Engineering the Cold Chain: Thermal Cooling Solutions

Roy Horne: R&D Director Ice Cream Global Systems & Channels, Unilever

Roy Horne is a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineering and has worked in the food industry for 35 years in a wide variety of roles in production engineering, manufacturing, marketing, sales and product design.

Since 2016 he has led the transformation of the Unilever ice cream business cold chain focussing on energy, cost and greenhouse gas reduction across 40+ markets as part of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

In this role he has developed a deep understanding of practical methods of GHG measurement and the key technology drivers of energy and cost reduction in the cold chain together with the developing technologies which are transforming this area.

Michael Reid: Engineering Director, Solar Polar

Michael Reid is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineering and has worked in new product development and refrigeration for 35 years. Starting off in the materials handling and refrigeration industries, he has run Engineering consultancy Milestone New Product Development since 2004. He is also technical director at solar refrigeration start-up, Solar Polar and has guided it from initial idea to field demonstrators on the way to production and sales. As part of this last role he has gained an acute understanding of the cold chain and its importance in maintaining and improving the lives of all in society.

Shane Brennan: Chief Executive, Cold Chain Federation

Shane Brennan is an experienced trade association professional and seasoned political influencer. Before joining the Cold Chain Federation in 2018 he was the chief lobbyist for the farming and landowner organisation the CLA, where he led its work on Brexit, food trade and replacing the Common Agricultural Policy.  He started out his career working for small retailers at the Association of Convenience Stores, achieving outcomes on key issues like the future of the high street and alcohol, tobacco and obesity regulation. A trade association moderniser, he is leading this long-standing, well respected Federation into a new era.

Dermott Cotter: Managing Director, Star Technical Services

Dr Dermot Cotter has worked for the Star Refrigeration Group Star for over 28 years and during this time he has fulfilled the roles of refrigeration technician, project Manager, design manager and senior consultant. His present role is the Managing Director of Star Technical Solution the consultancy arm of the Star Refrigeration Group. Dermot’s interests and focus in the refrigeration industry include industrial and commercial equipment life cycle costs, optimisation of refrigeration systems, legal compliance and efficiency of low charge ammonia systems which was the focus of his PhD.

Ian Tansley: Inventor, The Sure Chill Company

Ian is a committed Renewable Energy specialist, author of 15 worldwide patents and is the inventor of the award winning Sure Chill refrigerator technology. He has 30 years of experience in the renewable energy business, co-founding two important companies in the field and working for much of that time delivering projects in Africa and Asia. Ian was the winner of the Institute of Refrigeration’s Gold Medal in 2016 and continues to develop new applications for the Sure Chill Technology.

Toby Peters: Professor of Cold Economy, University of Birmingham

Toby Peters is the inventor and architect of liquid air energy storage and the cold economy. He has created and led the development of "cleantech" around liquid air as a cost- effective energy storage and warehousing solution to a major energy challenge: environmentally and economically sustainable cooling and power in both transport and the built environment. He is internationally recognised for his role is transforming the thinking about how we deliver cooling demands sustainably and the role “clean cold” has to play in emerging market transformation.

His early career focused on strategy and disruptive innovation where he worked with a broad range of business, Government, and NGO/voluntary sector organisations to help design and deliver fundamental and far-reaching commercial and social change. His ability to create and deliver new forms of business operation and collaboration has been demonstrated in more than three decades of work.

Judith Evans: Professor, School of Engineering, London South Bank University

Professor Judith Evans works on food refrigeration operations throughout the food cold chain from harvest/slaughter to the consumer. She previously worked at FRPERC (Food Refrigeration and Process Engineering Research Centre) at the University of Bristol where she was a Senior Research Fellow.

Before then Judith worked for the Meat Research Institute and AFRC Institute of Food Research. During her career Judith has worked on a number of topics including frozen storage of meat, consumer handling of food and studies to improve the performance of domestic and commercial refrigerators, energy labelling, instrumentation performance, decontamination of food, cook-chill systems, novel refrigeration systems, optimising refrigeration systems and improving performance and temperature control in chilled and frozen storage rooms.

Judith's current work revolves around reducing energy use and emissions from the food cold chain, the use of novel refrigeration systems (in particular air cycle) and optimising food refrigeration processes.

Yulong Ding: Director of the Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage, University of Birmingham

Professor Yulong Ding is the Founding Chamberlain Chair of Chemical Engineering and founding Director of Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage; focuses on thermal and liquid air energy storage and heat transfer; leads a group of 30+ PDRAs & PhDs with £30M research portfolio; PI of EPSRC Supergen Storage Network Plus project (EP/S032622/1) and NexGen-TEST project (EP/L014211/1), Co-I of EPSRC Active Building Centre (EP/S016627/1), Supergen Energy Storage Hub (EP/L019469), JUICED Hub (EP/R023662/1) and JUICE (EP/P003605/1); 60+ patents & 250+ journal papers (H=61); recognised by 2011 The Engineer Energy & Environment and Grand Prix awards & 2018 ESIE Distinguished Energy Storage Individual Award.

Neil Wilson: CEO, Camfridge

Neil Wilson co-founded Camfridge in 2005, and has been focused on the development and commercialisation of magnetic cooling technology. He has delivered papers on magnetic cooling at international conferences, and was most recently a keynote speaker at Thermag. He is actively engaged in the development of magnetic cooling standards (under the DIN process) and is currently leading a £1.7 million grant from InnovateUK, in collaboration with Imperial College and with the support of an international industry advisory board, to commercialise Camfridge’s magnetic cooling hub. Neil has both an MBA and a PhD in Physics, and has worked in France, Germany and USA.

Sean Roche: Managing Director, Inviro Choice Limited

Sean Roche has 18 years’ experience working in the refrigeration industry. He is the Managing Director of Inviro Choice Limited (ICL). ICL specialise in the design and manufacture of innovative post-harvest cooling solutions for the agricultural industry. Our technology contributes towards reducing post-harvest losses and extending the shelf life of fresh produce. Working with Universities in the UK we have developed off grid solution for rural small hold farmers without an adequate electricity supply.

Nick Wirth: Technical Director, Wirth Research

Phil Greening: Deputy Director, Centre for Sustainable Road Freight, Heriot-Watt University

Suhrid Patel: Co-Founder, Impagro Farming Solutions