Driving Down Carbon Emissions in Transportation

As the climate continues to change and risks to human health and well-being grow, one critical area demands our attention: the use of energy recovery technology in transportation to decarbonize the cold chain.

Decarbonizing Our Cities is Within Reach

Transport is responsible for 20% of global emissions. That’s a significant portion of the world’s emissions that Thermo King can help address. To reduce emissions and decarbonize our cities, we must revolutionize energy used in transportation. Any heat released into the environment can be considered wasted, and since it takes energy to produce heat, wasted heat is wasted energy. By preventing and recovering waste heat, we are helping decarbonize transport systems – transforming them from energy sinks into energy sources.

By focusing on the generated power that’s being wasted, what we call demand-side management, we can have a significant impact on addressing energy waste and reducing energy demand.

Driving Down Carbon Emissions in Transportation

New industry standards for emissions reduction and efficiency are being set for commercial transportation. Thermo King specializes in transport refrigeration, ensuring the safety of foods and medicines – in a sustainable way. The Thermo King AxlePower energy recovery system, for example, harvests energy when a trailer rolls or brakes, capturing and storing the power in a high-voltage battery that powers the refrigeration unit. Such high-performance, hybrid or fully electric systems can make significant CO2 savings.

During a trial on Woolworths‘ long-haul N1 route in South Africa, the vehicle’s battery operated for a distance of 15,000 kilometers to cool the load and only engaged the diesel engine 3% of the time. On the route between Johannesburg and Cape Town, carbon emissions dropped by 27 tons.

Challenging the Current Mindset Around Decarbonization

By now, it should be clear that obstacles to creating decarbonized cities are not technological. So, what is? One common misconception is that sustainable solutions are prohibitively expensive. In reality, the energy efficiency and CO2 reductions achieved through these technologies often result in short payback periods, sometimes within just two to three years.

Another myth is that these systems are complex and only applicable to new transportation infrastructure. This is far from the truth. Fleet owners looking to switch to electric solutions will find that next-generation energy recovery systems (e.g., Thermo King AxlePower) are more efficient and less reliant on recharging stations and fossil fuels.

Financing, often perceived as a barrier, is also readily available. The key is to finance the future, not outdated systems.

The Future is Now: Time for Action

The path to decarbonizing our cities lies in these sustainable, thermal management and energy recovery solutions. As we move forward, policymakers, industry leaders, and communities must work together to embrace this vision.

Decarbonizing our cities is within reach, and the benefits for our planet and future generations are immeasurable.