The Laboratory for Refrigeration and District Energy research group of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, led by Prof. Dr. Andrej Kitanovski, has been awarded funding under the Horizon Europe – The European Innovation Council[1] (EIC) 2023 call for proposals for the MAGCCINE project to develop an innovative vaccine cooling technology together with their partners.
Figure 1: Vaccine refrigeration system prototype
Every year, 1.5 million people die due to lack of access to vaccines. Paradoxically, as many as 50% of produced vaccines are discarded solely due to failure to maintain correct temperature during storage and transport from the manufacturer to the end user. Currently, delivery of vaccines faces three major challenges: (1) severe restrictions on air transport due to the hazards of the refrigerants used, (2) high energy consumption of vaccine storage refrigeration, and (3) high environmental impact of certain refrigerants.
The MAGCCINE project addresses all the challenges of vaccine transport to date by developing an efficient magnetocaloric refrigeration system prototype as the alternative method of cooling with magnetocaloric solids that eliminates the need to use hazardous or environmentally unfriendly refrigerants. At the same time, the technology of rotating magnetocaloric effect that forms the basis of the prototype will improve energy efficiency while reducing production costs.
“Magnetic or magnetocaloric refrigeration is one of the promising alternative technologies that has the potential to reduce the environmental footprint and improve energy efficiency compared to existing technologies. With the MAGCCINE project, we want to apply our theoretical and experimental experience to the field of medicine and pharmaceutics and use it to the develop a real, working prototype,” explained Prof. Dr. Andrej Kitanovski.
The total value of the four-year project is estimated at €3.6 million, and in addition to the LAHDE laboratory of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, the University of Porto, as project coordinator, the University of Seville (Spain), the University of Aveiro (Portugal), the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS; France), MagREEsource and Helium3 Technologies are also participating in the project.
The development and optimisation of a refrigeration device prototype that will maintain temperatures between 2 and 8°C will significantly reduce vaccine wastage and improve vaccine availability worldwide. Thus, the MAGCCINE project will create new opportunities for clean and efficient refrigeration in the healthcare sector, contributing to a safer and more reliable vaccine supply cold chain.
[1] Horizon Europe – The European Innovation Council (EIC) – 2023 Pathfinder Challenges-01-01 – EIC Pathfinder Challenge: Clean and efficient cooling.