US-based company, Motive has unveiled its new thermostat for refrigerated vehicles and trailers, aiming to cut costs related to reefer operations (refrigerated transport), boost food transportation safety requirements, enhance productivity and prevent food spoilage.

“Delivering ice cream at -20°F (-7°C) when it’s 90°F (32°C) degrees outside requires us to pay great attention to the conditions inside our reefers,” says Marc Cain, transportation manager at Mayer Bros Apple Products, one of the companies using Motive’s product.

“Motive Reefer Monitoring enables us to set the report for every 15 mins to ensure there are no issues with the load. Having this level of visibility saves us five to ten hours per week in fleet manager productivity and prevents any spoilage,” he notes.

Central control
The temperature monitoring solution includes an environmental sensor that controls the temperature and humidity in real-time and sends it to businesses that now have access to their vehicles data on a single screen – including location, vehicle telematics, and reefer insights.

“The solution also makes it possible to create reefer logs for any time period on demand without the need to visit a service center, which reduces cost, decreases reefer downtime and improves the service that fleets can provide to their own customers,” explains Motive.

“Our strategy enables our customers to access and take actions on all of their vehicles and equipment, including refrigeration units, in a consolidated dashboard within our Automated Operations Platform,” highlights Jail Ranganathan, chief product officer at Motive.

“We then use the power of our AI capabilities to make informed decisions about how to get the most value out of those assets,” he says.

Other capabilities of the product are remotely programming and controlling reefer units to eliminate manual pre-cooling before a trip, saving time and reducing the potential for human error.

The company flags how the product also helps comply with the Food Safety Modernization Act requirements.

The compans sensor controls temperature and humidity conditions in real-time

Every cent counts

As a cause of the global energy crisis, saving on energy costs becomes ever more important and allows to relieve over-stressed energy grids.

Earlier this year, engineers at the University of Irvine, US, invented a packaging insulator material inspired by squid skin. The design could, in the future, keep beverages hot and protect other products by regulating heat through reconfigurable metal structures. 

These metal structures can reversibly separate from one another and come back together under different strain levels, which can lead to improved energy efficiency.

Meanwhile, Innocent in the Netherlands is chilling its juices using two separate heating circuits with water heated using waste heat from its refrigeration plant to save on energy. 

Back in the US, Researchers from the University of California, Davis, developed jelly-based ice cubes that do not melt, are compostable, antimicrobial and prevent cross-contamination in fresh food packaging. 

The jelly-based ice cubes are constructed using 90% water and 10% gelatin hydrogels, which achieve latent heat fusion and cooling efficiency comparable with traditional ice.