Towards net-zero manufacture of chilled/refrigerated foods - the case of ready meals

食品业是英国最大的制造业，也是第四大工业用能行业。为了在2050年前实现英国的零碳排放目标，在能源需求和/或温室气体排放的热点地区采取行动至关重要。这些潜在的行动领域之一是食品冷链--冷冻、冷藏和冷冻食品的制造和分销是能源密集型的，往往涉及使用高GWP(全球变暖潜力)制冷剂。在这种情况下，该项目旨在确定那些将导致成功过渡到以冷冻食品(如即食食品)为重点的净零食品供应链战略的食品制造情景，并与Samworth Brothers合作。该项目将结合技术、经济、环境和/或政策方面的综合办法，设计和评估脱碳解决方案，重点是比较作为冷藏/冷藏食品范例的特定即食餐的不同制造模式--即集中式生产和分布式生产。这种方法的基础是开发和实施适当的模拟/优化和决策工具，对于这些工具来说，需要高水平的工程和计算能力，以及对(生物)过程系统的充分了解。

The Food Industry is the largest manufacture sector in the UK's and the fourthhighest industrial energy user. To contribute to the achievement of UK's zero-carbon emissions targets by 2050, it is critical to act on those hotspots for energydemand and/or GHG emissions. One of these potential areas of action is the foodcold chain - the manufacture and distribution of frozen, refrigerated and chilledfoods is energy intensive and often involves the use of high-GWP (GlobalWarming Potential) refrigerants.In this context, this project aims to identify those food manufacturing scenariosthat would lead to successful strategies for the transition to net-zero food supplychains focusing on chilled foods (e.g., ready meal foods), and working inpartnership with Samworth Brothers. The project will combine techno-economic,environmental and/or policy aspects in an integrated approach for the design andevaluation of decarbonisation solutions, focusing on the comparison of differentmanufacturing paradigms - i.e., centralized vs. distributed manufacture - forspecific ready meals, as exemplar of chilled/refrigerated foods. This approach isbased on the development and implementation of suitable simulation/optimisationand decision-making tools, for which a high level of engineering andcomputational competence, coupled with adequate knowledge of (bio)processsystems is desirable.