COLD CHAIN
REFRIGERATED ASSET PROVIDERS ARE STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE Mark Mitchell, Chairman of the Australian Food Cold Chain Council (AFCCC) explains how refrigerated asset providers are stepping up to the plate on reducing emissions.
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n debates about solving food waste in the cold chain, it’s all too easy to highlight and blame the processes being used in managing and operating the cold chain. Cold chain processes remain one of the biggest areas screaming out for change, and that is still the main game, but it is time to recognise the significant progress being made by the designers and makers of refrigerated transport and other assets. An AFCCC review of transport assets, refrigerated trucks and trailers, reveals some of the far-reaching technological measures being taken by the two major providers in the global, and the Australian market, Carrier Transicold and Thermo King. Their combined commitments and contributions to energy saving and global warming reduction deserve to be acknowledged. Not only are they reducing their carbon footprints substantially, but are leading the transport sector in the cold chain towards a whole new operational mindset that will include electric drive technologies, new refrigerants, and even intelligent wheel axles that generate power. It is interesting to note the move towards different refrigerants. A new generation refrigerant for trucks and trailers, R452A, is already being offered as an alternative to the ubiquitous R404A in Australia. R404A is a hydrofluorocarbon refrigerant used in most land based transport refrigeration applications. R452A has a global warming potential (GWP) that is almost half that of R404A. R452A has been the standard for
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POWERTORQUE January/February 2022
“COLD CHAIN PROCESSES REMAIN ONE OF THE BIGGEST AREAS SCREAMING OUT FOR CHANGE, AND THAT IS STILL THE MAIN GAME, BUT IT IS TIME TO RECOGNISE THE SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS BEING MADE BY THE DESIGNERS AND MAKERS OF REFRIGERATED TRANSPORT AND OTHER ASSETS.” European product lines since January 2019 and will become standard progressively for American systems from early 2022. The ultimate in low GWP is CO2, used as a refrigerant. While progress would appear to be slow in the general mobile sector, Carrier Transicold is building on their expertise with this refrigerant, known as R744. They have made it publicly known that they will be pursuing the commercialisation of HFC free refrigerants in road transportation. CO2 refrigerant has a GWP of one (1), which is 2,000 times better than R452A and 4000 times better than R404A and is non-flammable, non-ozone depleting, globally available and cost effective. It is already being successfully applied in stationary commercial refrigeration systems in Europe. But the new buzzword in the transport sector is electric. We’re talking about fully electric refrigeration units which create zero emissions in an unbroken transport cold chain that remains unbroken even while the driver stops for deliveries or to go off for a break. Carrier Transicold launched the first fully autonomous, all electric engineless
refrigerated trailer system, called Vector eCool in late 2020. As recently as October 2021, Thermo King showed an all-electric portfolio, with a promise to offer electric solutions in every cold chain segment by 2023. Their new Advancer refrigeration unit uses 60 percent less energy than the production process of previous trailer products. A combination of temperature controls, fleet connectivity, fuel efficiency and load protection will result in a 30 percent reduction in CO2 emissions. Both companies have perfected axle-powered energy recovery system and battery storage that together can create an autonomously powered trailer refrigeration solution. This is all impressive stuff, almost as impressive as the development of refrigeration itself which was lauded as the wonder invention of its time. Today, nobody can get out of bed and get in a car to go to work without touching refrigeration five or six times. But the price of such a discovery has been a lot of carbon. It seems from the work being put into it by the major transport companies that the days of carbon are indeed numbered.
