Apeldoorn, Netherlands: Thermo King and CO2 supplier Yara today open the first of eight R-744 refrigerant (carbon dioxide) supply and fill stations in the Netherlands to support companies using Thermo King’s CryoTech transport temperature control system.
The first filling station is in Apeldoorn and run by Thermo King’s Netherlands dealer Transportkoeling. Five more filling stations are to open this year at Zwolle, Amsterdam, Heerenveen, Waalwijk and Alkmaar, with a further two planned.
The filling stations provide the essential infrastructure to allow operators to use recycled CO2 (R-744 refrigerant) for Thermo King’s two CryoTech systems for truck and trailers. The filling stations use dispensers developed by Yara in collaboration with Thermo King that can fill a tank in 10 minutes.
Since CO2 is a by-product of the manufacturing industry, this application allows it to be recycled. The use of cryogenic units leads to a reduction of some 75% in carbon dioxide emissions compared with diesel-based refrigeration.
Thermo King opened the first of eight R-744 refrigerant (carbon dioxide) supply and fill stations in the Netherlands last week to support companies choosing to upgrade their fleets from diesel to CryoTech, Thermo King’s patented cooling technology
Cryogenic refrigeration is near silent in operation, which is a significant advantage when delivering to customers located in or close to residential areas. This is important in the Netherlands where very stringent noise limits for out of working hour’s deliveries are applied. Piek sets a maximum operating noise level of 60dBA to permit nighttime deliveries between 23.00 and 07.00hrs. The test measures sound levels at six positions around the vehicle, and to achieve the certification none of the measurements may exceed 60dBA. To put this in perspective, the background noise level in a busy office would typically exceed 60dBA.
Aviko, a chilled and frozen potato chip supplier, is testing cryogenic refrigeration systems using CO2 on two distribution trucks. Aviko transport provider, Donderwinkel, working with Thermo King that supplied the refrigeration units and Heiwo, which supplied the vehicle bodies, is undertaking the trial.
Transport provider Peter Appel, has completed a trial using CryoTech R-744 on its contract with Spar Netherlands. Nico Kuipers, supply chain manager, Spar Netherlands says: “Our testing has demonstrated that CryoTech allows us to reduce our carbon footprint while providing financial savings, top refrigeration performance and low noise.”
Spar Netherlands expects to convert 80% of its trailers to CryoTech refrigeration technology by 2012 with all vehicles using it by 2015.
Thermo King’s CryoTech units use recycled R-744 in an open-loop system that exhausts the cryogen outside the load space.
