Canadian Pacific orders 400 R452A reefers
The Canadian Pacific Railway’s has ordered over 400 Thermo King refrigerated containers using the lower GWP refrigerant R452A.
Canadian Pacific’s (CP) investment in the 53ft Thermo King SLXi-DRC reefers is the first order for these units in North America. The units have a slim profile, which provides room for an extra pallet row of cargo space in the container.
Thermo King first introduced R452A, a blend of R32, R125 and R1234yf, to its US product line in 2015. It is marketed by Chemours as Opteon XP44. With a GWP of 2140, R452A is not considered a low GWP gas but at virtually half the GWP of currently used R404A it has appeal both in new equipment and as a drop-in alternative.
“We presented the SLXi-DRC refrigeration unit last year as a concept to our North America DRC rail customers and we received a great response,” said Dane Taival, vice president and general manager, Thermo King North America. “The ability to add an additional pallet row of cargo per container translates to increased profit for our customers. Domestic rail transport is a very competitive market, and every additional pallet of product adds to a customer’s bottom line.”
Canadian Pacific and Thermo King collaborated on an extensive, four-month field test of the new SLXi-DRC unit to verify performance of the technology in the rugged environment and climate of Canadian’s railways.
“We installed the unit on a six-year-old CP container and tested performance on a variety of loads – from fresh, to frozen, to pharmaceuticals, and on temperature extremes of -15ºF to 65ºF [-26ºC to 18ºC],” said Don Bradd, vice president and general manager, Thermo King Eastern Canada.
“Performance downloads were taken regularly and our partners at CP recorded fuel levels before and after every trip. Internal box temperatures were always well below targets, and fuel economy, quality and reliability were all proven with the SLXi-DRC unit.”