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Environment and Sustainability News – 2010 Winter Olympics – CTV Olympics

Coke invests in a cooler solution

… The problem with refrigeration is one of those issues that was supposed to have been solved more than 30 years ago. Since at least the 1930s, fridges used non-toxic, non-flammable chlorofluorocarbons in their cooling systems. Scientists in the 1970s discovered that the CFCs broke up in the stratosphere, releasing chlorine that destroyed the ozone. In a massive global initiative, hydrofluorocarbon, which had minimal impact on the ozone layer, replaced CFC in many of the cooling systems used in refrigeration.

But then scientists discovered HFC was a potent greenhouse gas, heating the planet at a much faster rate than carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. A pound of HFC could do as much damage, in terms of global warming, as 3,830 pounds of carbon dioxide for 20 years after its release.

The world has more than one billion fridges and 400 million mobile air conditioners in cars and trucks. Challenged to do something rather than just protest, Greenpeace in Germany worked with engineers who developed a HFC-free alternative in 1992, a hydrocarbon refrigeration unit they called Greenfreeze. The equipment uses isobutane as the refrigerant and cyclopentane as the blowing agent for the insulation foam. The HFC-free technology was provided to manufacturers for free.

…Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Unilever have been working co-operatively with Greenpeace since 2004 on developing HFC-free technology. PepsiCo Inc.,v, Carlsberg and Ikea joined the group called Refrigerants, Naturally in 2006.
Ms. Payne of Coca-Cola said an evaluation of that company’s climate footprint identified gases escaping from its refrigeration units as the largest component, far exceeding the impact of either manufacturing or emissions from its fleet of trucks. Because Greenfreeze uses flammable chemicals, Coca-Cola decided to invest in developing its own technology and developed a cooling system that relies on compressed carbon dioxide, which is non-flammable.

via Environment and Sustainability News – 2010 Winter Olympics – CTV Olympics.