Truck refrigeration achieves 50% cut in carbon emissions
7th June 2022
FRANCE: A combination of R452A refrigerant and Carrier’s all-electric E-Drive technology in a UK company’s truck and trailer refrigeration systems has resulted in a 50% reduction in carbon emissions.
Over the four-year performance evaluation by the unnamed UK customer approximately 1,118 tonnes of CO2 emissions were said to have been saved. This was based on refrigerant use and leakage across the customer’s fleet of more than 2,000 Carrier Transicold Vector trailer refrigeration units and engineless Iceland and Syberia systems.
R452A is used as a lower GWP drop-in replacement in R404A systems. It has a GWP of around 2141, which, although still high, is seen as a substantial reduction on R404A’s GWP of 3922. Sold by Chemours as Opteon XP44, R452A is non-flammable and closely matches R404A properties and performance, with a low compressor discharge temperature.
Carrier’s E-Drive allowed for the development of a fully hermetic scroll compressor and economiser in the Vector units, creating a closed loop refrigeration system capable of operating ultra-efficiently on both diesel and electric power.
The system was subsequently embedded into the company’s Eco-Drive power module, which converts power from the truck’s own engine into electricity to drive its range of engineless refrigeration systems.
