William Broadway invented the ISOBAR device as part of his final year project at Loughborough University.
The industrial design and technology graduate received £2,000 to develop his prototypes.
He will compete against entries from 22 countries to win the international James Dyson award and £30,000.
Mr Broadway, 22, said: "Winning the UK James Dyson Award gives me the confidence to pursue my invention with my whole heart in the knowledge that yes, I can actually make this device, and that it could have a great impact for the benefit of thousands of people."
He came up with the idea partly while on a surfing trip.
"I was surfing in Mexico and we were taking a five day trip out and we had 13kg of ice [with us] and I thought this is stupid, we have propane burners, is there not some way we can use that energy in the right way?" he said.
"So I just looked up old fashioned refrigeration methods and found a really neat one used for rural farmers without access to electricity and just took it from there."
He said the device could also be used for organ donation, blood transplants and stem cell research.
One of the judges, Raspberry Pi co-founder and chairman Jack Lang, said: "ISOBAR is a brilliant invention. It solves a real problem and is a complete, well-thought-through system."
In 2014, another Loughborough University graduate, James Roberts, the international won the international James Dyson Award for his inflatable incubator for babies born prematurely.
A portable cooling device for vaccines which could save millions of lives in developing countries has won the James Dyson award for UK design innovation.