ECOOLTEC presented its climatefriendly and economically efficient technology to decision-makers and experts from the transport and logistics industry during the ITT Hub. ECOOLTEC was also very well received because of the expected tightening of regulations on the use of F-gases.
For the first time, the company presented its purely electrically driven transport refrigeration systems, which operate exclusively based on natural refrigerants, to a broad audience of the transport and logistics industry at the ITT Hub trade show.
Key features of the ECOOLTEC technology are the use of natural refrigerants with lowest greenhouse gas potential as well as the purely electric, locally almost emission- and CO2-free drive. As a result, the system produces no local pollutant and CO2 emissions when running on battery power, and up to 98 per cent fewer emissions than diesel-powered refrigeration systems when powered by the inhouse generator.
Common refrigerants R452A and R410A increase greenhouse effect
The technological highlight of the system is the use of sustainable refrigerants. Instead of the fluorinated refrigerants (hydrofluorocarbons) R452A and R410A, which are predominantly used in transport refrigeration and have GWP (Global Warming Potential) values of approximately 2,000, and whose decay products in the atmosphere are also responsible for the formation of environmentally harmful substances such as trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and perfluoroalkoxy polymers (PFA), COOLTEC uses natural refrigerants with single-digit GWP values. In addition, the use of natural refrigerants ensures the operational life expectancy of ECOOLTEC’s transport refrigeration systems in the future as well. The European F-Gas Regulation (EU) No. 517/2014 restricts and, in some cases, even bans the use of fluorinated refrigerants. This in turn jeopardises the operational life of refrigeration systems charged with F-gases if suitable refrigerants are no longer available for
servicing.
Fully hermetic construction ensures highest safety
As part of the conference programme in the Cold Chain Theatre of the Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre, Dr Jürgen Süß, CTO of ECOOLTEC, explained to the audience that all operators of heavy refrigerated commercial vehicles already have the option today of implementing a truly F-gasfree supply chain to ensure operational safety; that the use of natural refrigerants is safe and, on top of that, offers significant economic advantages. The system uses 60 to 80 per cent less energy than conventional diesel-powered, commercially available systems for the same refrigeration capacity. In addition, ECOOLTEC’s transport refrigeration system has a fully hermetic refrigerant circuit and is designed in such a way that in the unlikely event of the hydrocarbon-based refrigerant R1270 used by ECOOLTEC to generate refrigeration leaking, it will only escape into the open air and will never form a flammable atmosphere in an enclosed space. ECOOLTEC’s refrigeration system also has a high refrigeration capacity to meet the high temperature safety requirements in food distribution.
The audience of decision-makers and industry associations received the message enthusiastically in view of the expected challenges for temperature-controlled road transport due to the forthcoming tightening of F-Gas and REACH regulations.
