Big chill

"Around the world more and more goods are being loaded at ambient temperature, basically the containers are being taken out to farms and fields and loaded right there, and that's not recommended as best practice," explains Pallotta.

Unfortunately it's often prohibitively expensive to install cold storage facilities at rural sites, especially in developing countries, so it may become increasingly common for the units that transport goods over the oceans to be deployed from the beginning of the cold chain. The cold chain industry is working on technology that will cool these goods very quickly.

"As manufacturers we don't dictate what happens in the industry. Developments such as this are very significant considerations of ours in the future," he says.

Aside from human impacts, the continuity of the supply chain forms one of the largest barriers to success. Ports also prove a crucial link in the cold chain. Efficient operations ensure that containers are moved quickly from vessel to reefer point and that the units stay ‘on-power' for as much of the journey as possible, the most important aspect of maintaining temperature throughout the journey.

Recently the aviation industry has come under increasing scrutiny and vilification from environmental pressure groups for the colossal quantities of carbon dioxide emitted directly into the upper atmosphere. The sea freight sector is naturally garnering media and public attention too, but still remains by far the most ecologically sound method of transporting bulk goods over distance.

Environmental considerations are therefore of paramount importance to the industry, and acknowledging progress and improvements can be made are an absolute must in the modern age. Naturally each and every player within the sea freight industry must show that investments and innovation are very much a part of their business strategy.

With this in mind it was refreshing, if not a little surprising to here how much the biggest player in the ocean bound cold-chain business was focussing it's efforts on just that. "The generator units that are deployed on standard sea freight containers today all run off of the ship's electrical supply, so minimising the power consumption is one of our main priorities looking forward." explains Pallotta.

The newest addition to the Carrier family is the EliteLINE system, which has been developed to be more efficient in maintaining pre-defined temperatures using a scroll compressor. These compressors hold an advantage over the standard air conditioning technology because the inner chamber is tapered into a spiral that reduces the amount of power required to draw the air through the system.

Added to this, the industry standard refrigerant chemical, R-404A has been replaced with HFC-134a, a non-ozone depleting chemical. "The performance is identical but HFC-134a has the lowest global warming potential of any refrigerant on the market today," he says.

When the chemicals that make up the refrigerant are released into the atmosphere, the ecological impact is very low because they break down more than three times faster than standard coolants. The relative leak rate of the refrigerant is also a major indicator of the eventual impact a fully charged system will have over time, and that too remains three times lower than the competition.

Such technology usually hits the market at an unattractive price, at least initially, but the major shipping lines have been quick to respond to the benefits extolled by the Carrier team. Last month APL placed the largest ever order for scroll technology kit, snapping up 6,300 units. APL offers over 60 weekly services making up over 300 port calls globally, including principal Middle Eastern routes.

"There will be a transition towards natural or ecologically neutral refrigerants in the future. It's more a case of when that will happen, not if," asserts Pallotta.

As the capabilities of the technology develop, shipping lines, ports, retailers and ultimately consumers will benefit from improved cool chain performance. The development team at Carrier see this performance development as one side of a set of scales that needs to be balanced with equally impressive ecological improvements.

The public at large are demanding more and they are demanding it's green. How the worldwide cool chain meets these aims will be seen in years to come, but the Carrier Transicold refrigeration units are stepping up to this challenge, and majors such as APL are clearly confident, commercially and environmentally, of the potential rewards.

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