Sustainable cooling experts are creating a detailed roadmap to enable the UK food cold chain industry to identify ways to cut emissions, as the University of Birmingham secures £2.9 million of Government funding for energy-related projects.

Backed by £1.4 million of UKRI funding, the four-year Zero Emission Cold-Chain (ZECC) project will design the roadmap in order to help reach the UK’s 2050 net-zero carbon emissions target.

The project is led by the University of Birmingham and includes experts from Heriot-Watt University, London South Bank University and Cranfield University. The team will be highlighting ways that the industry can become more competitive whilst heading towards zero-carbon.

In parallel at the University of Birmingham, the Heat Accumulation from Renewables with Valid Energy Storage and Transformation (HARVEST) project is supported by £1.5 million of UKRI funding. The project will develop new heat storage and conversion technology to ensure that renewable electricity is stored in times of less electricity demand, and ready to use at times of high demand.

ZECC project leader Toby Peters, Professor of Cold Economy at the University of Birmingham, said: “Much of the UK’s food is dependent on the cold food chain, which is also a significant contributor to the country’s energy demand. Our project is about thinking thermally and analysing engineering, energy resources, food quality and safety, finance and business aspects to crack the conundrum of sustainable decarbonisation of cooling and the cold-chain.

“We’re bringing together world-leading researchers, industry, technology innovators and customers such as farmers and retailers to look at the whole system and map the opportunities and challenges to ensuring that the chain can support UK-wide Net Zero goals and decarbonise while also meeting demand and being resilient.”