Diesel refrigeration units to be put on ice

The need to replace the diesel-powered fridge engines on refrigerated transport has largely been driven by environmental factors.

While smaller vehicles, such as vans and light rigid trucks, use power from the vehicle to run the refrigeration system, the large rigids and articulated trucks use an auxiliary engine. These are typically diesel and have much less strict emission standards than the diesel engines used for vehicle propulsion.

A white paper published by Cenex last year reported that auxiliary engines emit at least 16 tonnes more nitrogen oxides (NOx) and 40 times more particulate matter (PM) than a truck’s main engine and can produce up to 15 tonnes of tailpipe CO2 each year.

However, another factor has recently come into play: fuel costs.

The need for an alternative has accelerated as April’s end of the subsidy for the red diesel used to fuel the engines is expected to have increased the running cost of transport refrigeration units by 60-70%.

A number of technological solutions aimed at helping fleets with this issue are already on the market, with more to come.

Some of these mean the vehicle operator will not have to throw their diesel fridge engines on the scrapheap and attempt to go all-electric immediately. A halfway house is available which will allow operators to retain the engines, but power them without having to keep filling their tanks with diesel.