INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Reducing food waste and
vaccine spoilage through CaaS
By CaaS Initiative
CaaS
For many, cooling is not only a comfort,
but also a means of survival as air
conditioning and refrigeration are
necessary for habitable living conditions,
life-saving healthcare, and food security.
As global temperatures rise, further
access to cooling is required, specifically
for the cold chain.
According to the International Energy
Agency, the average efficiency of cooling
systems sold today consumes around
two to three times the amount of energy
as efficient options available and often
contains refrigerant gases that are harmful
to the environment.
This has become an even greater
problem in African countries, that
according to Thomson Reuters Foundation,
have become a dumping ground for
cheap, illegal imports of polluting, energyconsuming
and short-lasting second-hand
equipment from Europe.
Over the past decade, the demand
for cooling systems has doubled or even
tripled in some African countries, and it is
expected to increase 10-fold in the next 20
years. This rising demand makes access to
cooling a fundamental and growing social
and environmental challenge.
Although climate-friendly cooling technology
is available, it has not been deployed at
the pace needed due to various market
barriers, including up-front costs, uncertain
returns, lack of maintenance skills and limited
financing options.
Cooling as a service (CaaS) makes
efficient cooling accessible to all. In
the past two years, Basel Agency for
Sustainable Energy (BASE) has been
working to mainstream CaaS around
the world. CaaS is an innovative business
model that enables customers to base their
decision on lifecycle cost rather than on
the purchase price of cooling equipment.
The model aims to help people access
to energy efficient cooling technologies
without an upfront investment.
With CaaS, end customers only pay for
the cooling they receive, rather than the
physical cooling equipment. The technology
provider installs and maintains the cooling
equipment and recovers the costs by
periodic payments from the customer.
These payments are fixed-cost-perunit
for the cooling service delivered (for
example, dollars per tons of refrigeration,
or units of cooled air). The technology
provider also pays for the electricity
consumed by the equipment. This serves
as an incentive to install equipment that is
energy-efficient and that receives highquality
maintenance.
BASE launched the CaaS Incubator
initiative in January 2020 with the aim
to support five technology providers
from around the world in implementing
CaaS projects. In Nigeria, BASE is
working with Koolboks, one of the five
winners selected for the CaaS Incubator
programme, on two of their groundbreaking
projects. The projects aim to
provide high-tech, energy-efficient, solarpowered
freezers and refrigerators to local
businesses and healthcare facilities.
CAAS TO REDUCE FOOD WASTE IN
THE MARKETS OF LAGOS
According to the United Nations, one-third
of food produced globally is lost or wasted.
In developing countries, 40% of food
produced is wasted before it even reaches
the market, mostly due to a lack of proper
refrigeration and cold chain.
Once the food arrives in the market,
markets, traders can spend up to NGN1000
(equivalent to USD2.50) per day running
their diesel generators for their cooling
BASE and Koolboks are working to provide solar-powered refrigerators and freezers to ensure fresh produce for traders in the markets of Lagos
as well as vaccine refrigeration for 25 health care facilities.
system. Bringing off-grid refrigeration to
farmers and traders can increase their
income by an estimated 50% , while
reducing harvest wastage to below 5%.
BASE and Koolboks are working to
provide solar-powered refrigerators and
freezers to ensure fresh produce for traders
in the markets of Lagos. The pilot is starting
in the Ijora fish market, which is the largest
fish market in Lagos State and one of the
largest in the country.
The aim of the project is to eliminate
the challenges of erratic power supply
in cold-food storage. This will enable
traders (80% of which are women) to
reduce food waste and avoid using
diesel generators, while simultaneously
increasing their revenues. BASE and
Koolboks’ developed a ‘Cooling as a
Service’ (CaaS) contract that enables
traders to access cooling technology
without a large upfront payment.
Cooling is also crucial for the healthcare
sector. Besides the demand of cooling
for patients, hospitals face a challenge to
provide safe cold storage for vaccines and
medical supplies. Many healthcare facilities
do not have the resources to store vaccines
due to unreliable energy supplies. This leads
to the spoilage of around 25% of vaccines.
Moreover, data from Health Affairs suggests
that 55% more vaccine storage capacity is
needed in Nigeria. A safe storage solution for
medical supplies has become exceptionally
important as the world combats and recovers
from a global pandemic.
BASE and Koolboks are also working
together to provide vaccine refrigeration
storage for all 25 Delta-state health
care facilities. Having Koolboks’s solarpowered
systems in place will ensure
vaccines are stored correctly, with a
secure source of energy and reliable
maintenance. CLA
Producing ammonia using less energy
Scientists at the Tokyo Institute of
Technology have developed an
improved catalyst facilitating the
synthesis of ammonia at merely 50°C (when
conventional techniques require
temperatures of 450°C).
The production of, for example, 1 800 tons ammonia
per day, requires a gas pressure of at least 130 bar,
temperatures of 400 to 500 °C and a reactor volume of at
least 100 m³.
Ammonia is commonly used as a
refrigerant (known as R717). Its production
is typically carried out through the Haber
process, which converts atmospheric
nitrogen to ammonia by a reaction with
hydrogen under high temperatures and
pressures (between 400 °C and
500 °C and 15-25 MPa). These
temperatures and pressures
require a lot of energy.
A team of scientists from the
Tokyo Institute of Technology
recently presented a new
technique: they developed
a catalyst using the common
dehydrating agent calcium
hydride and adding fluoride to
it. The catalyst would facilitate the synthesis
of ammonia at 50°C.
Their catalyst comprises a solid solution
of CaFH, with ruthenium (Ru) nanoparticles
deposited on its surface. The addition of
fluoride (F-) to calcium hydride (CaH2), a
common dehydrating agent, is what makes
the catalyst effective at lower temperatures
and pressures. After conducting
spectroscopic and computational analyses,
the scientists propose a possible mechanism
by which the catalyst facilitates the
production of ammonia.
This new method for producing
ammonia cuts energy demands, thereby
reducing the carbon dioxide emissions
from the use of large amounts of fossil
Ammonia is commonly used as a refrigerant
known as R717 in the refrigeration industry.
fuels. The findings of this study highlight the
potential of an environmentally sustainable
Haber-Bosch process, paving the way
for the next revolution in agricultural food
production. CLA
COLD LINK AFRICA • October 2020 www.coldlinkafrica.co.za 9