Number

237-EN

Section

General Section

Use

Abstract

A Danish company produces refrigerators and freezers for professional use; for soft drinks, beer, wine, pharmaceuticals, blood and vaccines, and has offered coolers and freezers with hydrocarbon refrigerants since 1994, and to the household market and since 2000. The company has 330 employees and 90% of the production is exported to the global market.

Substituted substances

Alternative Substances

Reliability of information

Evidence of implementation: there is evidence that the solution was implemented and in use at time of publication
Evidence of assessment: there is evidence of an official (positive) assessment of the substitution

Reason substitution

ecotoxicity
physical hazards

Hazard Assessment

Substances to be substituted: HFC refrigerants are Green House gasses with global warming potential (GWP) values between 50 and 13,000 and they contribute significantly to the obstruction of the ozone layer. Alternative substances: Natural refrigerants are short chain hydrocarbons with GWP-values < 20. Propane and isobutane are flammable gases.

Description of Substitution

It was the first company to offer bottle coolers with natural refrigerants, and today these products have become very popular on the market. Itwas also the first company to offer energy optimized open-air impulse sales coolers for soft drinks and energy drinks. They have recently been awarded for that achievement. The company was also the first to introduce the SolarChill vaccine cooler on the global market. The vaccine cooler has been approved by WHO and is powered directly by photovoltaic panels, using a hydrocarbon refrigerant. It has an ice storage which can keep the vaccine cold for up to 5 days without any power. Several hundreds of SolarChill vaccine coolers are now installed at health centres in areas without grid electricity. The SolarChill technology has been developed in a partnership, and includes the organizations: WHO, UNICEF, UNEP, PATH, GTZ, Greenpeace International and Danish Technological Institute.The products are competitive on the global market, and the hydrocarbon coolers use less energy compared to HFC coolers.They haveconducted a big field test in co-operation with Carlsberg, Danish Technological Institute and the Danish Energy Agency. 18 bottle coolers were installed in supermarkets in Copenhagen, and the result showed 28% less energy consumption for the coolers with natural refrigerants compared to the HFC units. The company offers training of technicians so they can handle hydrocarbon refrigerant and service of the units in new markets. However, that is often not necessary as technicians already are available in many countries and they can repair domestic appliances that use hydrocarbon refrigerants.

Case/substitution evaluation

The case exemplifies that the natural refrigerant technology have reached a level where substitution with this technology makes it highly useful and reliable as well as environmentally safe and sound. Although using flammable gasses (H2212), the technology has proven to be significantly safe.

State of implementation

Full capacity

Availability ofAlternative

On the market

Producer/Provider

www.vestfrostsolutions.com

Type of information supplier

Producer / distributor
Authority

Contact

Miljøstyrelsen / Danish EPA www.mst.dk

Further information

The Danish Technological Institute www.dti.dk

Publication source: author, company, institute, year

Miljøstyrelsen / Danish EPA www.mst.dk Environmental project no. 1425 https://mst.dk/service/publikationer/publikationsarkiv/2012/jun/low-gwp-alternatives-to-hfcs-in-refrigeration/

Publication source

Type of publication and availability

http://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2012/06/978-87-92903-15-0.pdf

Date, reviewed

November 26, 2021