Partly due to the development of the COVID-19 vaccines from Biontech, Pfizer, Moderna, Curevac, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, and their special requirements, the topic has come into focus in recent years. This also showed how important flexible low-temperature logistics are for future crises.
Substances such as organic material, enzymes, hormones, proteins, blood plasma, stem cells and biological samples are stored, transported and processed at extremely low temperatures between -40 °C and -160 °C to preserve their quality. Due to the storage period and the value of the goods, particularly durable and fail-safe technologies are required. Access and temperature profiles must be documented and archived in accordance with the GMP Audit Trail to demonstrate product quality. In addition, these systems are in continuous operation and require a lot of energy due to the low temperature, which makes energy optimization absolutely necessary.
Many technologies are harmful to the environment due to the working materials such as refrigerants and machine oil and contribute to global warming and our drinking water pollution. Many conventional systems are usually complex, which leads to a lower level of reliability and, due to their limited partial load capability, have low energy efficiency.
