08:30

REGISTRATION AND REFRESHMENTS

09:00

CHAIR’S OPENING REMARKS

Tim Fox, Chair, Process Industries Division, Institution of Mechanical Engineers

CURRENT STATUS OF THE COLD CHAIN

09:10

WHY A CLEAN COLD CHAIN IS SO IMPORTANT: THE GLOBAL CONTEXT

Toby Peters, Professor of Cold Economy, University of Birmingham

• The importance of an affordable, accessible and sustainable cold chain to feed 10 billion
• Ensuring the system is climate change adaptation ready and resilient within our climate constraints
• How do we get there?

09:40

ADAPTING TO DIFFERENT REFRIGERANT USE

Dermot Cotter MInstR Managing Director, Star Technical Services

• The different refrigerants to be considered
• Choosing which refrigerant works for the company’s needs and delivers new opportunities
• Insight into future low charge ammonia chillers

10:05

DECARBONISING THE COLD CHAIN: WHERE DOES IT START?

 Michael Reid, Engineering Director, Solar Polar

• Understanding the accelerating trends
• Insight into the five-fold added-value multiplier
• Overview of solar on-farm pre-cooling technology

10:30

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

10:45

NETWORKING REFRESHMENT BREAK

ADAPTING CURRENT TECHNOLOGY TO BE MORE EFFICIENT

11:15

REDUCING THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF THE ICE CREAM COLD CHAIN

Representative, Unilever

• Reducing the carbon footprint of the ice cream cold chain
• Measuring the carbon footprint
• Re-engineering refrigeration systems to achieve a radical reduction in footprint

11:40

OPPORTUNITIES FOR INTEGRATION IN THE COLD CHAIN

Judith Evans FInstR, Professor, School of Engineering, London South Bank University

• A need to move to greater integration of multi-vector energy systems
• Understanding what needs to be resolved before greater integration can be achieved
• Insight into the opportunities for greater integration within the food cold chain both in terms of energy and the way in which food is handled

12:05

INSIGHT INTO COLD CHAIN MANAGEMENT OF VACCINES

Ian Tansley, Inventor, The Sure Chill Company

• The challenges in the vaccine cold chain
• Explaining the elegance and simplicity of the Sure Chill Technology
• Where do we go from here?

12:30

SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH CFD

Nick Wirth, Technical Director, Wirth Research

12:55

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

13:10

NETWORKING LUNCH

14:10

THE COLD CHAIN IN POLITICAL AND REGULATORY CONTEXT

Shane Brennan, Chief Executive, Cold Chain Federation

• The geo-political and regulatory pressures on the cold chain in the UK
• What the industry can do for itself
• How we can shape the future of our regulation

14:35

PANEL DISCUSSION

PREPARING THE COLD CHAIN FOR A ZERO-CARBON SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Panellists: Suhrid Patel, Co-founder, Impagro Farming Solutions
Toby Peters, Professor of Cold Economy, University of Birmingham

Michael Ayres, Managing Director, Flexible Power Systems

• What can be done now to make the cold chain more efficient and cost-effective within the political and regulatory structures?
• How can we encourage a more radical move away from fossil fuels now to prepare for the future?
• How can we use leverage finance and commercial business models to deploy new technologies?

15:10

NETWORKING REFRESHMENT BREAK

IMPROVING CURRENT TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING AND LOGISTICS TO DELIVER SUSTAINABILITY

15:40

PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS FOR INTEGRATED ROAD AND RAIL COLD CHAIN TRANSPORTATION: FROM MATERIALS TO COMMERCIALISATION

Yulong Ding, Director of the Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage, University of Birmingham

• Key technologies and innovations outlined for the phase change material based passively cooled containers for integrated rail and road transportation
• Insight into cold energy charge and cloud based ICT used
• Overview of demonstration results

16:05

ON THE ROAD: IMPROVING THE ENGINEERING SYSTEMS FOR COOL LOGISTICS

Phil Greening, Deputy Director, Centre for Sustainable Road Freight, Heriot-Watt University

16:30

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

THINKING THERMALLY: THE FUTURE OF COOLING TECHNOLOGIES

16:40

INSIGHT INTO POST HARVEST LOSS SOLUTIONS

Sean Roche, Director, Inviro Choice Ltd

17:00

MAGNETOCALORIC COOLING: A FUTURE ALTERNATIVE TO VAPOUR COMPRESSION COOLING

Neil Wilson, CEO, Camfridge

• Insight into using advanced metal alloys and magnetic fields to drive a novel cooling cycle
• Benefits of the technology: flexibility that can drive energy efficiency, new applications and reduced environmental impact
• Potential for future use in both commercial and domestic contexts

17:20

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

17:30

CHAIR’S CLOSING REMARKS