H2oAlliance

We are seeking to build a strategic partnership with transportation and shipping companies to help their customers improve business performance by improving flow of cold chain goods and information, saving money, energy and other resources, and mitigating risks. 

We are aware of the immediate need for effective new-technology solutions to transport temperature sensitive perishable cargo. We have built capabilities in the cold chain trade arena and logistics during the past decade and now we have a unique cold chain shipping solution available in the market today.  

Our working group has developed a new-technology solution to transport perishable products without using outside power and without breaking the cool chain. As a result, businesses can ship their temperature sensitive products more effectively within global, regional and local commodity chains. We can monitor temperature in real-time to ensure that products will not be damaged or compromised throughout transportation process. Our solution truly reduces energy consumption, optimizes transportation costs and minimizes initial investment.  

Shippers across Europe have used new-technology cold chain transportation products during the past decade. As a matter of fact, even the very first test cool blankets are still in daily use. They are very durable, and are certified worldwide. Our solution is truly best of breed and works better than any other cooling element.

We have piloted our cold chain management system with the leading transportation and shipping companies across EU with great success. We build  long-term partnerships with companies to serve specific cold chain transportation needs of our customers worldwide.

Increasing regulation, restrictions and accountability measures over the stability of the cold chain by the Food and Drug Administration will increase the need for companies to improve their cold chain management efficiency to preserve food, beverages, chemicals, vaccines and medical supplies, etc.
From economic development perspective, improved cold chain management efficiency enable specialized agricultural functions, and developing countries to take part in the global perishable products market.

Working Groups

Climate Change

Contact our working group administrator

From a geographical perspective, it has the following impacts:

Global

• Specialization of agricultural functions permitting the transport of temperature sensitive food products to distant markets; Enables the distribution of vaccines and other pharmaceutical or biological products.
  

Regional

• Can support the specialization of functions and economies of scale, such as specialized laboratories.
  

Local

• Timely distribution to the final consumer, namely grocery stores and restaurants.
  

The Need for New-Technology Cold Chain Management Solutions

Our working group has developed a unique solution to transport perishable products without using outside power and without breaking the cool chain. This new solution is now available to customers worldwide.

As a result, businesses can ship their temperature sensitive products effectively within global, regional and local commodity chains. Transportation and shipping companies can monitor temperature in real-time to ensure that products will not get damaged or compromised throughout transportation process, reduce energy consumption, optimize transportation costs and minimize initial investment.

These products allow 24 hours unbreakable cold chain transportation without any external energy. Due to their great isolation capacity combined with the patented cooling element, the products of CCS are suitable for keeping the cold chain unbroken during transportation, storage and delivery.
At the moment two cooling element temperature levels have been chosen for production:

• Frozen (-23 C) – designed to maintain temperature close to -21 C
• Fridge (-1 C) – designed to maintain temperature close to 0 C

The existing product family consists of models from 40 liters up to 1500 liters. The automatic online monitoring system records the temperature level during the transportation and warns if the temperature rises.

Solution

• An EU standard based temperature measurement device for the transportation and storage of temperature controlled products;
• HACCP (the self-control obligation) to monitor temperature will become automatic;
• Reliable fulfillment of the regulations of authorities.

• Better quality and safety of products;
• Reliable information to customers and authorities with reports on the quality of products;
• Improves customer service and customer satisfaction.

• Web-based user interface;
• Remote use also outside the work place;
• Easy to install, because the sensors work wirelessly without cables;
• Due to its wireless nature, it is easy to change targets and monitor the temperature of difficult and moving targets without effort.
• Savings
• Totally automatic, monitoring takes place almost by itself along with other work;
• Boosted control and monitoring 24/7;
• Minimizing the losses;
• Substantial savings in costs.

• Improves Transportation Operations Efficiency
• Real time and automatic monitoring, locating and control of deliveries;
• Optimized utilization rate, service and maintenance;
• Optimization of transportation routes and schedules;
• Minimizing unnecessary investment on equipment;
• Substantial cost savings in fuel, service and work costs.

• An EU standard based temperature measurement device for the transportation and storage of temperature controlled products;
• HACCP (the self-control obligation) to monitor temperature will become automatic;
• Reliable fulfillment of the regulations of authorities.

• Better quality and safety for transported products;
• More reliability and safety of processes to customers and authorities;
• Improves customer service and customer satisfaction;
• Minimizes the losses.

• The web-based interface enables remote use also outside the work place;
• Because of being wireless, it is a suitable solution especially on monitoring moving targets;
• The driver has a possibility for real time monitoring using the display device in the cabin;
• Automatic alarms on the display and/or via a text message;
• Necessary information printable for clear reports;
• Integration into other background systems;

• Measurement of conditions (temperature, humidity, air pressure);
• GPS;
• Door and motion sensors (door open/closed);
• Location (active RFID);
• Location (passive RFID);
• On/off information of electronic devices;
• On/off information of lights;
• Fire alarm;
• Camera;
• Measurement of electric energy;
• Acceleration;
• Control of the on/off switching of electronic devices;
• On/off for lights;
• Control of the on/off switching of lights (light alarm).
• The temperature monitoring system has been approved and fulfills EU standards: SFS-EN 12830, SFS-EN 13485 and SFS-EN 13486.

The reliance on the cold chain continues to gain importance. Within the pharmaceutical industry for instance, the testing, production and movement of drugs relies heavily on controlled and uncompromised transfer of shipments. A large portion of the pharmaceutical products that move along the cold chain are in the experiment or developmental phase. Clinical research and trials is a major part of the industry that costs millions of dollars, but one that also experiences a failure rate of around 80%. According to the Healthcare Distribution Management Association, of the close to 200 billion dollars in pharmaceutical distribution, about 10% are drugs that are temperature sensitive. This makes the cold chain responsible for transporting a near 20 billion dollar investment. If these shipments should experience any unanticipated exposure to variant temperature levels, they run the risk of becoming ineffective or even harmful to patients.

Temperature control in the shipment of foodstuffs is a component of the industry that has continued to rise in necessity with international trade. As more and more countries focus their primary or large portions of their export economy around food and produce production, the need to keep these products fresh for extended periods of time has gained in importance. Any major grocery store around the world is likely to carry tangerines from South Africa, apples from New Zealand, bananas from Costa Rica and asparagus from Mexico. Thus, a cold chain industry has emerged to service these commodity chains. In 2002, an estimated 1200 billion dollars worth of food was transported by a fleet of 400,000 refrigerated containers (Reefers). Alone, the United States imports about 30% of its fruits and vegetables and 20% of its food exports can be considered perishables. The uncompromised quality and safety of this food is often taken for granted, despite being the main reason behind the ability to sell the food. The cold chain serves the function of keeping food fresh for extended periods and eliminating doubts over the quality of the food products.

Food Transportation

There is a variety of methods for the transport of food products. Land, sea and air modes all have different structures for keeping food fresh throughout the transport chain. Innovations in packaging, fruit and vegetable coatings, bioengineering (controlled ripening), and other techniques reducing the deterioration of food products have helped shippers extend the reach of perishable products. Concomitantly, new transport technologies have permitted the shipment of perishable products over longer distances, and improved roads and intermodal connections along the coast have reduced transport time for food.

Certain domestic or transnational supply chains may only require one transportation mode, but many times ground shipments are one link in a combination of transport modes. This makes intermodal transfer critical for the cold chain. Intermodal shipments typically use either 20 or 40 footers refrigerated containers that are capable of holding up to 26 tons of food. The container makes loading and unloading periods shorter and less susceptible to experiencing damage. The environments in these containers are currently controlled electronically by either plugging into a generator or power source on the ship or truck to keep the food refrigerated.

Moving away from ice refrigeration has allowed for much greater distances to be traveled and has greatly increased the size of the global food market, enabling many developing countries to capture new opportunities. Another efficient mode for transporting foodstuffs is air travel. While this is a preferred form of travel for highly perishable and valuable goods due to its ability to move much faster over longer distances, it does lack the environment control and transfer ease of the ground and sea transports. Also, during the flight the cargo is stored in a 15°C – 20°C environment, but close to 80% of the time the package is exposed to exterior weather while waiting to be loaded onto the plane or being moved to and from the airfield. This is troubling considering the value of the food and the importance placed behind quality and freshness. In order for this form of food transport to experience growth among market users, more uncompromising strategies and regulations will have to be embraced and enacted.

Food transportation is an industry that has fully adapted to the cold chain and can, despite the problems with air transport, be considered the most resilient, particularly since a large majority of food products have a better tolerance to temporary variations of transport temperatures. As a result, small errors can be compounded without the concern of irreversible damage. For instance, for the transportation of produces, for every hour of delay in the pre-cooling of shipments, an equivalent one day loss of shelf life must be accounted. The usage of refrigerated containers has particularly helped, since they account for more than 50% of all the refrigerated cargo transported in the world. The efficiency and reliability of temperature controlled transportation has reached a point which allows the food industry to take advantage of global seasonable variations, meaning that during the winter the southern hemisphere can export perishable goods to the northern hemisphere while an opposite trade, generally of smaller scale, takes place during the summer. Countries such as Chile have substantially benefited from this and have developed an active agricultural and food transformation industry mainly servicing the North American market during the winter, but also with several niche markets such as wine.

Providing Temperature Controlled Environments

The success of industries that rely on the cold chain comes down to knowing how to ship a product with temperature control adapted to the shipping circumstances. Different products require different temperature level maintenance to ensure their integrity throughout the travel process. For instance, the most common temperature standards are "banana" (13 °C), "chill" (2 °C), "frozen" (-18 °C) and "deep frozen" (-29 °C). Staying within this temperature is vital to the integrity of a shipment along the supply chain. Any excursions can result in irrevocable and expensive damage; a product can simply lose any market or useful value. Being able to ensure that a shipment will remain within a temperature range for an extended period of time comes down largely to the type of container that is used and the refrigeration method. Factors such as duration of transit, the size of the shipment and the ambient or outside temperatures experienced are important in deciding what type of packaging is required. They can range from small insulated boxes that require dry ice or gel packs, rolling containers, to a 53 footer reefer that their own powered refrigeration units. The major cold chain technologies involve:

Dry ice: Solid carbon dioxide, is about -80°C and is capable of keeping a shipment frozen for an extended period of time. It is particularly used for the shipping of pharmaceuticals, dangerous goods and foodstuffs. Dry ice does not melt, instead it sublimates when it comes in contact with the air.

Gel packs: Large shares of pharmaceutical and medicinal shipments are classified as chilled products, which mean they must be stored in a temperature range between 2 and 8°C. The common method to provide this temperature is to use gel packs, or packages that contain phase changing substances that can go from solid to liquid and vice versa to control an environment. Depending on the shipping requirements, these packs can either start off in a frozen or refrigerated state. Along the transit process they melt to liquids, while at the same time capturing escaping energy and maintaining an internal temperature.

Eutectic plates: The principle is similar to gel packs. Instead, plates are filled with a liquid and can be reused many times.

Liquid nitrogen: An especially cold substance, of about -196°C, used to keep packages frozen over a long period of time; Mainly used to transport biological cargo such as tissues and organs; Considered as a hazardous substance for the purpose of transportation.
Quilts: Insulated pieces that are placed over or around freight to act as buffer in temperature variations and to maintain the temperature relatively constant. Thus, frozen freight will remain frozen for a longer time period, often long enough not to justify the usage of more expensive refrigeration devices. Quilts can also be used to keep temperature sensitive freight at room temperature while outside conditions can substantially vary (e.g. during the summer or the winter).

Reefers: Generic name for a temperature controlled container, which can be a van, small truck, a semi or a standard ISO container. These containers, which are insulated, are specially designed to allow temperature controlled air circulation maintained by an attached and independent refrigeration plant.

The Setting and Organization of Cold Chains

Moving a shipment across the supply chain without suffering any setbacks or temperature anomalies requires the establishment of a comprehensive logistical process. This process concerns several phases ranging from the preparation of the shipments to final verification of the integrity of the shipment at the delivery point.

Shipment preparation: When a temperature sensitive product is being moved, it is vital to first assess its characteristics. A key issue concerns the temperature conditioning of the shipment, which should be already at the desired temperature. Cold chain devices are commonly designed to keep a temperature constant, but not to bring a shipment to this temperature, so they would be unable to perform adequately if a shipment is not prepared. Other concerns include the destination of the shipment and the weather conditions for those regions, such as if the shipment will be exposed to extreme cold or heat along the transport route.

Modal choice: Several key factors play into how the shipment will be moved. Distance between the origin and the final destination (which often includes a set of intermediary locations), the size and weight of the shipment, the required exterior temperature environment and any time restrictions of the product all effect the available transportation options. Short distances can be handled with a van or truck, while a longer trip may require an airplane or a container ship.

Custom procedures: If the freight crosses boundaries, custom procedures can become very important, since cold chain products tend to be time sensitive and more subject to inspection than regular freight (e.g. pharmaceuticals and biological samples). The difficulty of this task differs depending on the nation (or economic bloc) and the gateway since there is variations in procedures and delays.

The "Last Mile" stage: This is the actual delivery of the shipment to its destination, which in logistics is often known as the “last mile”. Key considerations when arranging a final delivery concern not only the destination, but the timing. Trucks and vans, the primary modes of transportation for this stage, must meet the specifications necessary to transfer the cold chain shipment. Also important is the final transfer of the shipment into the storage facilities as there is potential for a breach of integrity.

Integrity and quality assurance: After the shipment has been delivered, any temperature recording devices or known temperature anomalies must be recorded and made known. This is the step of the logistical process that creates trust and accountability, particularly if liability for a damaged shipment is incurred. If problems or anomalies that compromise a shipment do occur, an effort must be made to identify the source and find corrective actions.