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By John Millar
Posted 3 months ago
After extensive on-road testing Tesco place a second order with ECOOLTEC
Tesco orders five new refrigerated trucks with lower environmental impact
• With outstanding cooling capacity and extremely fast pull-down times, paired with exceptional reliability and very low maintenance costs inspire confidence in the ECOOLTEC product
• Tesco undertook on-road temperature testing to prove ECOOLTEC units’ ability to deliver frozen and chilled products at specified temperatures
ECOOLTEC is a leader in the move to improve sustainability in temperaturecontrolled transport and currently delivers the only transport refrigeration units suitable for HGV operation that do not use high-polluting auxiliary diesel engines or F-gas refrigerants. The first two TM182 units that Tesco purchased have been operating since last year had to prove their efficiency and sustainability during demanding multi-drop practical tests. Tesco are impressed both with the quality of the temperature control as well as the low environmental impact of the ECOOLTEC technology and has ordered five more trucks with TM182s.
Tesco carried out several multiple-drop, on-road tests, during which the ECOOLTEC units proved that they are capable of reliably delivering frozen and chilled goods at the specified temperatures.
“We’re working towards our goal to reach carbon neutrality across our own operations by 2035 and net zero across our value chain by 2050″, said Cliff Smith, Fleet Engineering Manager, Tesco. “The two ECOOLTEC vehicles we’ve been using have performed successfully and we’re looking forward to introducing another five to our fleet.“
The only unit that uses natural refrigerants exclusively
Since F-gases, particularly hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions in Europe, the European Parliament has issued the regulation 2024/573 that initially restrict their use step by step (phase-down) and even rule them out by 2050. The UK are due to bring in similar regulations. The current phase-out will jeopardise the operational longevity of conventional transport refrigeration systems. The TM182 only needs 650 grammes of propene in each external circuit and around one kilogramme of CO2 per internal cooling circuit, resulting in four independent and fully hermetic refrigeration circuits with reduced impact gases.
The innovative ECOOLTEC technology allows ECOOLTEC engineers to watch the system over-the-air without an on-site service technician needing to identify any potential fault. "Tesco's on-road tests and follow-up order confirm our performance promises. We would like to thank them for their trust", explains ECOOLTEC-CEO Henning Altebäumer.
Natural refrigerants: negligible climate impact, high efficiency
The technological highlight of the ECOOLTEC technology 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; ECOOLTEC relies on natural refrigerants with GWP values of 3 and 1 respectively.
Hydrocarbons are also characterised by the high energy efficiency of the refrigeration process, meaning that ECOOLTEC refrigeration systems have an enormous refrigeration capacity in terms of size and weight to meet the extreme temperature safety demands in food distribution. As a result, the ECOOLTEC refrigeration system requires 60 per cent less fuel and causes 80 per cent less CO2 emissions than a conventional system with the same cooling capacity powered by a stand-alone diesel engine. Natural refrigerants also offer permanent availability at a competitive price.
ECOOLTEC Grosskopf GmbH is a European manufacturer of future-oriented, environmentally friendly transport refrigeration systems. The mission of the company is to offer operators of refrigerated vehicles transport refrigeration systems which are particularly sustainable, efficient, and reliable. Key features of the ECOOLTEC technology are the exclusive use of natural refrigerants with no global warming potential and the all-electric alternator or battery drive. The company headquarters and production site is in Mülheim a. d. Ruhr (North Rhine-Westphalia). CEO Henning Altebäumer and CTO Holger Dörre are responsible for the management of the company. ECOOLTEC also owns ECOOLTEC UK Ltd. which is in Buckingham (Buckinghamshire), Managing Director is John Winter.
