AN EXPLORATORY RESEARCH FOR THE TRANSPORT OF THE FUTURE

(Pauka 2014)

Krijn Slangen
BSC THESIS BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES
OPERATIONS RESEARCH AND LOGISTICS
JANUARY 24, 2018
 Wageningen University - Department of Social Sciences

BSc Thesis

AN EXPLORATORY RESEARCH FOR THE TRANSPORT OF THE FUTURE

Abstract

This article is written to contribute to a solution for some of the biggest future world problems. With
the expanding world population on a planet that will not expand at all, it is important to make sure
we have an answer to global issues like famine and climate change. Agriculture is a sector with big
influences on both food scarcity and climate change.
This report focuses on exploring technologies that can be used in the transport sector of the
fruit chain. The fruit chain is chosen as subject because many kind of fruit are ‘dragged’ all over the
world while being cooled and under atmospherically control. This requires a lot of energy, which
results in leaving a big ecological footprint behind. Thus, sustainable changes in the fruit chain could
have big influences on the energy ‘waste’ in food transport.

January, 2018

Student Krijn Slangen

Registration number 961002766100
Study program BSc Business & Consumer studies
Supervisor(s) Behzad Behdani, Operations Research and Logistics
Examiner/2nd supervisor
Thesis code
Preface
My interest in sustainability has been there since 6th class of high school. That year I wrote my school
research project about alternative fuels, with the focus on algae as a source of alternative fuels. For
this project I went to Wageningen University to learn about all the opportunities we have with
alternative fuels, and I learned about the necessity of the research that was being done on the field of
sustainability. I decided to study the Bachelor Management & Consumer studies at the WUR. In this
study I do not learn a lot about sustainable technologies that has been developed in the transport
sector. But my interest for ‘green innovations’ and bio based economies are still there. With this
background, I was excited to do more ‘sustainability research’, and write this report about
sustainability in fruit transportation.
 Table of Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1
Research question ................................................................................................................... 1
Structure .................................................................................................................................. 2
Methodology ......................................................................................................................................... 3
Transport in the fruit chain ................................................................................................................. 4
Transport challenges in the fruit chain .............................................................................................. 5
How to maintain good quality of fruit in transport? ............................................................... 5
How to reduce greenhouse gas emissions produced by transport in a sustainable way? ..... 6
How to improve the transport efficiency in a sustainable way? ............................................ 6
Technologies to maintain quality of fruit in transport in a sustainable way ................................ 8
Packaging ................................................................................................................................. 8
Controlled Atmosphere Storage.............................................................................................. 9
Temperature control ............................................................................................................ 9
Humidity control ................................................................................................................. 10
Gas control .......................................................................................................................... 11
Controlled Atmosphere Storage in Transport ....................................................................... 13
Cold Chain Logistics ............................................................................................................... 13
Technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in transport in a sustainable way ............ 15
Engine efficiency .................................................................................................................... 15
Vehicle Efficiency ................................................................................................................... 16
Sustainable Cooling ............................................................................................................... 17
Technologies to improve the transport efficiency in a sustainable way .................................... 19
Intelligent containers............................................................................................................. 19
ICT-Applications for transport ............................................................................................... 20
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................ 21
Discussion and reflection ................................................................................................................... 23
Recommendations .............................................................................................................................. 24
References ........................................................................................................................................... 25
Appendix .............................................................................................................................................. 28
 Introduction
This article is written to contribute to a solution for some of the biggest future world problems. With
the expanding world population on a planet that will not expand at all, it is important to make sure we
have an answer to global issues like famine and climate change. Agriculture is a sector with big
influences on both food scarcity and climate change.

“We need to do more with less. Agriculture uses 35% of the planet’s land. By 2050, the world
will need to double its food production to meet anticipated needs, but we don’t want people
using national parks to grow their food. That’s a trend we’re already starting to see and that
concerns us (Clay 2013).”

The slogan ‘More with less’ embraces one of the solutions to face food scarcity and to control climate
change. To produce more with less, modernizing the agricultural sector is essential. There are many
ways to modernize agriculture, but to really contribute to global issues, these modernizations must be
sustainable and find place on multiple fields of the agricultural sector.
This article focuses on the logistic field of the agricultural sector, the transportation of fruit. In
this article, an overview of challenges in the fruit transport sector is given and technologies that could
contribute to a sustainable solution for these challenges are explored.

The fruit chain is chosen as subject because many kind of fruit are ‘dragged’ all over the world while
being cooled and under atmospherically control. This requires a lot of energy, which results in leaving
a big ecological footprint behind. Thus, sustainable changes in the fruit chain could have big influences
on the energy ‘waste’ in food transport. This will contribute to a solution for a global issue like climate
change. In the case of famine, transport could play a major role as well. Changes in transport by using
technologies to extend the shelf life of fruit will reduce food waste, and contribute in this way to less
food scarcity.

Research question
The purpose of this report leads to the following research question:

Which technologies could offer sustainable solutions to the challenges that the transport
sector in the fruit chain faces?

To answer this research question it is important to gain knowledge about what kind of transport is
involved in the fruit chain. This will make clear on which field challenges could occur. When it is clear
which challenges have to be faced, a distinguish can be made between technologies and their ‘grade’
of sustainability. Therefore the different kind of technologies that are used or should be used in the
fruit chain are studied. To create a structured report, three sub questions are stated below.

Sub questions:

• What kind of transport is involved in the fruit chain?

• Which challenges does the transport sector faces in the fruit chain?
• Which technologies are/should be used in the fruit chain to face the transport challenges in a
sustainable way?

1
Structure
This report starts with explaining the methodology used for this study. This is followed, the answer on
the first sub question: What kind of transport is involved in the fruit chain? This is a short chapter in
which the different kind of transport that are involved in the fruit chain are described. Technologies
that have been further investigated in the other chapters can be applied on one or more of these kinds
of transport. The next chapter includes the answer on the question: Which challenges does transport
in the fruit chain faces? In this chapter the challenges are explained and solutions are brought.
These solutions will be further developed and translated in technologies in the following chapters:
Technologies to face transport challenges in a sustainable way, Technologies to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions in transport in a sustainable way and technologies to improve the transport efficiency in
a sustainable way.

Finally, the report discusses the literature study performed and recommendations are presented.

2
 Methodology

In this chapter the methodology of this research is elaborated. This report is an exploratory research
in which technologies are mentioned and compared on the field of sustainability.

This is a literature study, that means that all the data is obtained through literature. The information
is collected by searches on scientific forums such as Google Scholar, Scopus and WUR Library.
Searching scientific reports on scientific search engines is done with help of keywords. For
example: “Controlled atmosphere storages AND transport” could have been a relevant search
command in Scopus for this report. Most relevant literature was found by searching in reference lists
of relevant articles. There is a lot of information available about this subject, so a lot of references to
other relevant articles were available.
Because technologies develop quickly, it is tried to use the most up to date articles with the
most modern technologies.

References have been done with EndNoteX8 in annotated style.

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 Transport in the fruit chain
In this chapter, the different kind of transports will be named. A lot of fruit that European supermarkets
offer, are grown in tropical and Mediterranean countries. This means that international transport is
needed to get these fruits in these supermarkets. Sea-transport is mostly done by container ships. The
alternative for sea transport with container ship is transport by airplanes, but this is often too costly
for low-priced products (Yahia, de Jesus Ornelas-Paz et al. 2011).
However, Marriot did research about the trends in the freight transport of, among other
things, fruit (Marriott 2005). In this research it is shown that perishable fruit products like papayas are
mainly transported by air. These products leave a big ecological footprint, because Marriott found that
six per cent of non-EU fresh produce (like fruit) was transported by air to the UK. However, this small
proportion of air transportation, accounted for 81 per cent of the CO2 emissions linked with non-EU
fresh produce imports.

For international land transportation, trucks are often the most used option. Although there are some
developments in the “transport by train” sector.
In November 2016 a new rail link between Rotterdam and Valencia was launched. This link is called
Cool Rail, an initiative of difference parties from the retail, logistics and fruit industry. With this rail
link, a lot of CO2 emissions will be saved. CoolRail states on their website the following numbers: “Cool
Rail offers a sustainable alternative to road transport and achieves a CO2 reduction of 70% to 90% on
this route and this rail transport is as fast as road transport and ultimately results in cost savings of
20% to 30% (CoolRail 2016)”. CoolRail is a perfect example for the Cold Chain Logistics sector.
Information about cold chain logistics can be found in chapter “Technologies to maintain quality of
fruit in transport in a sustainable way”.

Figure 1. CoolRail, developments in Cold Chain Logistics

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 Transport challenges in the fruit chain
How to maintain good quality of fruit in transport?
One of the most important challenges in the fruit chain is: keeping the quality of the fruit high. Keeping
the quality of fruit high asks a different treatment for different fruits. In this chapter it is explained and
described which factors play a role in the maintenance of the quality of fruit, and how transport should
take these factors into account.

All fruit are living products. Their life processes remain active after harvest. An important life process
that must be controlled to maintain good quality of the fruit is respiration. Respiration is a complicated
induction of chemical reactions that convert starch into sugars and those sugars into energy. The
respiration can be influenced by the temperature. The higher the temperature of the environment of
the fruit, the higher the temperature of the fruit itself. This will result in a faster respiration rate. The
faster the respiration rate, the earlier the fruit will spoil (Kader 2001). Also, the composition of the air
that the fruit is surrounded with has his influences on the respiration rate. For example, a low amount
of O2 reduces respiration. On the other hand, a low amount of O2 will stimulate anaerobic respiration,
which has in his turn influences on the quality of the fruit.

Beside respiration, there is another concern to deal with: the accumulation of ethylene in packs.
Ethylene is a plant hormone that regulates a lot of physiological reactions. The physiological impact is
more prominent on climacteric products such as avocado and passion fruit, because exposure of these
raw materials to exogenous ethylene results in an acceleration of maturation (Burg and Burg 1962).
This acceleration reduces their shelf life. Therefore, it is mandatory to maintain the ethylene
concentration at a low level in order to extend the shelf life of ethylene sensitive products. Specific
ways of packaging the fruits will lead to a controlled environment in which the temperature and the
atmosphere of the fruit is so, that the respiration rate and ethylene production is minimized (Saltveit
2003). Further explanation on packaging is written in chapter “Technologies to maintain quality of fruit
in transport in a sustainable way”.
As stated in the introduction of this chapter, different fruits require different treatment. A table with
different kind of fruits with associated storage conditions can be found in the Appendix of this report.
These treatments are further explained in this report. But not only the species of crop has influences
on the varying levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide, also: The cultivars of crop, concentration of the
gases in the store, the crop temperature, the state of maturity of the crop at harvest, the degree of
ripeness of the climacteric fruit, the growing conditions before harvest and the presence of ethylene
in the store (Heldman 2003).
To maintain the quality of the fruit in transport while taking all these factors into account, the
transport sector has learned from controlled atmosphere storage used in storage rooms. The
temperature, degree of humidity and gas composition are all regulated in these storage rooms. This
resulted in cooled freight transport, better known as Cold Chain Logistics. In the chapter “Technologies
to maintain quality of fruit in transport in a sustainable way” Cold Chain Logistics and other
technologies to maintain quality of fruit in transport is described.

5
How to reduce greenhouse gas emissions produced by transport in a sustainable
way?
Another important challenge is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to IPCC, 14% of the
global greenhouse gas emissions can be devoted to the transportation sector (Sims, Schaeffer et al.
2014). This share of the pie is expected to increase, as economies have shifted from agriculture to
industry to service. This includes that changes in the way
transport is done these days, could have big influences on the
total greenhouse gas emissions.
Since transport by road is the biggest shareholder of GHG
emissions in the transport sector, (with 72% of the total GHG
emissions in the transport sector in 2010), a sustainable
change in road transportation would deliver a big contribution
to sustainable transport. The second biggest “pollutant” is the
international & coastal shipping sector, with almost 10% in
2010 (Sims, Schaeffer et al. 2014). Simplistically said,
innovative and sustainable technology development, focused
on road and shipping transport, could reduce the GHG
emissions in the transport sector with 82% (In the ideal Figure 2. Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions by
situation, transport will be totally energy neutral). A solution Economic Sector. Adapted from (Sims,
to this GHG emission problem could be minimizing the vehicle Schaeffer et al. 2014).
energy losses. This solution will be further explained in
chapter “Technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in transport in a sustainable way”.
Beside reducing greenhouse gas emissions by driving the truck, also a lot of emissions of gases
used in the refrigeration systems, which affect the environment as well, should be reduced. New
sustainable energy technologies are necessary to meet the increasing cooling demand in an
environmentally friendly matter (Chidambaram, Ramana et al. 2011). These technologies are further
explained in chapter “Technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in transport in a sustainable
way”.

How to improve the transport efficiency in a sustainable way?

As a result of, among other things, a lack of standardization in transport, transport is not as efficient
as it could be. By adapting of electronic intermodal monitoring solutions for transport containers, this
necessary standardization can be achieved (Ruiz-Garcia, Barreiro et al. 2007).
An efficient way to transport fruit is “intermodal freight transport” (Ruiz-Garcia, Barreiro et al.
2007). Intermodal freight transport means: “The movement of goods in a cargo unit by successive
modes of transport with no handling of the goods themselves during changes in transport modes (Ruiz-
Garcia, Barreiro et al. 2007).” In practice this will result into a combination of transport modes using
universal containers and an integrated system with the help of ICT applications in transport. In the
article: “monitoring the intermodal, refrigerated transport of fruit using sensor networks,(Ruiz-Garcia,
Barreiro et al. 2007)”, different ICT applications are treated. Some of them fit very well in the fruit
transport sector. The ICT applications that fit well in the fruit transport sector have been described in
chapter “Technologies to improve the transport efficiency in a sustainable way”.
Smart container monitoring systems for example. Inside a smart container sensors are placed
which transmit information to an electronic seal that is attached on the outside of the container. This
electronic seal passes the information to a remote monitor. More about “intelligent” containers is

6
given in chapter “Technologies to improve the transport efficiency in a sustainable way”.
Using the same kind of containers worldwide would improve the transport efficiency in a
sustainable way, because keeping up to date with the condition of the fruit (as a result of ICT
applications) will result in less food (fruit) waste. More about ICT-Applications is described in chapter
“Technologies to improve the transport efficiency in a sustainable way”.

7
 Technologies to maintain quality of fruit in transport in a
sustainable way

To maintain good quality of fruit in transport the following aspects should be taken into account:

• Packaging, controlling the right atmosphere within the packages and prevention of vibration
damage to fruit due to transport
• Controlled Atmosphere storage, controlling the right atmosphere within the containers
(reefers)
• Cold Chain logistics, controlling the right temperature within the containers (reefers)

Packaging
The respiration rate of fruit differs between the different kind of fruit, so using the right package for
the right fruit is essential for maintaining the quality for the fruit for a long period. Increasing the
expiration date can be done by decreasing the speed of the ongoing life processes. This is mostly done
by reducing the amount of oxygen in a package, because when oxygen is reduced, the respiration and
metabolism of the fruit will slow down. When these life processes slow down, spoilage can be
postponed (Jobling 2001).

Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) is a widely used way of packaging fresh products to extend
their life-span by maintaining high quality of the product. MAP can be defined as ‘the packaging of a
perishable product in an atmosphere that has been modified so that its composition is other than that
of air’ (Hintlian and Hotchkiss 1986). MAP decreases the speed of the ongoing life processes by
adjusting the environment of the fruit, by taking control of six primary environmental variables:
storage duration, temperature, relative humidity, concentrations of O2, CO2, and ethylene (Saltveit
2003). Within these six variables a set of limits is determined to maximize the life-span of a fruit.
Storage duration can be seen as an environmental variable,
because the storage duration influences the range of, for
example, oxygen concentrations needed for aerobic respiration
(Saltveit 2003).

Multiple studies stated that the levels of O2 and CO2 in a

package of a fresh produce depends on the interaction between
the permeability properties of the packaging film and the
commodity respiration (Beaudry, Cameron et al. 1992, Kader
2001). There are two kind of packaging films: continuous films
and perforated films (Beaudry 2000). Continuous films takes
control of the movement of O2 and CO2 in and out the package.
Perforated films have small holes (micro perforations), through
these holes gas exchange finds place (Beaudry 2000). There are
two difference gas exchange behaviours between these two
kind of films. Perforated films allow a much higher gas exchange
of gases through packaging films. The second different in gas Figure 3. Palliflex pallet storage system,
exchange is the ratio of the permeability for O2 and CO2. showing the cables used to regulate the
environment.

8
This ratio is 1 for permeability and between the 3-6 for continuous films.

These films have been scaled up by a company named Van Amerongen CA technology, from small
packages to much bigger bags that can enclose pallets. The cables that can be seen in figure 3 add NO2
and CO2 to the bag to create the perfect environment for the fruit and retards the degradation of
bioactive compounds (Doğan, Selcuk et al. 2016).

The amount of oxygen consumed by fruit in the bag depends on the weight of the fruit, the
temperature, the respiration rate and the rate of carbon dioxide and oxygen movement in and out the
bag (Jobling 2001).

Threatening fruit in a careful way through the supply chain is important for the quality of the fruit. The
statement in the introduction of this article: “Produce more with less”, can only be realized if the
damage on fruit is minimal. Therefore, keeping the quality of the product high by maintaining a
preferable environment is important. Packages should also protect the fruit to high vibration of
transport. Research about physical protective packaging methods for papayas against vibration in
shipment is done by (Chonhenchob and Singh 2005). In this research papayas in different packaging
systems were transported from the orchard to the laboratory at Kasetsart University in Bangkok. The
packaging methods used consists of foam nets and paper-based materials. It turns out that for papayas
at optimum maturity stage, single layer packaging with cushioning (foam net or paper based material)
is recommended for best quality (Chonhenchob and Singh 2005).

Controlled Atmosphere Storage

Fruit is in general a very perishable product, so maintaining its quality through the whole fruit chain is
necessary. This maintaining of the quality is beside the packaging of the fruit, partly done by
“controlled atmosphere storage” (Heldman 2003). With controlled atmosphere storage, in short, the
varying levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide are being controlled in gas tight stores or containers. With
controlled atmosphere storage the best environment for fruit can be created so the quality of the fruit
remains high and the storage life will be extended.
For the success of CA storage, the required levels of gas should be achieved and maintained within the
store (container). To achieve successful CA storage (obtaining the right conditions for the product), the
next aspects should be covered: temperature control, humidity control and gas control of oxygen,
carbon dioxide and ethylene (Thompson 2010).

Temperature control
Temperature control is the main way to extend the shelf life of fruit. This is why standard refrigeration’s
units are integral components of CA stores. Temperature control in CA stores consists of pipes
containing a refrigerant inside the store. During the years, more and more refrigerants have been
developed. These cold liquids flow through the pipes. The temperature in the storage gets colder
because of air streaming along the cold pipes. This is in basic how a storage room gets cooled
(Thompson 2010).

9
Humidity control
Most fruits need a high relative humidity environment while stored. To control the humidity in a
storage room, a lot of humidifying devices are available. Five examples of these technological devices
are investigated by (Thompson 2010). Two of these technological devices use ‘secondary cooling’ as a
technique to maintain high humidity within a CA storage, these are jacket store and ice-bank cooling.
With secondary cooling the air in CA storage will not be in direct contact with the cooling spirals.

Table 1. Humidifying devices by (Thompson 2010)

Type of device Description

Spinning-disc humidifiers
Sonic Humidifiers
Hollow fiber membrane
contactor
Jacketed store (secondary
cooling)
Ice-bank cooling (secondary
cooling)
Spinning-disc humidifiers are rapidly spinning discs on which water is forced
at high speed. As a result, water droplets are created and fed into the air
circulation system of the CA storage.
Sonic humidifiers use energy to force water droplets to come off a water
surface. After the detachment of the water droplets, the droplets are fed
into the air circulation system of the CA storage.
A hollow fiber membrane contactor is a very precise humidifying system. The
membrane makes sure that an adequate transfer of water vapor between a
drying agent and the air in the CA storage is regulated (Dijkink, Tomassen et
al. 2004).
The storage room that uses this humidifying device has a second wall inside.
Between the outside wall and the inner wall, refrigeration pipes cool the air
so that the cooling surface covers the whole wall of the store .
With ice-bank cooling refrigerant pipes are drowned in a water tank. The
refrigerant pipes frozen the water in the tank, this ice is used to cool water.
This water will convert into a fine mist. In this way the CA storage is cool and
humidified (Neale, Lindsay et al. 1981).

10
Gas control
Gas control is the third aspect that should be covered in CA storage. The importance to control the
amount of oxygen, carbon dioxide and ethylene in storage rooms is similar to the packaging part in
this chapter. To control the gas in CA storage, the following functions should be considered, when the
design of a CA storage is being made. Namely: the removal of ambient oxygen, the removal of carbon
dioxide produced by respiration, the removal of ethylene, the addition of air to replace oxygen
consumed by respiration and the addition of carbon dioxide (Bishop 1997). Technologies to control the
first three functions are further explained. In table 2 technologies to control the amount of oxygen and
how to remove ambient oxygen in the CA storages are listed (propane burners and ammonia crackers
are considered as obsolete and are no longer used in modern fruit stores).

Table 2. Technologies to remove ambient oxygen (Bishop 1997)

Type of technology Description

Liquid nitrogen The oxygen level in a CA Storage can be reduced by adding nitrogen to the
storage. This process should be done carefully and not too fast, as the low
temperature of liquid nitrogen could cause damage to the fruit.
Propane burners Propane burners can remove ambient oxygen by combustion of propane using
oxygen to carbon dioxide and water. Propane burners have a lot of
disadvantages, for example the producing of a large amount of carbon dioxide
and ethylene. The production of these gases has bad influences on the quality
of the fruit. Furthermore, propane burners can cause explosions which is why
propane burners are considered as “old-fashioned” and is no longer used on
new CA storages.
Ammonia crackers Anhydrous ammonia is added to the store atmosphere and because of a
chemical reaction oxygen is converted into water and nitrogen. Just like
propane burners is this method no longer in use.
Pressure swing Nitrogen pressure swing adsorption process (PSA) allows the separation of a
mixture of gases, using two beds of customized carbon molecular sieves. These
physically restrict and absorb smaller molecules thereby removing them from
the gas stream. Hence, oxygen and other trace gases can be separated
according to molecular size and desired product. PSA is a widely used
technology in CA storages and suitable for the transport of fruit.
Membranes Membranes make use of the principle of selective permeation to separate
gases. Each gas has his own rate of permeation, the ability to diffuse through
a membrane differs for each kind of gas. Oxygen and carbon dioxide are both
‘fast’ gases that diffuse easily. Nitrogen is an example of a ‘slow’ gas, because
it diffuses less easily. With a hollow fiber technology membrane the gases can
be separated. Membranes are just like PSA widely used in CA storages.

The two most used technologies to control the amount of O2 in CA storages are PSA and hollow fiber
membranes. It is difficult to determine which way is the most sustainable way, but the PSA machine
is usually more efficient when both options are compared on the area of electricity input. Compared
to membranes, PSA requires 30% less energy for the same result (Bishop 1997).

11
Removal of carbon dioxide, or ‘scrubbing’ could be done in different ways. Three technologies to
control the amount of CO2 and how to remove ambient carbon dioxide in CA storages are listed in
table 3.

Table 3. Technologies to remove ambient carbon dioxide (Bishop 1997)

Type of technology
High-calcium lime
Carbon scrubbers
Flushing
Description
Freshly hydrated high-calcium lime can be used to absorb carbon dioxide
with a chemical reaction in storage rooms. Lime is especially useful when
used in ultralow-oxygen storages where the entrance of oxygen to the store
should be minimized. There are two ways of ‘scrubbing’ with lime. Either the
lime is placed in a box outside the storage. Hereby, a regulated stream of
hydrated lime flows into the storage rooms and absorb the carbon dioxide.
Another option is placing the lime directly in the storage rooms. The lime
should be placed carefully in the storage rooms, to achieve maximum
exposure to the atmosphere in the storage.
On the surface of activated carbon granules or carbon scrubbers CO2 can be
adsorbed. As soon as the carbon granules are saturated, adsorption of
carbon dioxide will stop. For making this work, the store atmosphere flows
through carbon beds. This is driven by a low-pressure fan. Finally, the store
gas will be disconnected, and the carbon beds (scrubbers) will be flushed
with fresh air so the process can start again.
Flushing is done by nitrogen generators. A single flushing machine can be
used for the removing of both carbon dioxide and oxygen.

The most sustainable option to remove ambient carbon dioxide from storage rooms is probably carbon
scrubbers. This is because the carbon scrubbers can be used for a long period while lime will exhaust
and after exhausting the disposal of the lime could cause problems. Flushing is definitely not the most
sustainable option, as it requires much more electrical input compared to carbon scrubbers (Bishop
1997).

For certain fruits, kiwi for example, a low level of ethylene is needed to avoid increasing flesh softening
(Bishop 1997). Two technologies are shown in table 4 to achieve a low level of ethylene in CA storages.

Table 4. Technologies to achieve a low level of ethylene (Bishop 1997, Thompson 2010)
Type of technology Description
Potassium These crystals absorb the ambient ethylene in CA storages. An advantage of this
permanganate crystals method is the availability to use it in transport. As an ethylene removal method,
these crystals are proved uneconomic in long-term CA storages.
Ethylene scrubbers These scrubbers maintain metal catalysts that achieve high temperatures. The
atmosphere in a CA storage has to be heated by these catalysts, this way the
ethylene is removed. After that the same atmosphere must be cooled down. This
requires a lot of energy (both heating and cooling), which makes it an expensive
innovation.
The swing therm concept reduces some of the energy consumption that is been
used by ethylene scrubbers. This is done by flowing the storage gases through a
porous heat exchange bed in alternative directions.

Which technology is the most sustainable option is not known. To determine the most sustainable
technology, more information about the production of both technologies and their ecological footprint
must be available.

12
Controlled Atmosphere Storage in Transport
Also in transport controlled atmosphere is a necessity. The transport sector uses three different
systems to generate the atmosphere in the containers (Garret 1995). First, the gases that are required
to control the atmosphere are carried with the container in either a liquid or solid form. With this
method, the level of O2 in a container/reefer is reduced by injecting nitrogen into the container/reefer.
Second, membrane technology is used to generate the gases by separation. In this method nitrogen is
produced by air flowing through porous tubes at a certain pressure (around 5-6 bar). This way oxygen
will divert, through the tube walls, leaving nitrogen in the store. Thirdly, the gases are generated in the
container and recycled with pressure absorption technology and swing absorption technology (Garret
1995). Nowadays, CA storage is a widely used in transport and an integral part of intelligent containers
(Garret 1995). More about intelligent containers in chapter “Technologies to improve the transport
efficiency in a sustainable way”.

Cold Chain Logistics

Cold chain logistics can be defined as: “Maintaining the fresh food and frozen foods, such as the quality
of its production to consumption from the process , always in low-temperature state with the logistics
network of specialized equipment (Ji and Guo 2009)”. Cold chain logistics is a broad concept which
embraces also the way of packaging products and controlled atmosphere storage. As packaging and
CA storage is explained in the paragraphs above, this paragraph will focus on maintaining low
temperature in logistics.

There are six main technologies in cold chain logistics that are used to control the temperature during
transport (Rodrigue and Notteboom 2013). These are: Dry ice, Gel packs, Eutectic plates, Liquid
nitrogen, Quilts and Reefers. For transport of fruit, dry ice and liquid nitrogen are not very suitable as
their temperature is far too low (liquid nitrogen is not suitable for cooling the fruit, for the removal of
ambient oxygen liquid nitrogen is usual). Gel packs are mostly used in the pharmaceutical sector.
Eutectic plates could be suitable for fruit transport but according to the article of (Rodrigue and
Notteboom 2013) eutectic plates are more suitable for short deliveries only. Quilts can act like a
temperature buffer, which is interesting for transport of fruit. Because quilts could contribute to
maintaining a certain temperature that is needed for the fruit. For transport of fruit the reefer (often
in the shape of a refrigerated forty-foot ISO container) is often used to keep control of the
temperature.
The first step in right temperature management is precooling (Jobling 2001). To extend shelf
life, rapid cooling after harvest is important. This is because after harvest, losses due to respiration and
transpiration are not replaced with water, photosynthates and minerals by the parent plant. If these
are not replaced by the parent plant, fruit will deteriorate (Brosnan and Sun 2001). Precooling can be
done three different methods: hydro-cooling, forced air cooling and vacuum cooling (Jobling 2001).
Removing heat by hydro-cooling is done by putting the produce into cold water or by flowing
the water over the fruit. Forced air cooling is done by fans in a cooling room. The fans blow cold air
through packages of fruit. When the fruit is cooled by vacuum cooling, the fruit is placed in a chamber
in which a vacuum is created. When the vacuum pressure increases, the water from the plant leaves
will evaporate and leave the plant. With the water leaving the plant, also the heat is removed. This
system works best for leafy crops, which have a high surface to volume ratio (thus not for fruit in
general)(Bachmann and Earles 2000). Bachman and Earles states that there are to more methods of
pre cooling: room cooling and top or liquid icing (Bachmann and Earles 2000). Room cooling is a simple

13
method, the fruit is placed in an room with refrigeration units. This room should be insulated. When
top icing is applied as a cooling method, crushed ice is added over the top of the produce. For liquid
icing a slurry of water and ice is injected into fruit packages. These icing methods works best with high-
respiration commodities (Bachmann and Earles 2000).

The next step is to keep the fruit cooled in the right way. This ‘right’ way is cooling the fruit
with an adequate airflow and circulation within refrigerated container on a truck or in a storage room.
Also, the fruit should be packaged in the correct packages for maintaining the cool chain a lot of
routinely checks are needed. Nowadays there are automatic sensors that can analyze this. More about
these sensors can be found in chapter “Technologies to improve the transport efficiency in a
sustainable way”.
The last step in temperature management, seems obvious, is preventing the cool chain to
break. (Jobling 2001) did research to the effect of breaks in the cool chain. In short, it turned out that
some cultivars of apples ripen as much in 1 day at 21Cº as they would in 10 days at –1Cº. This shows a
significant effect on the shelf-life of fruit as a result of a break in the cool chain.

14
 Technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in
transport in a sustainable way
There are many different technological developments which could contribute to an increase in
efficiency, these developments will be covered in this chapter. This chapter will not fully explain the
technological background of each development, this chapter will show the broad range of
opportunities.

Engine efficiency
As shown in figure 4, on average only 21.5% of the fuel energy is used to move the car, the other 78,5%
can be considered as a lost. Improving the efficiency of fuel energy in transport would immediately
lead to a decrease in GHG emissions. (Stanton 2013) wrote an article in which he explored a lot of
advanced diesel engine technologies for efficiency improvement. The list of improvements (Table 2)
consists of engine components, aftertreatment, and powertrain advancements. The term
“aftertreatment” is defined as: the method of interaction with exhaust gas in order to reduce the levels
of pollutants emitted (Stanton 2013). The term powertrain describes the main components that
generate power and deliver it to the road surface, water, or air.

Figure 4. Engine Efficiency by Chu, S., & Majumdar, A. (2012

Table 5. List of improvements by (Stanton 2013)

List of improvements
Combustion strategy
Engine Down speeding
The need for increased peak cylinder pressure and
power density
High efficiency NOx aftertreatment
Friction and parasitic loss reduction
Heat transfer
Waste energy recovery
Engine and aftertreatment controls
Advanced engine technology demonstration
Beyond 50% brake thermal efficiency

15
Vehicle Efficiency
The Quadrennial Technology Review (QTR) of the US DOE provides a new scala of solutions for the
GHG emission problem (Chu and Majumdar 2012). These solutions include improvements in use of
lightweight materials, such as advanced ultra-high tensile strength steels, aluminum and magnesium
alloys, polymers, and carbon-fiber reinforced composite materials. It is estimated that in the next 10-
2- years, a reduction of 20-40% overall weight seems to be possible. Considering that each 10% weight
reduction is equal to an improvement in fuel consumption of 6-8%, it can be concluded that reducing
the weight of trucks will have big influences.

Another way to optimize fuel usage, is by reducing the friction a truck faces. Trucks are not famous for
their aerodynamic shape, but research shows us that small low-cost improvements on the field of
aerodynamics optimizes fuel usage. Three examples of low cost improvements for reducing
aerodynamic drags are: Cross-flow Vortex Trap Device (CVTD), Vortex Strake Device (VSD) and the
Undercarriage Flow Device (UFD). A combination of these devices would deliver an improvement in
fuel economy of 6.5 to 16.5 percent (Wood and Bauer 2003).

Figure 5. A) Cross Flow Vortex Trap Device, installed on the trailer front face. B) Vortex Strake device, installed on the rear
section of the truck. C) Undercarriage Flow Device, installed on the rear section at the bottom of the trailer. Adapted from
(Wood and Bauer 2003)

Beside improving the engine, reducing the weight of a truck and reducing the aerodynamic drag the
solution of the GHG emission problem can also be found in alternative fuels. In this paragraph, the
most trending alternative fuels will be discussed. These are: Methanol, Ethanol, Biodiesel, Hydrogen,
Fuel Cells and Electricity (Kouroussis and Karimi 2006).
Important to mention is that a decrease in the emissions of carbon dioxide does not automatically
mean that an alternative fuel is a sustainable solution to the GHG emission problem.
For example, formaldehyde is produced as a combustion by-product when methanol is
burned. Formaldehyde has been linked to lung cancer, which means that methanol is not per definition
a sustainable solution. The same holds for ethanol. Ethanol is obtained from renewable sources such
as corn. Renewable corn seems more sustainable than using fossil fuels. This might be the case, but
how sustainable is corn? The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that corn farming requires a lot
of fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides. These chemicals can have bad influence on the environment.
Also, for each gallon of ethanol, 12 gallons of wastewater have been produced.
The demand for alternative fuels is high since fossil fuels are not inexhaustible. Each alternative
fuel named above has his own disadvantages: not fully sustainable, hard to produce on big scale or too
expensive to produce. From the alternative fuels summed up above, hydrogen is possibly the most
promising one. Although hydrogen is as an alternative fuel very expensive to generate. With the use

16
of either wind or solar energy, water molecules can be splitted. In this way hydrogen is produced. As
it does produces almost zero GHG emissions, it should be worth the investments in research to become
the standard fuel of the future.
Another trend that will contribute to a decrease of GHG emissions in transport is the
development of electric driving. Compared to fuel engine, an electric car is with 90% efficiency much
more efficient than a regular fuel engine (21.5% efficiency, see 2nd paragraph of this chapter)
(Minnesma 2014). Small trucks till 20.000 kg can already be driven with an electric engine (Minnesma
2014). Experts expect that with the developments in lighter and less expensive batteries, most trucks
above the 20.000 kg will also be able to make use of electric engines. The trucks that are not able/
suitable for electric driving, hydrogen could be a reasonable alternative.

In this chapter the focus is on the transport on land, while 90% of all products are transported by
oversea transportation. As a result of a collaboration between YARA and Kongsberg, electric engines
for shipping will be possible. These companies are developing batteries for a containership to transport
with zero emissions (Holsether and Håøy 2017).
Another development in the shipping sector making use of wind power. A company named SkySails
developed kites for containerships. These kites as shown in figure 6 delivers 10 to 15% savings on fuels.

Figure 6. SkySails propulsion system

Sustainable Cooling
Because cooling in transport demands a lot of energy, used by refrigerators. Cooling fruit in a
sustainable would significantly contribute to a solution for climate change (Kim and Ferreira 2008).
There is a lot of research available about solar energy used for cooling systems. This research is often
not specifically about cooling systems in transport, and the possibility of applying the technologies
presented in table 6 in transport has not been studied. Though, with the Kyoto Protocol hitting the
refrigeration industry hard, the chance that these technologies (or variances on these technologies)
will be applicable in transport in the future are plausible (Kim and Ferreira 2008).

17
Table 6. Solar refrigeration systems adapted from (Kim and Ferreira 2008)

Cooling system Description

Solar electric refrigeration
system
Solar thermal refrigeration
A solar electric refrigeration system uses photovoltaic panels and an
electrical refrigeration device to cool.
Solar thermal refrigeration use solar heat instead of solar electricity
to produce refrigeration effects. Two kinds of solar thermal
refrigeration are presented: Thermo-mechanical refrigeration and
Sorption refrigeration (Kim and Ferreira 2008).

Thermo-mechanical refrigeration
Thermo-mechanical refrigeration uses a heat engine to convert solar
heat to mechanical work. This mechanical work drives a compressor
of a vapour compression refrigeration machine.

Sorption refrigeration.
Sorption refrigeration uses chemical or physical attraction between a
pair of substances to produce refrigeration effect. There are five
different sorption refrigeration methods (Kim and Ferreira 2008):
- Absorption
- Adsorption
- Physical adsorption
- Chemical adsorption
- Open sorption cooling or Desiccant cooling

Electrochemical Electrochemical refrigeration uses thermal effects of the reversible

refrigeration
Ejector refrigeration
electrochemical reactions. This method is based on the idea that a
reversible electrochemical cell releases heat when voltage is applied.
This cell absorb heat when the voltage is reversed (Gerlach and
Newell 2003).
Ejectors are devices that uses fluid dynamics. This technology involves
modification of the pressure and speed of the liquid inside the
ejector. The ejector consists of a nozzle, a mixing chamber and a
diffuser. An extensively explanation with technological details have
been written by (Kim and Ferreira 2008).

The most interesting methods for food cooling/storage from solar thermal refrigeration are:
absorption-, adsorption- and chemical reaction refrigeration methods (Abdulateef, Sopian et al. 2009).
These methods can create temperatures that are required for fruit storage. Thus, if possible, these
methods should be applied in transport in the fruit chain.

Solar electric refrigeration systems are suitable for frozen products (Abdulateef, Sopian et al. 2009).
For frozen fruit, this would be a sustainable solution to maintain low temperatures.

18
 Technologies to improve the transport efficiency in a
sustainable way
Intelligent containers
When looking at the information flow within the Intelligent Container (Figure 7), it could be questioned
why this technology is not treated in chapter “Technologies to maintain quality of fruit in transport in
a sustainable way”. A lot of information flows are after all concerned with maintaining the quality of
the product, for example: Humidity, Ethylene, Light and Temperature (Lang, Janßen et al. 2014).
However, there is more. An intelligent container is developed to change the paradigm that is widely
used in logistic planning: First in – First out (FIFO). To achieve more transport efficiency (less food
waste) this should become First Expired First Out (FEFO). With the help of the intelligent container,
which consist of a lot of sensors that delivers information about the expire date of the freight, this
change from FIFO to FEFO could become achievable.
In order to retrieve information about the expire date, the ripening of the transported fruit should be
measured. This is done by sensors in the intelligent containers by using a highly sensitive and selective
gas measurement system (Lang, Janßen et al. 2014). Since ethylene is considered as a ripening
indicator, this the main gas measured by the sensors. The sensor nodes in an intelligent container are
also able to estimate temperature related quality losses, supervise sensor deployment and
measurement intervals, and detect malfunctioning sensors (Lang, Janßen et al. 2014).
(Jabbari, Jedermann et al. 2009) has developed a neural network for analysing anomalous
behaviour of the sensors, in this way defect sensors or anomalous situations in the container are
quickly noticed. The communication system of the intelligent container delivers a huge contribution to
transport logistics. This communication system consists of: - an internal wireless sensor network, - the
external network for remote access to the container, - and a gateway to bridge between these two
networks (Lang, Janßen et al. 2014). With this communication system logistics have more knowledge

Figure 7. Information flow within the Intelligent Container. Adapted from (Lang, Janßen et al. 2014)

about the transport freight, they know what container to transport when and less food will be wasted
because of FEFO.

19
ICT-Applications for transport
As said in chapter “How to improve the transport efficiency in a sustainable way?”, there are a lot of
ICT- applications suitable for transport. These ICT-application are shown in Table 7. These applications
are able to contribute to a better intermodal-freight transportation process, in which the cold chain is
interrupted as little as possible. With less interruptions in the cold chain, less fruit will spoil. In this
way, ICT-Applications could deliver a contribution to minimizing food waste.

Table 7. ICT-Applications for transport by (Ruiz-Garcia, Barreiro et al. 2007)

Category ICT- Application for transport References

Bluetooth Link between truck and trailer (Gunnarsson 2001)

RFID Automatic identification in rail transport (AAR 2002); (Transcore 2003)
GPS Intermodal movement status monitoring systems (Doyle 2003)
GPS, WLAN Container tracking systems (Carson 2003)
RFID Automatic container identification (Transcore 2003)
RFID Electronic seals (Jensen, Williamson et al. 2003)
WLAN, WSN Smart container monitoring systems (Balog, Lim et al. 2005)
WWAN, GPS Tracking and monitoring containers worldwide (Unnold 2004)
RFID, WSN Smart packing, improve traceability (Wang, Zhang et al. 2006)
Zigbee WSNs in refrigerated vehicles (Shan, Liu et al. 2004)
RFID Monitoring electronic container seals (Kafry, Inbar et al. 2005)
RFID Tracking containers (Kärkkäinen 2003)

20
 Conclusion
Which technologies could offer sustainable solutions to the challenges that the transport sector in the
fruit chain faces?

To answer the research question above, this question has been divided into three challenges to which
certain technologies are linked as a potential contribution to the solution of the challenge. These
challenges are: 1. Maintaining the quality of fruit in transport, 2. Reducing the GHG emissions in
transport in a sustainable way and 3. Improving the transport efficiency in a sustainable way. An
overview of technologies that can contribute to more sustainable transport in the fruit chain is
presented in table 8.

Table 8. Overview of technologies that achieve sustainable transport

Challenge Technologies

Maintaining the quality of fruit 1. Packaging

in transport - Modified atmosphere packaging
- Palliflex pallet storage system
- Vibration damage prevention
2. Controlled Atmosphere storage
- Temperature control devices
- Humidity control devices
- Gas control devices
3. Cold Chain Logistics
- Dry ice
- Gel packs
- Eutectic plates
- Liquid nitrogen
- Quilts
- Reefers

Reducing the GHG emissions 1. Engine efficiency

in transport - Engine components
- Aftertreatment
- Powertrain advancements
2. Vehicle efficiency
- Lightweight materials improvements
- Reducing friction by improving aerodynamics
- Alternative fuels
- Electric Driving/Shipping
- Wind power
3. Reducing cooling energy
- Solar electric refrigeration system
- Solar thermal refrigeration
- Electrochemical refrigeration
- Ejector refrigeration

Improving transport efficiency 1. Intelligent containers

- Sensor nodes
- Communication and analyzing systems
2. ICT-Applications for transport

21
It is difficult to compare the degree of sustainability of the technologies, this was also not the goal of
this research. However, it is certain that all technologies contribute to a more sustainable way of
transport in the fruit chain and with it contribute to a solution against world problems like famine and
climate change.
Each technology that have been studied in this report contribute in its own way to a solution
for problems as stated above. Some technologies contribute by reducing environmental polluting,
alternative fuels and SkySail’s propulsion system for example. Other technologies contribute by
delivering an answer to food waste, for example: MAP and Cold Chain logistics.

22
 Discussion and reflection
The purpose of this report is to give an overview of technologies that could contribute to a sustainable
solution for challenges that the transport sector in the fruit chain faces. The focus was on collecting as
much technologies connected to transport in the fruit chain as possible. Hereby, certain subjects are
not deeply investigated. An example of these subjects is the ability to implement the technologies.
Thus, a questions like: “How should technologies be applied? is not fully taken into account but are
interesting for further research. Another example of a question which is not answered in this report,
but could be quite relevant is, “Is the technology feasible from an economic point of view?
While gathering information about technologies that could contribute to transport in the fruit
chain, it is difficult to determine whether or not the technology is the most up to date technology. A
lot of information about different technologies is available because many businesses nowadays are
active in corporate social responsibility. As a result of that, a lot of ‘green’ innovations are being
developed. It is possible that in this report technologies are treated that are already substituted for
more modern technologies.
Furthermore, when technologies are described, the way the technologies works is often
explained into detail. However, the size of the ecological footprint of using and producing these
technologies is, is often not explained into detail. This made it difficult for the conclusion of this report,
because comparing the sustainability of technologies with too little information about their energy
demand is a hard process. In this report a technology is marked as the most sustainable option when
it is clearly stated that its energy demand is lower compared to substitutes.
In the chapter “Technologies to maintain quality of fruit in transport in a sustainable way”,
some technologies outside the area of transport are studied. For example, the technologies used in
storage rooms. Whether the described technologies are all applicable to transport, is not always
confirmed because this is not always stated in the literature. On the other hand, there are technologies
of which its applicability in transport are stated. For example, the absorbing of ambient ethylene in CA
storages with potassium permanganate crystals which are used in CA storages, are applicable in
transport. Because the ways of applicability of technologies is not always described in literature, it is
difficult to state that each technology is applicable in the transport sector.
In table 8 (Appendix) not all kind of fruits are included, this also not the goal of the table. The
goal of this table is to give an indication of storage conditions linked to popular and common fruit.
This report did not researched the possibility of applying the technologies, presented in
chapter “Sustainable cooling”, in transport cooling systems. This chapter is meant to show possibilities
in sustainable cooling systems, that could eventually be applied in transport cooling systems. In this
chapter the five different sorption refrigeration systems are not deeply explained. Because too many
technological details are beyond the scope of this reportit is beyond the scope of this report, because
of too many technological details.

23
 Recommendations
In this chapter, subjects that are relevant to this report but that could not be researched because of a
short time schedule or other similar reasons, are described. Though some of them are important, they
could not be covered in extenso in this paper.
This report focuses on sustainable technologies and how they should be applied. Further
research could focus on non-sustainable technologies/polluting technologies, and how these could be
substituted. This is a different approach of the same problem, but could possibly lead to different
answers.

It is shortly mentioned in chapter “Technologies to maintain quality of fruit in a sustainable way”, but
the prevention of damage to fruit as a result of heavy vibration in transport is an interesting subject
which because damage on fruit by vibration is irreversible. So further research on preventing vibration
damage could have big influences on the amount of food waste.

Also, a phenomenon called “Scheefzakking” in Dutch, results in a lot of damage to fruit.

“Scheefzakking” means that cardboard boxes filled with fruit crushes other fruit as a result of getting
wet by any cause (stored in a humid environment for example) or because the boxes were simply not
strong enough (Brink 2010). Stapled cardboard boxes that collapse can cause a lot of damage to fruit,
and can be catastrophic to companies. Solutions for this problem are not investigated, but could be of
interests.

In chapter “Technologies to maintain quality of fruit in transport in a sustainable way”, technologies

for addition of air to replace oxygen consumed by respiration and addition of carbon dioxide are not
researched. There is a probability that there are multiple ways how this can be done, probably one
way is more sustainable or more suitable for transport. This could be of interest for further research.

24
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27
 Appendix
Table 9. Storage conditions for Fruit. Adapted from (Bachmann and Earles 2000).

Temperature Relative Precooling Storage life Ethylene

F (32F = 0°C) Humidity % method days sensitive
Apples 30-40 90-95 R,F,H 90-240 Yes
Apricots 32 90-95 R, H 7-14 Yes
Avocados 40-55 85-90 14-28 Yes
Bananas 56-58 90-95 7-28 Yes
Blackberries 31-32 90-95 R,F 2-3
Blueberries 31-32 90-95 R,F 10-18
Cherries 30-31 90-95 H,F 14-21
Cranberries 36-40 90-95 60-120
Grapefruit 50-60 85-90 28-42
Grapes 32 85 F 56-180
Kiwifruit 32 95-100 28-84 Yes
Lemons 50-55 85-90 30-180
Nectarines 31-32 95 F, H 14-18 Yes
Oranges 32-48 85-90 21-56
Peaches 31-32 90-95 F,H 14-28 Yes
Pears 32 90-95 F,R,H 60-90 Yes
Pineapple 45-55 90-95 14-36
Raspberries 32 90-95 R,F 2-3 Yes
Strawberries 32 90-95 R,F 5-10
Watermelon 50-60 90 N 14-21
F = forced-air cooling, H = hydro-cooling, R = room cooling, V = vacuum cooling, N = no precooling needed
More information about precooling methods can be found in chapter “Technologies to maintain
quality of fruit in transport in a sustainable way”, paragraph “Cold Chain Logistics”.

28