Sustainable Agri-food Transport

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

Sustainable Agri-food Transport

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 6 th 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..................................................................................................................................1
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..............................7
Packaging.................................................................................................................................7
Controlled Atmosphere Storage..............................................................................................8
Temperature control.............................................................................................................8
Humidity control...................................................................................................................8
Gas control............................................................................................................................9
Controlled Atmosphere Storage in Transport.......................................................................11
Cold Chain Logistics................................................................................................................11
Technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in transport in a sustainable way............12
Engine efficiency....................................................................................................................12
Vehicle Efficiency...................................................................................................................13
Technologies to improve the transport efficiency in a sustainable way..................................15
Intelligent containers.............................................................................................................15
ICT-Applications for transport................................................................................................16
Discussion.................................................................................................................................18
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................17
Recommendations....................................................................................................................18
References................................................................................................................................20
 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 achieve a structured report, three sub questions are stated below.

Subquestions:

 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.

3
 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 CO 2 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”.

Figuur 1. CoolRail, developments in Cold Chain Logistics

4
 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. 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”.

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.
As stated in the introduction of this chapter, different fruits require different treatment. 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

5
“Technologies to maintain quality of fruit in transport in a sustainable way” Cold Chain Logistics is
described.
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, Figure 2. Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions by
Economic Sector. Adapted from (Sims,
with almost 10% in 2010 (Sims, Schaeffer et al. 2014).
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 situation, transport will be totally energy neutral). A solution
to this GHG emission problem could be minimizing the vehicle energy losses. This solution will be
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?

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
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”.

6
 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.

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, Cameron et
al. 1992, Kader 2001).

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 2 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).

7
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).

Controlled Atmosphere Storage

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).

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
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 innerFigure 3. Palliflex pallet
wall, refrigeration pipes storage
cool thesystem,
air
showing
so that the cooling surface covers the whole wallthe cables
of the used
store . to regulate the
With ice-bank cooling refrigerant pipes environment.
are drowned in a water tank. The

8
cooling) 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).

9
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.

10
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.

Type of technology Description

High-calcium lime 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.
Carbon scrubbers On the surface of activated carbon granules or carbon scrubbers CO 2 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 Flushing is done by nitrogen generators. A single flushing machine can be
used for the removing of both carbon dioxide and oxygen.
Table 3. Technologies to remove ambient carbon dioxide (Bishop 1997)

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.

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.
Table 4. Technologies to achieve a low level of ethylene (Bishop 1997, Thompson 2010)

11
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: 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.
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

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: hydrocooling, forced air cooling and vacuum cooling (Jobling
2001). 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.

13
 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 2, 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

14
 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 of either wind or solar energy, water molecules can be splitted. In this way

15
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. 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 1 delivers 10 to 15% savings on
fuels.

Figure 6. SkySails propulsion system

16
 Technologies to improve the transport efficiency in a
sustainable way
Intelligent containers
When looking at the information flow within the Intelligent Container (Figure 8), 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. The sensor nodes in an intelligent
container are 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 about the transport freight, they know what container to transport when and less food
will be wasted because of FEFO.

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

17
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 2. 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.

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)
Table 6. ICT-Applications for transport by (Ruiz-Garcia, Barreiro et al. 2007)

18
 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: maintaining the quality of fruit in transport, reducing the GHG emissions in
transport in a sustainable way and improving the transport efficiency in a sustainable way.
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.

19
 Discussion
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.

20
 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.

21
 References

AAR (2002). "Manual of standards and recommended practices railway electronics."

Balog, A., et al. (2005). Riding the wave on ship container seal and tracking systems. 2005 Symposium on the
Global Commercialization of Environmental Technologies. University of Washington.

Beaudry, R. M., et al. (1992). "Modified-atmosphere packaging of blueberry fruit: effect of temperature on
package O2 and CO2." Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 117(3): 436-441.

Bishop, D. (1997). Controlled atmosphere storage. Cold and Chilled Storage Technology, Springer: 53-92.

Brink, F. v. d. (2010). Onderzoek scheefzakken dozenstapels in de groente- en fruitsector en voorstel voor

verbetering. R. v. Ondernemen. Apeldoorn.

Brosnan, T. and D.-W. Sun (2001). "Precooling techniques and applications for horticultural products—a
review." International Journal of Refrigeration 24(2): 154-170.

Carson, R. M. (2003). Container tracking system, Google Patents.

Chonhenchob, V. and S. P. Singh (2005). "Packaging performance comparison for distribution and export of
papaya fruit." Packaging technology and science 18(3): 125-131.

Chu, S. and A. Majumdar (2012). "Opportunities and challenges for a sustainable energy future." nature
488(7411): 294-303.

Clay, J. (2013). Growth, nature, conservation and biodiversity, Wageningen University.

CoolRail (2016). "A direct rail link between Rotterdam and Valencia."

Dijkink, B. H., et al. (2004). "Humidity control during bell pepper storage, using a hollow fiber membrane
contactor system." Postharvest Biology and Technology 32(3): 311-320.

Doğan, A., et al. (2016). Comparison of pesticide-free and conventional production systems on postharvest
quality and nutritional parameters of peppers in different storage conditions.

Doyle, T. F. (2003). Intermodal movement status monitoring system, Google Patents.

Garret, M. (1995). "Applications of controlled atmosphere containers." Guilford, England: July.

Gunnarsson, M. (2001). Truck-Trailer Wireless Connections.

Heldman, D. R. (2003). Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering (Print), Crc Press.

22
Hintlian, C. and J. Hotchkiss (1986). "The safety of modified atmosphere packaging: a review." Food
Technology.

Holsether, S. T. and G. Håøy (2017). YARA and KONGSBERG enter into partnership to build world's first
autonomous and zero emissions ship, Kongsberg.

Jabbari, A., et al. (2009). "Application of neurocomputing for data approximation and classification in wireless
sensor networks." Sensors 9(4): 3056-3077.

Jensen, M., et al. (2003). WSDOT Intermodal data linkages freight its operational test evaluation final report
part 2: Freight its traffic data evaluation.

Jobling, J. (2001). "Modified atmosphere packaging: Not as simple as it seems." Good Fruit and Vegetables
Magazine 11: 1-3.

Kader, A. A. (2001). A summary of CA requirements and recommendations for fruits other than apples and
pears. VIII International Controlled Atmosphere Research Conference 600.

Kafry, E., et al. (2005). Method and system for monitoring electronic sealing of containers, Google Patents.

Kärkkäinen, M. (2003). "Increasing efficiency in the supply chain for short shelf life goods using RFID tagging."
International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 31(10): 529-536.

Kouroussis, D. and S. Karimi (2006). "Alternative fuels in transportation." Bulletin of Science, Technology &
Society 26(4): 346-355.

Lang, W., et al. (2014). The Intelligent Container-A Cognitive Sensor Net for Fruit Logistics. SENSORNETS.

Marriott, C. (2005). From Plough to Plate by Plane: An investigation into trends and drivers in the airfreight
importation of fresh fruit and vegetables into the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2004, Master’s Thesis,
University of Surrey, Surrey, UK.

Minnesma, M. (2014). Nederland 100% duurzame energie in 2030, Urgenda.

Neale, M., et al. (1981). "An experimental cold store for vegetables." Journal of Agricultural Engineering
Research 26(6): 529-540.

Pauka, C. (2014). ITF, UN focus on sustainable transport with high-level advisory group.

Rodrigue, J.-P. and T. Notteboom (2013). "The cold chain and its logistics." Rodrigue JP, The Geography of
Transport Systems. New York: Routledge. Available online (https://people. hofstra.
edu/geotrans/eng/ch5en/appl5en/ch5a5en. html), accessed on May 29: 2016.

Ruiz-Garcia, L., et al. (2007). "Monitoring the intermodal, refrigerated transport of fruit using sensor networks."
Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research 5(2): 142-156.

23
Saltveit, M. E. (2003). "Is it possible to find an optimal controlled atmosphere?" Postharvest Biology and
Technology 27(1): 3-13.

Shan, Q., et al. (2004). Wireless intelligent sensor networks for refrigerated vehicle. Emerging Technologies:
Frontiers of Mobile and Wireless Communication, 2004. Proceedings of the IEEE 6th Circuits and Systems
Symposium on, IEEE.

Sims, R., et al. (2014). "Chapter 8: transport." Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution
of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Stanton, D. W. (2013). "Systematic development of highly efficient and clean engines to meet future
commercial vehicle greenhouse gas regulations." SAE International Journal of Engines 6(2013-01-2421): 1395-
1480.

Thompson, A. K. (2010). Controlled atmosphere storage of fruits and vegetables, CABI.

Transcore (2003). "Electronic container seals field operational test project."

Unnold, R. (2004). Intelligent mobile asset management system, Google Patents.

Wang, N., et al. (2006). "Wireless sensors in agriculture and food industry—Recent development and future
perspective." Computers and electronics in agriculture 50(1): 1-14.

Wood, R. M. and S. X. Bauer (2003). Simple and low-cost aerodynamic drag reduction devices for tractor-trailer
trucks, SAE Technical Paper.

Yahia, E., et al. (2011). "Postharvest technologies to maintain quality of tropical and subtropical fruits."
Postharvest biology and technology of tropical and subtropical fruits 1: 142-193.

24