St. Patty’s Day Greening: Irish-Based Trane Approves Use Of HVO In Cold Chain Transport
By Rod Walton, EnergyTech Senior Editor
What’s a St. Patrick’s Day without a story about an Irish company trying new things to be greener, right?
Global HVAC firm Trane Technologies this week announced that it has approved hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) as a sustainable alternative to diesel fuel in its ThermoKing cold-chain solutions. These include refrigerated truck and trailer lines to move temperature-sensitive goods such as certain foods and medicines.
HVO is a fossil-free fuel made from hydrotreated vegetable oils or animal fats. Other power generation firms such as Kohler are approving and utilizing HVO to fuel generators and reduced carbon emissions, such as a reported 90 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and 30 per cent less particulate matter compared to other fuels such as diesel.
“We are excited to now extend the option of HVO to our customers in the Americas who share our passion for creating a more sustainable world,” said president of Trane Technologies’ Thermo King Americas business, Karin De Bondt said in a statement. “Through our advanced technologies, with efficient, all-electric-units as well as fossil-free fuels, we are enabling our customers to decarbonize as we continue to execute our strategic roadmap to net zero.”
Trane approved the inclusion of HVO among its fuel resources for Thermo King after testing through a pilot project with a national food distributor. Other transport firms such as Spinelli also are moving toward some use of HVOs.
Trane started as an American heating products company in the early 1900s. Ingersoll Rand acquired the HVAC part of the firm in 2008 and moved its corporate offices from Bermuda to the Swords suburb of Dublin.
HVO has previously been approved for Thermo King truck and trailer products operating in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. The fuel is also used for unit testing on all assembly lines and customer units at the company’s manufacturing facility in Galway, Ireland.
Thermo King has also committed to delivering all-electric, zero-emission solutions for every segment of the end-to-end cold chain by 2023 in Europe and 2025 in the Americas.
Thermo King is well known globally as the equipment for cold-chain transport. Its cargo included crucial COVID-19 vaccines delivering to pharmacies and medical facilities during the pandemic.
Other Irish-based global firms which are promising to cut greenhouse gas emissions in coming years, and have already made the road rising to meet that goals, include Accenture, CRH, Eaton, Johnson Controls and others.https://www.energytech.com
