Global container line Hapag-Lloyd has purchased 3,700 Star Cool Integrated containers from Maersk Container Industry (MCI). Of these, 1,000 will be chilled by the environmentally friendly R513A refrigerant system with a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of less than 56 percent of the commonly used R134A refrigerant.
The Hamburg, Germany-headquartered company is the first carrier to widely use the low-GWP R513A refrigerant blend recently introduced by MCI. Deployment of Star Cool units charged by this refrigerant addresses environmental protection legislation for existing technology platforms introduced with, for example, the F-gas regulations in the EU.
“Reducing carbon emissions is a key objective on our sustainability agenda and we believe in the potential of environmentally friendly refrigerants as an important element in achieving this,” said Niklas Ohling, senior director at Hapag-Lloyd. “At the same time, we have ensured in earlier field trials with MCI that the cargo quality and energy efficiency remains unaffected by the new refrigerant.”
Søren Leth Johannsen, chief commercial officer at MCI, added: “It has been our imperative to offer a refrigerant solution that is not only better for the environment, but can also be deployed here and now, in the future, and in existing Star Cool fleets. This protects our customers’ investment and allows for a gradual change to the new technology and to legislation.”
All Star Cool units produced after July 2017 can be delivered either charged with R513A or as “R513A-optimised,” enabling a conversion to R513A at any time without modifications. Star Cool units manufactured prior to July 2017 are declared “R513A-ready,” meaning that they can be adapted to run on R513A with only minor modifications.
About Hapag-Lloyd
With a fleet of 219 modern container ships and total transport capacity of 1.6 TEU, Hapag-Lloyd is one of the world’s leading liner shipping companies. The company has approximately 13,000 employees and over 436 offices in 126 countries. Its container capacity of 2.3 million TEU includes one of the largest and most modern reefer fleets on the water, with 129 liner services providing fast and reliable connections between more than 600 ports on all the continents.
About MCI
Maersk Container Industry (MCI) develops and manufactures refrigerated containers, dry containers and the Star Cool refrigeration machine for the intermodal industry, including shipping lines, fruit multinationals and leasing companies. Employing around 5,000 people, it has R&D and engineering test facilities in Denmark, two production plants in China and one in Chile, as well as a global network of 400 service providers. MCI is part of the Transport and Logistics division of Copenhagen, Denmark-headquartered A.P. Moller – Maersk.
