Africa Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain: a “Bridge to Market” for industry

Through the Centre for Sustainable Cooling, we have brought together a unique cross-discipline team with London South Bank, Cranfield and Heriot-Watt Universities to work with UK and international partners across a ￡multi-million portfolio of significant Post-Harvest Management (PHM) and cold-chain research projects in both developed and developing economies.

Our work in developing markets will be led out of a new first of a kind Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-China in Africa (ACES). ACES was established in 2020 with the vision to create a world-leading Government, Academic, Industry, Community and NGO collaboration to accelerate sustainable solutions to simultaneously address two urgent and interconnected global challenges - food loss and access to cold-chain and cooling. Underpinned with public sector investments by the Governments of UK and Rwanda and further grant funding and support by the founding partners, it is scheduled to open in 2022 with its own 96-acre campus in Kigali, Rwanda, hosted by the University of Rwanda.  

Our aim is not simply to test and demonstrate different technology and strategies but help localise and transfer it, develop both the in-country skills base to support installation and maintenance and the business models to make it accessible.

It will include key areas

?      Developing integrated postharvest biology and technology within the system with training in management to minimise loses and ensure food security.

?      Improving access to affordable cooling.

?      Flexibility for local cooling needs including domestic services where applicable and unlocking secondary agriculture as well as new crop choices.

?      Integrating energy vectors: solar energy, waste heat and bioenergy directly converted into cooling, together with integrated thermal energy storage.

?      Providing other vital services, such as storage of medicine/vaccines and providing a safe shelter for the people during extreme heat waves can be integrated into the systems and buildings

In so doing we believe ACES can deliver industry the real landing pad for technology deployment in this fast growing markets. Africa, already worth several ￡billion to the UK, is the second fastest growing export market.

While the Centre is based in Rwanda, it is pan-Africa in focus. Living Labs in strategic locations across Africa will act as the deployment and implementation arms, driving the adoption and uptake of energy efficient and climate friendly solutions by showcasing how such solutions can be used by communities. We are about to start work on a design study in Kenya with in-country partners.

For industry we specifically thinking ACES can provide a number of wins -

·       Access to test and showcase equipment in a controlled environment with qualified technicians and support.

·       Independent in-field technology impact assessments.

·       Technology-aligned in-market capacity building and skills development and certified training to support uptake of best practices and technology deployment and maintenance.

·       A business incubator with full-service training, business model design and support, skills development and innovation support to support technology deployment, especially novel innovations and technology.

·       Sustainable low-carbon, packhouse and logistics design services.

·       International certifications advisory services to increase market opportunities and qualify in-country service providers.

·       And the opportunity to network and collectively problem solve with other industry members, researchers and policy-makers

Industry supporters will also have

·       A seat on the quarterly Industrial Advisory Panel and the opportunity to shape ACES strategy and capability and nominate Industrial Research Programme projects.

·       Ability for Industrial secondments to work on company specific R&D projects.

·       Alongside technology demonstration and exhibition space, access to collaborative workspaces for in-country projects.

·       Access to output of ACES technology research and our market research,

·       And of course, market engagement through ACES events and support with market entry, initially through ACES and then through the emerging in-country Centre’s network of Living Labs.

We specifically hope over the course of the next four to five months to secure ACES Founding Members  who can specifically help support

·       the design and equipment specification phase.

·       the development of courses and training programmes.

·       First equipment deployment for training, demonstration and solution design.

Key areas will include

Postharvest handling, storage, quality, process and packing zone with:Off-grid mobile pre-cooling; Controlled Atmosphere systems; Refrigerated storage; Precision Cooling for soft fruit and perishable crops (blast chilling/vacuum coolers); Hydrocooling; Ripening Rooms; Sustainable packaging; modified atmosphere packaging.

Distribution, Cold-Chain and Logistics Zone with: Ice-production; Zero-emission transport refrigeration; PCMs and small-scale rechargeable cooling boxes; Zero-emission refrigerated transport.

Energy and Energy Storage Centre with: Integrated thermal systems; waste heat to cold (sorption cooling); Thermal storage (phase change materials).

Data and Digital Transformation Needs assessment tools, data capture and use monitoring, virtual models, electronic trading and fulfilment platforms.

Business Start-Ups, and Incubation Suite with: Design service, business models market engagement and finance, export distribution network, etc.

Quality control and Certifications Centre addressing: Codes and Standards; Setting quality thresholds for retail sector and export markets; Food safety.

Other areas – vaccine and health, retail domestic.

Please do contact us if you want to learn more about how to engage.

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]