Cold chain transportation energy conservation and emission reduction based on phase change materials under dual‑carbon background: A review

With the dual‑carbon strategy and residents' consumption upgrading the cold chain industry faces opportunities as well as challenges, in which the phase change cold storage technology can play an important role in heat preservation, temperature control, refrigeration, and energy conservation, and thus is one of the key solutions to realize the low-carbonization of cold chain transportation. This paper focuses on the phase change material-based cold chain transportation energy conservation and emission reduction under dual-carbon background, summarizes the phase change materials applied to cold chain logistics and the current research progress on integrating phase change materials in refrigerated trucks. The optimizations of temperature field distribution in the compartment are discussed, and new trends in the development of future refrigerated trucks are introduced. Finally, life cycle assessment methods for evaluating the carbon footprint of refrigerated trucks are reviewed, and energy conservation and emission reduction strategies for cold chain transportation are summarized based on the carbon footprint characteristics. •PCMs and their selection methods for cold chain logistics are summarized.•Research progress and energy savings of integrated PCMs in refrigerated trucks•Temperature field optimization and development trends for refrigerated trucks•Proposed energy conservation and carbon reduction strategies for refrigerated trucks•PCMs have great potential to decarbonize the cold chain transportation.