Challenges and Current Solutions of Refrigerated Transportation

This paper addresses issues arising from cold chain logistics with primary focus on its environmental impact. In particular, the sources of emissions, including carbon dioxide (CO \(_2\) ) and other serious pollutants contributing to global warming, are considered. We overview methods for reducing these emissions, specifically the methods that can be integrated without drastically altering existing temperature-controlled transport systems. We discuss strategies for both completely and partially mitigating emissions associated with on-road refrigeration. These strategies include the use of passively refrigerated transport packaging to eliminate the need for active refrigeration and the enhancement of current refrigeration methods with phase change materials. Moreover, we present an approach to minimise the emissions that may arise from inadequate logistics management delving into the principle behind the CO \(_2\) -based optimisation of distribution routes. Additionally, we overview mathematical optimisation techniques used in identifying environmentally preferable solutions in managing temperature-sensitive logistics. We also note a potential area where artificial intelligence could be applied to enhance the optimisation of cold chain logistics.