Medical transporter developed at University of Malta reaches first active prototype

In the midst of the pandemic, a team of Maltese engineers were inspired to apply their engineering skills to join the frontier against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many vaccines have to be kept cool until administration to preserve their effectiveness, prompting the team to go the extra mile to apply proprietary, locally developed technology to tackle the last-mile cold chain challenge.

Fast-forward to present day, and a first prototype of the last-mile medical transporter has been successfully developed by researchers and students at the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering, University of Malta .

Beyond COVID-19 vaccines, such a medical transporter could prove crucial in delivering cooled, active medical payloads in areas where infrastructure is a major obstacle.

The medical transporter consists of a payload up to 960cm cubed, comfortably fitting one vaccine carton (holding 100 doses) to be transported at temperatures below - 40°C.

The battery-powered device is capable of continuous cooling for a number of hours, or powered indefinitely by an external power source.

Furthermore, security features are implemented to prevent any tampering of the payload.

The robust transporter is light enough to be carried by one person at just 12kg, allowing it to be carried by foot or vehicle over difficult terrain to service challenging, remote locations where cold-chain infrastructure is lacking.

Such a medical transporter is only possible thanks to the technology developed through ICECAP, an R&I project formed by a consortium between the University of Malta and local manufacturing company New Energy Ltd.

Refrigeration was achieved through thermoelectric devices, which are often not fully taken advantage of due to their inherent inefficiencies and power losses.

However, the patent-pending ICECAP technology is capable of overcoming these issues and is able to provide efficient and consistent temperatures.

ICECAP (MCST R&I-2018-035T) is supported by €200,000 in funding covering a three  period of development thanks to the Malta Council for Science & Technology through FUSION: The R&I Technology Development Programme.