GREEN SPECIAL
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REEFERS: CFCs
• Thermoking unveiled its Ecotech ozonefriendly fridge unit at the Frankfurt show last week. Ecotech is not a product — it is the company's new environment strategy, says business development manager Pat Howard. "This is the way we are going to go. We want to be pro-active on this topic. The environment is the responsibility of us all and it is up to business to play an active part in the future."
The big environmental problem for the refrigeration sector is the ozone layer, several miles above the Earth, which protects us from harmful ultra-violet rays. It is being attacked by chlorofluorocarbons, the family of chemicals known as CFCs. Some CFCs do considerably more damage than others and one of the worst is the common refrigerant known as R12. What Thermoking unveiled at Frankfurt was a prototype of a top-of-the-range fridge running on R134a — one of the least ozonedestructive CFCs, at present only available in small quantities.
While companies like Thermoking, Petter and Carrier are working on less ozone-destructive refrigerants, and BOC can offer a liquid nitrogen-based system, Howard points out that recent figures suggest that refrigeration accounts for some 13% of the world's CFC consumption, while CFCs used as blowing agents in foams account for 32%.
Or, to bring things closer to home, what many operators do not realise is that some 80% of all CFCs in a reefer unit are in the foam insulation, not in the fridge. What is more, when a trailer comes to the end of its working life it is fairly easy to recover the CFCs in the fridge but virtually impossible, in this country at least, to recover or destroy the CFCs in the foam.
Most of the major trailer companies are aware of the problem and despite the lack of any real customer demand are moving towards "Greener" goals.
Carrymaster, the Doncaster-based trailer manufacturer, has 20% of its business in reefers. "We have not noticed any real customer demand for fridges or insulation to be CFC-free, but we expect these pressures to come," says marketing director Hazel Brown.
The company has not had to put pressure on its German supplier. The panels, made by Ferroplast, consist of a steel sandwich filled with high-density polyurethane foam which is currently blown using CFCs.
"The Germans, being very environmentally conscious, are obliged to use the minimum of CFCs to blow foams. Ferroplast is developing non-CFC foams which should be available in about the next two to three months. Their whole factory will be totally Green, with no CFCs used at all, in two to three years," says Brown. The company is unaware of any initiative to remove CFCs from trailers going for scrap. "[feel this is something that needs Government action," says Brown.
"Considering the pressure the Government is putting on domestic refrigerator manufacturers, it is quite surprising that there has been no initiative. If it is just left to commercial pressure there is not likely to be much change, because CFCfree solutions are likely to be more expensive. If it comes from the Government then everyone has to abide by the rules, otherwise a few will take the Green route and others will not."
York has a considerable advantage over most of its competitors because it makes its own panels. York uses a combination of polyurethane, PVC and extruded polystyrene for insulation. The company uses a lot of PVC which, as it is blown with nitrogen and carbon dioxide, causes no problems.
"We can make an environmentallyfriendly trailer using only PVC, but it is more expensive and not as thermally efficient for the same size," says Keith Howard, sales director for York Thermostar.
"We are pursuing manufacturers to try to get rid of CFCs in the foams. As we sell to other countries it is sensible for us to do so, as some countries are prohibiting vehicles with CFCs soon," he warns.
Howard also believes that the Government should be pushing harder to make companies get rid of CFCs and should be urging the chemical industry to come up with alternatives.
On the question of destruction, Howard feels Government encouragement toward a proper disposal of CFC-based foams is essential. We all want the Earth to survive for the future of our children. York, with its turnover of £130 million, can't really go along and tell ICI what to do; vv. can only use what we are given."
Meanwhile, ICI has already spent £100 million working to produce a family of alternatives to CFCs, and will start producing compara tively ozonebenign R134a in commercial pantities in 1991. The company has also :ome up with techniques to reduce the ■ ...FC R11 in polyurethane foams by 50% with minimal loss of insulation and hopes :0 have a replacement, HCFC123 — which is only 2% as damaging to the None layer — available in a year or two.
Reefer manufacturer Gray and Adams is another CFC-reduced company. It has Ised panels filled with CFC-free PVC foam for more than 10 years, but is not willing to share its ecological-cleanliness 'secret".
sales director Peter Gray says most reef:r manufacturers are looking at changing aver to foams that don't contain CFCs. In 3ermany, for instance, when a trailier :omes to the end of its active life the nsulated panels are incinerated to prevent trty CFCs escaping into the atmosphere, le adds.
Crane Fruehauf is the largest trailer nanufacture in Europe. With 7% of its tusiness in reefers, it is a considerable force to reckon with. Tony Palmer is the company's technical research manager and is vice-chairman of the technical committee of reefer-user group Transfrigoroute.
The company produces aluminiumriveted and sandwich-construction reefers, and uses expanded polyurethane for insulation, with some panels from Ackerman Fruehauf in Germany and others from British company -FPI.
"What we shouldn't lose sight of is that the refrigerated unit body contains only a very small percentage of total CFCs used," says Palmer. "We are looking at alternatives, but it is really up to the panel manufacturers to come up with new foams," he insists.
Palmer also points out that insulation foams blown with non-CFCs are not such good insulators. "The problem is to come up with a foam that is as good as those that use CFCs and is not too expensive," he says. "I am looking for the best insulation materials that will do the least damme to our planet."
LI Asked if the Government had any poli cy on the destruction of CFC refrigerants or CFC-blown foam, the Department of the Environment had no information.
The British Scrap Federation is not aware of any Government guidelines. "The absence of guidelines means the scrap industry has to shoulder the country's CFC responsibility," it says. "This does not seem to be where responsibility should rest on such an important issue."
There is a very limited service for the destruction of domestic refrigerators. Mayer Newman, one of the country's top scrap processors, has looked at building a machine to remove CFCs from foams in domestic refrigerators, but it would cost 23 million. "Until somebody makes legislation to force people to act responsibly in this area and not just dump their problems, little can be done," says the company.
With Mayer Newman having to pay the gas company to take recycled CFCs, there seem to be positive disincentives to Green policies.
Oby Steve Homer.