Sbir phase I: adaptable refrigeration cycles for smart mini-containers

Freshkube Inc. received a $255,981 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation to develop an adaptable refrigeration system for smart mini-containers. The goal is to reduce food waste, energy use, and carbon emissions from refrigerated transport by creating a highly efficient and customizable system. Freshkube will address technical challenges in developing a volume-adaptable refrigeration unit allowing efficient operation at different cooling capacities. The company will also create a hybrid control strategy and algorithms for optimizing the system's scheduling. The technology has the potential to increase economic viability for small farms and improve food access while lessening environmental impacts from cold logistics. This award falls under the National Science Foundation's Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084) to advance breakthrough technologies and solutions to national challenges.

Abstract

The broader impact of this sbir phase I project includes reductions in food waste, energy use, and carbon emissions by developing a highly efficient and adaptable system for refrigerated transport. Mini-containers, which are small, insulated boxes with environments controlled by a central driving unit that contains a refrigerator and other environmental controls are proposed. The technology may increase the economic feasibility of small farms by allowing them to target a more resilient, efficient, and potentially carbon-neutral cold supply chain. The potential impact of the research includes improved availability of nutritious food for the general population and mitigation of negative environmental effects of cold logistics. Additionally, mitigating food waste will create savings up and down the supply chain. Two key technical challenges are addressed in this research. The first area has, as its main objective, the development of a volume-adaptable refrigeration system that allows for the efficient operation of several levels of control to best adapt to high levels of cooling capacity needs. The second area of research corresponds to the development of the methodology and solutions algorithms to exercise a hybrid control strategy for the optimal scheduling operation of the refrigeration system. The archetype refrigeration system would be subject to constraints imposed by the heterogeneous loads stored in the different special storage and transportation units known as mini-containers which receive cooling and other environmental services. This technology will allow for efficiently aggregating, storing, disaggregating, and distributing fresh products in the mini-containers. The mini-containers will allow the emergence of efficient cold logistics for small loads by enabling the capacity of large transportation containers to be split among multiple conveyances. The proposed solution will also make IT possible to convert almost any truck into a refrigerated truck and any warehouse into a cold storage facility, supporting the emergence of sharing economies in cold logistics. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.