Natural solutions in the transport sector for an all-natural cold chain

ATMOsphere Europe 2013 provided a platform for key market players to showcase their latest technologies for CO₂ and ammonia in transport refrigeration. Presentations by Carriers, DSI and Thermo King, introduced some of these latest natural refrigerant solutions, which could help to make the cold chain and logistics sector “all-natural”, when it comes to the refrigerants used.

As the emission targets of corporations become more ambitious, natural refrigerants have a vital role to play in helping to achieve these targets through their use throughout the cold chain. Several presentations at ATMOsphere Europe 2013 demonstrated the various natural refrigerant applications available for transport refrigeration, which represents 2% of European emissions.

Carrier: CO₂ is the preferred refrigerant for transport refrigeration in terms of safety and energy efficiency

Sébastien Lemoine, Director of Products & Sustainability, Carrier Transicold Europe, presented Carrier’s CO₂ container, which is now commercially available after two years of testing, and which could help to lower the environmental impact for marine shipping. Lemoine highlights that in terms of energy efficiency, training, reliability and performance the new systems have exceeded the expectations and are ready for the market. He also points out that CO₂ is the preferred refrigerant for Carrier in terms of safety and achieved energy efficiency. According to Lemoine, retailers such as Sainsbury’s, which is currently trailing CO₂ trailers, are pushing suppliers to find consistent solutions across their entire cold chain.

DSI: more than 500 CO₂plate freezers have been delivered to European fishing companies

Mads Sigsgaard, Regional Sales Manager at DSI, a Danish company specialised in the niche market of plate refrigeration offers vertical and horizontal plate freezers for fishing vessels using CO₂ and ammonia. Today the technology is well proven and 80% of freezers use either ammonia or CO₂. DSI has developed a special plate freezer with a reduced volume of CO₂. Sigsgaard says that the freezing capacity with CO₂ is increased by 4-8% compared to ammonia at -40°C and is further increased to 30-40% at temperatures of -50°C. In total, DSI has delivered more than 500 CO₂ plate freezers for European fishing companies.

Thermo King: CO₂ refrigeration system achieves a 27% lower logistic carbon footprint and 13% lower logistic cost per year

Paulo Cebola Santos Pereira, CryoTech Business Leader from Thermo King presented a new technology trend in the transport refrigeration sector, the open cycle CO₂ refrigeration system. In this system liquid CO₂ is obtained as a by-product from industrial production and stored in a tank mounted to a truck. When released it cools the air through an evaporator coil located in a refrigerated space. Retailer Spar in the Netherlands has already converted 100% of its fleet to the new technology achieving a 27% lower logistic carbon footprint and a total 13% lower logistic cost per year.