INDEPENDENT STUDY PROVES ECOFRIDGE IS CHEAPER FASTER AND GREENER

In a bid to establish exactly how much cheaper and greener transport operations could be, pioneering trailer refrigeration manufacturer ecoFridge put their unique nitrogen powered unit on trial against a conventional diesel powered fridge unit.

The report on the two-day trial by independent research and testing organisation Cambridge Refrigeration Technology gives definitive figures on running costs, carbon emissions and temperature stability, with ecoFridge substantially beating the conventional unit on all fronts.

With current uncertainty over the pricing structure of the red diesel used by commercial transport operations switching over to nitrogen powered refrigeration offers impressive savings at today’s prices, but could also safeguard against a possible red diesel price hike of as much as 32pence per litre. On average a refrigerated trailer uses 10,500 litres of red diesel a year to run; should the price increase happen each trailer will cost an additional £3,360 per year. For a 50 strong refrigerated fleet that would mean an extra running cost of £168,000 per year - in an already struggling market.

The nitrogen used by the ecoFridge system has zero carbon emissions zero O2 depletion, therefore zero global warming potential. Unlike diesel, which produces 2.63 kgs of carbon for every litre burned, creating a whopping 27,615 kgs of carbon per trailer over a yearly operation.

A number of blue-chip companies in the UK are currently trialing the ecoFridge system and the results are already proving successful. ASDA reckon to have saved 82,800 kgs of carbon over 10 months on just seven trailers used for the trial. If they roll out the system to their entire 1,000 strong fleet they estimate being able to reduce carbon emissions by 70,000 metric tones in the next five years.

Chris Hall, ASDA’s Network Transport Manager, commented: “This is a major step towards ensuring that our fleet transport reduces costs, cuts emissions and lowers the overall environmental impact of food distribution. It also solves the problem of delivering chilled goods to our stores in residential areas – especially at night, due to the silent running nature of the technology”.

The CRT trial also reveled that the ecoFridge system could maintain the required temperature within the trailer more consistently over a three hour period than the conventional diesel system. When carrying frozen and chilled goods – either foods or pharmaceuticals – it is vital that the temperature remains stable to preserve the integrity of the product and the trial demonstrated that the ecoFridge system is more capable of doing this. When an ambient temperature of 3oC was set in each trailer the ecoFridge system varied by only 0.1oC above the set point compared to the wider 3.3oC variation above set point by the conventional system.

EcoFridge Sales & Marketing Manager, Liam Olliff, was delighted with the results of the independent trial: “Introducing a new technology with so many environmental pluses is very exciting for us. Company trials are going very well and now we have further independent research to prove the benefits of the system, both for the operators in terms of running costs, and for the environment with zero carbon emissions”.