Farnborough, UK: E-CoolTec had its first UK showing of its climate-friendly truck refrigeration system at the ITT Hub last week. E-CoolTec, a German company, showed its electrically driven refrigeration which uses natural refrigerants.
John Winter, managing director, E-CoolTec UK, said: “We have had numerous discussions with representatives of major UK transport fleets. Their interest in transport refrigeration systems powered by natural refrigerants is very concrete.”
Key features of the E-CoolTec 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. The system produces no local pollutant and CO2 emissions when running on battery power, and up to 98%fewer emissions than diesel-powered refrigeration systems when powered by the in- house generator, the company says.
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 high global warming potential. The use of natural refrigerants ensures the operational life expectancy of E-CoolTec’s transport refrigeration systems in the future as well. The European F-Gas Regulations restrict and, in some cases, even ban 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.
As part of the conference programme in the Cold Chain Theatre of the Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre, Jürgen Süß, chief technical officer, E-CoolTec, speaking at the conference sessions, said heavy refrigerated commercial vehicles already have the option today of implementing a truly F-gas- free 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% cent less energy than conventional diesel-powered, commercially available systems for the same refrigeration capacity.
