Professor Toby Peters

Professor Toby Peters

Engineering and Physical Sciences
Professor in Cold Economy
Director, Centre for Sustainable Cooling

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0) 7833 601028
Email
t.peters@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@Toby_Peters_
Address
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Toby Peters is Professor of Cold Economy at the University of Birmingham and Heriot-Watt University, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Cooling CSC), the leader of the Uk-funded Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain Solutions programme and within this programme, the Founder Director of the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain (ACES), appointed by the Rwandan Minister of the Environment. He is also Visiting Professor, Global Innovation Centre, Kyushu University.

His research focuses on cooling and cold-chains as critical infrastructures and the associated energy systems, energy transitions, business models and policy with a strong emphasis on the practical implementation of strategies, market design and associated capacity building. He is the co-inventor of Liquid Air Energy Storage and the co-founder of Highview Power.

Through the CCN/ACES as well as wider grants and collaborations with academics, policymakers and practitioners, Peters plays a key role in shaping evidence-based solutions for the delivery of fully integrated, affordable, sustainable, resilient, and inclusive cooling and cold-chains and harnessing them to improve food resilience, social, One Health, environmental, and economic goals.

He has also held advisory, report author and reviewer roles with organisations such as the World Bank, IFC, Montreal Protocol, Sustainable Energy for All, ClimateWorks Foundation as well as government and industry. He previously developed Liquid Air Energy Storage and was a co-founder of Highview Power. He has published numerous academic papers, technical reports, and policy analyses, contributing to key discussions around a more sustainable energy future.

Toby has been PI and co-Is on flagship projects with a total value of more than £50M, funded by EU, UK Government, UN agencies as well as industry. His research directly informs high-level policy globally and he has been invited to advisor and he is regularly featured in industry and major media outlets as well as being a highly sought-after keynote speaker, regularly invited to present at national and international conferences.

Biography

Current Academic Appointments

  • Professor in Cold Economy, University of Birmingham and Heriot-Watt University
  • Director, Centre for Sustainable Cooling
  • Visiting Professor, Global Innovation Centre, Kyushu University

Previous Roles

  • 2011–2016: Dearman Engine Company, Founding Director/CEO. Development of the Dearman Liquid Nitrogen Engine for clean cold and power
  • 2004–2013: Highview Power, Co-Founder - Co-inventor Liquid Air Energy Storage
  • 1999–2004: Food Rooms Limited, Founder, Director, Community Owned Retailing and Social Exclusion/Access to Food
  • 1998–2000: Consultant, Department of Health, Cabinet Office and DETR
  • 1995–1999: Consultant, Business in the Community
  • 1993–1999: Conflict photo-journalist – Balkans, Africa, South America
  • 1987–1996: Strategy, communications, and marketing consultant
  • 1985–1987: Reporter City Recorder/Fleet Street News Agency

Other social projects

  • 1998: Divine Chocolate, Day Chocolate Company, Ghana/London
  • 1997–2009: Hand in Hand Trust, Peru, Founder Trustee

Career Awards

  • Caroline Walker Trust Award for Improving Public Health
  • The Engineer Technology and Innovation Awards – Energy & Environment and Grand Prix
  • Rushlight Award – Power Generation and Transmission & Group Energy Environmental Award
  • IET Innovation Award – Sustainability
  • Business Green Technology Award – Innovator of the Year
  • Cooling Industry Awards – System Innovation of the Year
  • Business Green Leaders Awards – Innovation of Year
  • BEIS, Innovate UK – Innovation for Investment & Inspirational Innovation
  • National Air Quality Award – Innovation in Air Quality Technology
  • Kigali Cooling Efficiency Programme – Contribution to Cooling Knowledge

Research

Current Grants

  • Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chain Solutions Programme incl. Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chain, principle investigator, Defra/UNEP
  • Sustainable Cooling Infrastructure for Fisheries in Indonesia, co-investigator, EPSRC
  • Support for the Super-efficient Sustainable Cooling Solution for All Applications Project (Pakistan), co-investigator, EPSRC

Significant other EU/UK cooling and cold-chain research grants won (last five years)

  • ENOUGH (Deliver a carbon neutral European food chain supply emissions by 2050) – Horizon 2020
  • Sustainable cold-chain systems for food resilience - UKRI
  • Zero Emission Cold-Chain (ZECC) - Building the Road to Sustainable Cold-Chain out to 2050 - UKRI
  • Transport, Industrial and Commercial Refrigeration – Department for Energy Security & Net Zero.

Other activities

  • Visiting Professor, Global Innovation Centre, Kyushu University
  • Visiting Fellow, Dept of Engineering, University of Cambridge
  • Visiting Professor, Centre for Sustainable Road Freight, Heriot-Watt University
  • Visiting Professor, Global Innovation Centre, Kyushu University
  • Chair – IFC (World Bank Group) Academic Expert Panel – Stranded Cold of LNG
  • Lead – Cold-chain Working Group, Cool Coalition
  • Steering Committee – UK-India Centre of Excellence in Postharvest Management
  • Technical Advisory Panel, Global Cooling Prize
  • Steering Committee, UNEP Cool Coalition
  • Technical Advisory Committee, Clean Cooling Collective (formerly K-CEP)
  • Global Panel on Access to Cooling, UNOPS - Sustainable Energy for All

Professor Peters also sits on international working groups, is a judge on a number of  competitions as well as an expert advisor for impact investors. He is a regular author/contributor and reviewer for policy papers, reports, papers and books on sustainable development, sustainable cooling/cold-chain and technology development and entrepreneurship.

Publications

Recent principal publications

  • Badiee, A., Gripton, A., Greening, P., and Peters, T. (2024) ‘Simulation-based optimization for large-scale perishable agri-food cold chain in Rwanda: Agent-based modelling approach’. Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), Orlando, FL, USA, 2024, pp. 264-275.
  • Fox, T., Sayin, L. and Peters, T. (2024) ‘The Hot Reality: Living in a +50°C World’. University of Birmingham.
  • Allouche, Y., Evans, J., Sayin, L., Falagán, N., Hetterscheid, B. and Peters, T. (2023) ‘Three Degrees of Change. Frozen food in a resilient and sustainable food system’. IIF-IIR.
  • Sayin, L. and Peters, T. (2022) ‘Sustainable Food Cold Chains: Opportunities, Challenges and the Way Forward’. UN Environment Programme.

Forthcoming publications

  • Sayin, L. and Peters, T. (2025) ‘The Cold Economy’, in Sustainable Cooling: How to Cool the World Without Warming the Planet. Asian Development Bank. – In press.
  • Mahood, H.B., Sayin, L., Wang, X., Alammar, A., Singh, A., Allouche, Y. and Peters, T. (2025) ‘Estimation of the UK’s Energy Demand and Emissions of Temperature-Controlled Transport’. International Journal of Refrigeration. – Under review.
  • Sayin, L., Singh, A. and Peters, T. (2025) ‘Gender Equality and Social Inclusion: Cooling and Cold-chain Sector Transformations’. Centre for Sustainable Cooling. – Under review.

Other research outputs

  • Contributing author: IFC (2024) ‘Cooler Finance: Mobilizing Investment for the Developing World’s Sustainable Cooling Needs’.
  • Mahood, H.B., Sayin, L., Wang, X., Alammar, A., Singh, A., Allouche, Y. and Peters, T. (2024) ‘Estimation of the UK 2019 Baseline Year’s Energy Demand and Emissions of Temperature-Controlled Transport Using a Bottom-Up Model’, in ICCC2024. 8th IIR International Conference on Sustainability and the Cold Chain, Tokyo, Japan.
  • Lead topical author: UNEP (2023) ‘Global Cooling Watch’ 2023.
  • Contributing author: IMechE (2023) ‘Adapting industry to withstand rising temperatures and future heatwaves’. Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
  • Peters, T. et al. ‘The cold-chain challenges for COVID-19 mass vaccination in Bangladesh’. 7th IIR International Conference on Sustainability and the Cold Chain.

Highlights of other Publications

  • Sayin, L. and Peters, T. (2023) ‘Developing a Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Global Cold-Chain’, Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, 47(1)
  • Sayin, L. and Peters, T. (2022) ‘Future-Proofing Sustainable Cooling Demand’, Asian Development Bank.
  • Sayin, L. and Peters, T. (2022) ‘The Cold Economy’, Asian Development Bank.
  • Sayin, L. and Peters, T. (2021) ‘Sustainable Cold Chain Development’, in Cold Chain Management for the Fresh Produce Industry in the Developing World. CRC Press.

Others

  • Munshi, F., Debnath, K.B., Senan, A., Peters, T., Greening, P. and Wang, X. (2022) ‘Vaccine cold-chain challenges for fast-track mass COVID-19 vaccination in Bangladesh’, 7th IIR International Conference on Sustainability and the Cold Chain.
  • Contributing author: Institute of Physics (2022) ‘Cryogenics: fundamentals, foundations and applications’.
  • Peters, T. et al. (2021) ‘The cold road to Paris: Mapping pathways toward sustainable cooling for resilient people and economies by 2050’, World Bank.
  • Evans, J. and Peters, T. (2021) ‘Towards a net-zero food cold-chain’, Institute of Refrigeration.
  • Debnath, K.B., Wang, X., Peters, T., Menon, S., Awate, S., Patwardhan, G., Wadkar, N., Patankar, M. and Shendage, P. (2021) ‘Rural cooling needs assessment towards designing community cooling hubs: case studies from Maharashtra, India’, Sustainability, vol. 13, no. 10, p. 5595.
  • Contributing author: Sustainable Energy for All (2021) ‘Chilling prospects: Tracking sustainable cooling for all’, Sustainable Energy for All.
  • Contributing author: UNEP U4E (2021) Primary Research Report on Rwandan Agricultural and Vaccine Cold-chain Equipment, Policies, Programmes and Practices.
  • Dreyfus, G., Borgford-Parnell, N., Christensen, J., Fahey, D.W., Motherway, B., Peters, T., Picolotti, R., Shah, N. and Xu, Y. (2020) ‘Assessment of climate and development benefits of efficient and climate-friendly cooling’, Molina, M. and Zaelke, D. (Steering Committee Co-Chairs).
  • Contributing author: UNEP and IEA (2020) ‘Cooling emissions and policy synthesis report’.
  • Contributing author: Sustainable Energy for All (2020) ‘Chilling prospects: Tracking sustainable cooling for all’, Sustainable Energy for All. (contributing author)
  • Contributing author: MP Ensystems, Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation and University of Birmingham (2019) ‘Promoting clean and energy-efficient cold chains in India’.
  • Peters, T. (ed.) (2019) ‘Agriculture for development: Clean cold chain in agriculture’, Tropical Agriculture Association, Issue 36.
  • Peters, T. et al. (2019) ‘Sustainable cold chain and food loss reduction’, MOP31, Ozone Secretariat.
  • Contributing author: Sustainable Energy for All (2019) ‘Chilling prospects: Tracking sustainable cooling for all’, Sustainable Energy for All.
  • Contributing author: Sustainable Energy for All (2018) ‘Chilling prospects: Tracking sustainable cooling for all’, Sustainable Energy for All.
  • Peters, T. et al. (2018) ‘A cool world: Defining the energy conundrum of cooling for all’, University of Birmingham.
  • Contributing author: Manufacturing Technology Centre and Heriot-Watt University (2017): Measuring Technology Readiness for Investment: Accelerating Technology Development and Improving Innovation Performance.
  • Peters, T. et al. (2017) ‘India's third agricultural revolution: Doubling farmers' incomes through clean cold chains’. University of Birmingham.
  • Peters, T. et al. (2017) ‘Capturing the waste cold of LNG’. Heriot-Watt University.
  • Peters, T. et al. (2017) ‘Clean cold and the global goals’. University of Birmingham.
  • Peters, T. et al. (2015) ‘Doing cold smarter’. University of Birmingham.
  • Contributing author: Institution of Mechanical Engineers (2014) ‘A tank of cold: Cleantech leapfrog to a more food-secure world’.
  • Peters, T. et al. (2013) ‘Liquid air technologies – A guide to the potential’. Centre for Low Carbon Futures and University of Birmingham.