Refrigerants Naturally

During the conference Refrigerants Naturally held by UNEP and Greenpeace on June 22, 2004 in Brussels, Belgium, three companies reported on their global environmental actions and presented their objectives in this field: - Coca-Cola (Jeff Seabright) aims at a reduction in the energy consumption of its refrigerating equipment of 40-50% by 2010 compared with 2000. The company "pursued more than 10 technology options, including Peltier and thermoacoustics, and eventually narrowed its search to three main technologies: hydrocarbons, CO2 and Stirling". Coca-Cola "came to the conclusion that CO2-based refrigeration is currently the best option for its global needs". - McDonald's (Gladys Terman) reported that "it was able to reduce the Total Equivalent Warming Impact (TEWI) 13% by just replacing HFC in 10 equipment components with hydrocarbons or CO2 alternatives". Thus, according to McDonald's, a restaurant opened in Vejle, Denmark, in January 2003 and using only hydrocarbons and CO2 consumed approximately 12% less energy than a conventional Danish McDonald's restaurant. - Unilever Ice Cream (Gino Coronato) announced than "by the end of 2004, the company will have close to 15 000 hydrocarbon cabinets on the market in Europe, with another 80 000 units planned worldwide by the end of 2005". Unilever is currently exploring thermoacoustics, CO2 ice cream delivery vans and solar-powered assisted hydrocarbon cabinets.