Active, passive, and hybrid thermal solutions in cold chain packaging

Choosing the best temperature-controlled packaging solution has grown more difficult and important as there are more packaging alternatives available.

Choosing the best packaging option is a crucial choice that can affect the effectiveness and safety of the items being carried in the field of life sciences logistics.

Cold chain packaging is an essential part of temperature-controlled shipping since it serves as the initial line of defense for perishable goods. 

Active, passive, and hybrid are the three primary categories of cold chain packaging technologies.

Active

These systems use mechanical or electric systems powered by an energy source to keep product temperatures consistent.

These systems are expensive to buy, operate, and maintain and due to their weight, potential need for repair while in route, and availability, they are also more expensive to ship.

Having said this, these are also simple to use and very precise and reliable devices, guaranteeing the temperature is maintained throughout the duration of the journey.

Passive

Insulating materials are used in passive cold chain packaging to shield items from ambient temperatures.

The lower level of accuracy can be an issue with this system, and the risk of product damage exists if a cargo is delayed and the transportation duration exceeds the packaging’s capacity to maintain temperature control, on the flip side this method is substantially simpler and more affordable than refrigerated units.

Hybrid

Hybrid methods use a combination of phase change materials (PCMs) or passive systems (such as water/ice or dry ice) and thermostatic controls or active systems.

It has all the pros of combining both methods, but it also has some of the cons, including the limited availability or the higher cost.

Cold Chain mission: Vaccines

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent the roll out of the vaccination program in 2021, cold chains have become a concept that a lot of people have become familiar with.

 

We already talked about the Cold Chain in a previous post that you can read in the below link:

 

Cold Chain

 

But with this term now becoming a hot topic, a post of itself should be dedicated to vaccines specific cold chain!

 

Let’s start from the beginning; a cold chain is a temperature-controlled Supply Chain. In particular, the term is used to describe the cold temperature conditions in which certain products need to be kept during storage and distribution.

 

The cold chain is used in the supply and storage of many perishable products, including vaccines, however, maintaining a continuous cold chain in resource-limited places where power supply is unreliable, or even non-existent, is a considerable task.

For vaccines, there are different types of requirements.

 

-    There is an ultralow, or deep freeze, cold chain for vaccines that require -70 degrees C (the Ebola vaccine require this level).

 

-     Next the frozen chain requires -20 degrees C (varicella and zoster vaccinations require this level)

 

-     The refrigerated chain, which requires temperatures between two and eight degrees C (most flu vaccinations only require refrigeration).

 

As an anecdote, the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine also needs ultracold storage and transportation temperatures as cold as −70 °C, requiring what has been referred to as a "colder chain infrastructure” which has created some issues of distribution as it is estimated that only 25 to 30 countries in the world have the infrastructure for the required ultracold cold chain.

 

If you want to see first-hand how critical cold chain is when distributing vaccines, I recommend watching the series Cold Chain missions, with Ewan McGregor. Here is a taste for it:

Cold Chain Mission - The Congo

 

And if you want more information, check the below document from the World Health Organisation on vaccines cold chain.

Cold Chain vaccines WHO

When Supply Chain becomes a matter of life or death

Not so long ago I published a post about the challenges that products that need cold temperatures to be preservedface, and the different aspects that make the cold chain a very particular type of Supply Chain and probably the fiddliest in terms of transportand reliability (you can find the post here).

Continuing with this topic, this post is an approach to what probably is the most challenging type of delivery and hence the one that entitles most complications. Organ transplant.

Organs for transplant are one of the most critical shipments. To ensure viability of the organs, transportation and logistics must be flawless and perfectly coordinated, quality and speed are the key factors.

Organ transport requires an extraordinary level of 24/7 readiness over a wide geographic area. Some organs, such as a heart or lungs, can stay viable for only 4-6 hours, the cold ischemia time, (the maximal time that the organ outside the body can be kept in a storage solution), making their delivery to the operating room a true race with time.

The transplantation process starts in the hospital when a potential donor is notified. The organ is then prepared and stored before it can be transported.

Considering the limited time for transport and the fact that the smallest mistakewill probably hinder the success of the transplant, reliability in transport is a must in these cases.

Thinking of organ donation as an end-to-end Supply Chain we should also consider a few facts that make things even more complicated:

- You never know when your “product” will become available

- You have multiple products coming from the same “supplier”, which are going to different destinations, with a limited shelf life.

- You need to obtain the “product” from the “supplier” with specialists and each extraction requires a different approach. Furthermore, until the “product” is actually extracted, its viability is unknown.

- When it is known that a “product” is becoming available, there is a search to find who the customer is who is most in need. The customer could be a few (or a hundreds)kilometres away.

- As the customer is identified, there is a need to assemble specialists at the “customer’s” location for “installation” of the part.

- And during this entire time, the actual logistics for the transport will need to be put in place in a last minute scenario, with transportation “experts” accompanying the “product”

If you though your Supply Chain was challenging and stressful and your customers too demanding, I guess it’s time torecap!

Cold Chain

I´ve been recently interested in understanding how some products can get from a point A to point a B, which is basically what logistics is all about. But this time, the products I was thinking about were the kind of products that need specific conditions to preserve their properties, I´m talking about food, vaccines, or even organs from donors that passed away far from a hospital.

There is a specific name for this kind of temperature controlled supply chain, the cold chain; an uninterrupted series of storage and distribution activities which maintain a given temperature range to avoid getting the products mentioned above spoiled.

If the task of moving a product which doesn´t need any specific storage or transport conditions from a given point to another is sometimes a headache, think about moving the kind of delicate products that need some of the strictest temperature conditions to a remote place. Well, it seems challenging and it certainly can be an ordeal even if you have the right resources. Imagine now delivering the much needed vaccines to some of the most remote places in the world, impossible you think? Watch the next set of videos staring world famous actor Ewan McGregor on a run against the clock to maintain the cold chain when trying to reach some of the most isolated places in the world to deliver pharmaceutical drugs.

It´s worth watching these videos to understand the setbacks that can come up when carrying on actions that in any other cases would be done routinely but when working with these products can be somewhat challenging to the most!


Cold chain mission part 1 

Cold chain mission part 2 

Cold chain mission part 3 

Cold chain mission part 4 


Don´t miss out the next episode, where Ewan and his team will be attempting to travel to central Africa to continue with their cold chain mission!