An innovative system reduces the urban impact of refrigerated transport

Efrud —Emissions-Free Refrigerated Urban Distribution— Works in a system of transport that combines innovations already available in the market and new developments. In concrete, the prototype incorporates an innovative system of passive refrigeration (without compressor) that it is able to keep the temperature without requiring energy of the vehicle. The system allows to improve the energetic efficiency between 20% and 30% with regard to the refrigerador conventional, deleting the broadcasts of CO₂.

Also, the prototype is based on the use of hybrid vehicles powered by electricity for urban distribution of merchandise and fuel for its circulation outside the urban area.

Also new is the system of on-board diagnostics that will incorporate the vehicle, able to detect the style of driving, monitor the parameters of the refrigeration system and inform the driver about energy consumption and emissions when not using electricity.

A control center processes each route data for the diagnosis of the environmental impact, the use of energy, cooling and driving styles to identify corrective measures. Finally, a platform will be created in parallel to this prototype e-learning to train practitioners towards saving energy.

Efrud can easily be adapted to any supply chain. This new solution of transport is not significantly more expensive than current technologies, and even in certain conditions, environmental and logistical, could even become cheaper (about 5% of variation compared to standard systems).

The cities of Rome and Valencia, in which the climate requires a greater effort in the field of refrigerated transport, will have an important role in this project. The prototype field testing will be carried out with different operators and in real situations of sharing in the Italian capital and the potential of the system in the Spanish city will also analyze by simulation.

In both capitals will engage participants and interested in this process of transport actors to analyse the potential of the system. Finally, some general guidelines will be established to define a sustainable public procedure for the urban refrigerated distribution that could begin as from 2014, and that would serve as a model to be implemented in the rest of medium and large European cities.

Consorzio Train (Consortium for research and development in innovative transport), Italy, is the Coordinator of the project Efrud, in which they are also part of the technological Institute of packaging, transport and logistics (Itene) in Spain, Comune di Roma and the Fondazione Metes, both of Italy. It has a budget of 1.5 million euros, financed 50% by the European Union through the Life programme.