contribution | They co-produced a report. |
| Impact | co-produced a report on Cold Food Chain. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Article in New Yorker magazine |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | The article in the New Yorker titled 'Africa's Cold Rush and the Promise of Refrigeration' (online ) helped to bring attention and focus to the importance of sustainable cooling on food and vaccine supply chains. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/22/africas-cold-rush-and-the-promise-of-refrigeration |
| Description | Invited speaker at the Open Science Training Session. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In November 2022, I was an invited speaker at the Open Science Training Session. I presented "A whole-systems approach for sustainable cooling and the cold chain" for the EU H2020 CO-COOL programme online. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Invited speaker for Leamington Café Scientifique. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was an invited speaker for Leamington Café Scientifique. Sustainable cooling and the cold chain for food and vaccines. St Patricks Irish Club 4 Adelaide Road, Leamington Spa. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Invited speaker for the Energy Day (pre-COP28 event) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was an invited speaker for the Energy Day (pre-COP28 event). 15th June, 2023. University of Birmingham Dubai campus. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/energy/events/2023/energy-day |
| Description | Invited speaker for the Institution of Chemical Engineers' (IChemE) virtual conference on Responsible Production |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | In March 2022, I was an invited speaker for the Institution of Chemical Engineers' (IChemE) virtual conference on Responsible Production |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Invited speaker for the UKERC summer school |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was an invited speaker for the UKERC summer school. Reducing food waste through cooling. 19-23 June, 2023. Newcastle, UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Invited speaker of Towards a zero-emission food cold chain at Research Journeys in/to Net Zero: Current and Future Research Leaders in the Midlands, UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | I was an invited speaker of Towards a zero-emission food cold chain at Research Journeys in/to Net Zero: Current and Future Research Leaders in the Midlands, UK |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Local to Global Cold Chain Summit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The Local to Global Cold-chain summit took place on the 29th September 2022 at the University of Birmingham, hosted by the Centre of Sustainable Cooling. The event brought together more than 50 research, industry and government partners from the UK, EU and Africa to share their knowledge and discuss research and innovation needs and collaboration opportunities to operationalise sustainable, equitable and resilient cold-chains for food and health globally. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Local to Global Cold-chains for food and health resilience |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Purpose was to inform policymakers and seek to influence future policy in this area in Rwanda, Kenya. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation at The European Federation of Food Science and Technology (EFFoST) conference. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Dr Xinfang Want presented: Mahood, H. B., Sayin, L., Wang, X., Alammar, A., Lamidi, R., Singh, A., and Peters, T. Estimation of the UK 2019 Baseline Year's Energy Demand and Emissions of Cold Storage Using a Bottom-Up Model at The European Federation of Food Science and Technology (EFFoST) conference. 6th-9th November 2023. Valencia, Spain. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation at the International Conference on Resource Sustainability (icRS) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Dr Xinfang Wang presented: Wang, X., Lopez-Quiroga, E., Fryer, P., Radcliffe, J., Wu, J., Systematic literature review on local food manufacture and food cold chains at the International Conference on Resource Sustainability (icRS), 7-9 August 2023, Guildford, UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Sustainable Cold-Chain Systems For Food Resilience |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | This was in collaboration with the Sustainable Cold-Chain Systems For Food Resilience (SCC) project which feeds into the ZECC project. The event had good participation and discussion and feedback from attendees |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://ukerc.ac.uk/events/sustainable-cold-chain-systems-for-food-resilience-3/ |
| Description | Sustainable refrigeration system technology selection: A novel DEA- TOPSIS hybrid model |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We presented our work at DEA45 international conference at University of Surrey. Abstract: Carbon and energy efficient refrigeration technologies plays a critical role in meeting the UK's net-zero policies. Yet, there is a lack of multi-criteria analysis (MCA) framework to evaluate small number of sustainable refrigeration technologies while reflecting stakeholders' subjective judgments. In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid data envelopment analysis (DEA) and TOPSIS model, namely Feasible Super-Efficiency Slack-Based Algorithm (FSESBA), to evaluate competing sustainable refrigeration technologies. We devised various scenarios to overarch the needs of different stakeholders and anticipated changes in the energy and environment markets. Our case study is based on a leading UK supermarket around their present and upcoming refrigeration technologies. We tested both conventional and new models and found that our results and scenarios are robust and suitable for informing policies and decisions. Our findings showed that although HFO-based technologies were prevalent in 2020, two CO2-based technologies lagged behind, but by 2035, this will change. By 2050, CO2-based technologies will be the most attractive due to their lower energy usage and GHG emissions. Our research also revealed that if we maintain current refrigeration systems, we can achieve international and national targets to decrease F-Gas refrigerant usage, but net-zero targets will remain out of reach. In order to achieve this objective, the existing technologies should be substituted with GHG neutral alternatives or alternatively, supermarkets could adopt carbon capture facilities. Co-researchers: Mehdi Toloo (Surrey Business School); Zaoli Yang (Heriot-Watt University); Peihao Zhang (Heriot-Watt University); Bing Xu (Heriot-Watt University) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://dataenvelopment.com/dea45/program/ |
| Description | The Clean Heating and Cooling Forum- COP27 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The event attracted global audiences with a lively question and answer session with requests for further information following the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | VIP Visit to Africa centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chain |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | COP President, the Rt. Hon. Alok Sharma MP, visited the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain (ACES) during his attendance at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Rwanda. The COP President said, "ACES is a demonstration of how we can work together, to help tackle rising emissions and keep alive the goal of limiting average global temperature rises to 1.5°C.' The visit has raised the profile of sustainable cooling and cold-chain and sparked discussions and further questions from the target audience on engagement with the activities around cooling and cold-chain. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | ZECC industry workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | 3 industry stakeholders joined the panel of the workshop. Around 20 people attended the workshop in total. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Zero Emission Cold Chain (ZECC) Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Zero Emission Cold Chain (ZECC) workshop, scheduled for the 28th November from 1:30pm to 4:00pm, hosted at the Heriot-Watt University (HWU) Edinburgh campus. ZECC is a £1.4M initiative, funded by UKRI, which has united a consortium of leading experts from the University of Birmingham, London South Bank University, Cranfield University and HWU. Our primary mission is to develop a roadmap to guide the UK food cold chain sector toward to goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. T At Heriot-Watt University, we are committed to developing a robust framework that empowers decision-makers within the cold-chain industry to make informed investment decisions in sustainable practices and technologies. The forthcoming workshop is specifically designed to deepen understanding of the factors, challenges, risks, and opportunities influencing the strategic choices of businesses as they embark on their journey towards net-zero practices and critical investments. As an outcome of the workshop, we will produce investment opportunities report specific to the food cold chain industry. The report will assist industries in developing their own customized pathways to achieve net-zero status. Twenty-five individuals from Star Refrigeration, the Food and Drink Federation Scotland, J&E Hall, the University of Birmingham, London South Bank University, Innovate UK, FJB, and Heriot Watt University attended this workshop and actively participated in both the interactive session and the panel discussion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.com/e/zero-emission-cold-chain-workshop-tickets-748451286947?aff=oddtdtcreato... |
| Description | Zero emissions cold chain stakeholders event. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The event was aimed at business/industry partners to brief them on the progress of work and obtain feedback on the industry perspective. The session generated a healthy discussion and very useful feedback to be incorporated in to the research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |