Maersk orders containers that will use CO2 as refrigerant

The Danish container shipping line said the order will help it meet sustainability goals and stay ahead of new legislation by the European Union.

  Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping line, has ordered 100 containers to be chilled by Carrier Transicold’s NaturaLINE unit, the first container refrigeration system to use carbon dioxide as a refrigerant.
   The Danish carrier plans to eventually order another 100 of the units.
   The NaturaLINE units will be installed on 40-foot high-cube containers made by CIMC China, Maersk said. Last October, Hapag-Lloyd said it was testing Carrier Transicold units using carbon dioxide as a refrigerant.
   Maersk ordered 11,000 refrigeration units from Carrier last year, but those PrimeLINE units used a conventional refrigerant, the R-134a hydrofluorocarbon (HFC).
   Initially, Maersk will deploy the new NaturaLINE units on closed-loop routes between Europe and the Americas.
   Carrier has installed units using carbon dioxide as a refrigerant on some land-based applications.
   Karolina Marcinkowski, a spokesperson for Carrier, said “We cannot discuss specific sales, however, we can say that some of the earliest adopters of the NaturaLINE system are specialized customers seeking more sustainable refrigeration choices,” she said. “Examples of NaturaLINE applications include refrigeration units for use on offshore oil rigs, transport in over-the-road delivery applications for two European grocery chains, and leasing of containers for other specialized applications in Europe.”
    Most refrigerant systems use HFCs, which were developed as a replacement for chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). CFCs are harmful to the ozone layer and are being phased out under the Montreal Protocol, which took effect in 1989.
   However, HFCs present an environmental threat of their own. Sometimes called “super greenhouse gases,” they have a high global warming potential (GWP), a measure used to compare how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere.
   While carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas in itself, has a GWP of 1, HFCs currently used in containers have GWPs that are 1,430 to 3,922 times as great, according to Carrier.
   Last October, 197 parties to the Montreal Protocol met in Kigali, Rwanda and modified the agreement to limit the production and use of HFCs.
   “In developed countries, first reductions are due in 2019,” according to the European Commission. “Most developing countries will freeze the level of HFC quantities in 2024, and a few countries will follow in 2028.”
    A report in the New York Times noted that while the Kigali Agreement did not draw as much attention as the 2015 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris, its “outcome could have an equal or even greater impact on efforts to slow the heating of the planet.”
   Last month, the European Commission adopted a proposal for the European Union to ratify the Kigali Amendment. The European Commission said, “For the Kigali Amendment to enter into force by 2019, at least 20 parties need to ratify it. Ratification by the EU countries alone could thus trigger the entry into force.”
   The EU already has a treaty aimed at reducing fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases) – including HFCs, perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) – that came into effect on Jan. 1, 2015. This treaty aims to cut EU F-gas emissions by two thirds when compared with 2014 levels.
   “Implementation of the legally binding Kigali Amendment will make a significant contribution to the Paris Agreement objective of keeping global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius,” the European Commission said.
    “To meet our sustainability goals and stay ahead of the new EU legislation, Maersk Line is keen to carefully evaluate all alternatives to the current synthetic refrigerants,” said Ingrid Uppelschoten-Snelderwaard, head of global equipment, Maersk Line. “The NaturaLINE system is an advanced technology with interesting potential for reefers. We chose it after laboratory testing of the unit’s performance with perishable and frozen commodities and look forward to gaining further operational experience with the system.”