Gist has begun a three-month trial of hydraulic-driven Ecogen generators on its refrigerated trailer fleet running from its depot in Spalding, Lincolnshire.
The retrofitted hydraulic cooling system from Swedish manufacturer Hultsteins converts an existing diesel powered unit to electric. This reduces the vehicle’s total fuel consumption, and lowers CO2 and NOx emissions, as well as particle emissions.
Mick Pethard, Head of Engineering at Gist, said: “The hybrid-drive system harnesses kinetic energy from the truck and recycles it into electrical energy for the transport refrigeration unit. By taking power via the rear of the engine into this equipment, which converts this into electricity to power the fridge on electric rather than red diesel – which means no CO2 being created by the fridge.”
The Ecogen plugs into any vehicle refrigeration unit with mains electric operation. The unit then powers the traditionally diesel-powered refrigeration units, with electric generated from running the truck engine at full capacity. As a result it reduces the fuel consumed to cool the load, and lower the emissions created by the refrigeration.
