PERFORMANCES OF TRANSPORT REFRIGERATION UNITS AT PARTIAL LOAD; TESTING METHODOLOGY AND COMPARISON WITH PERFORMANCES AT FULL LOAD

摘要

Transport refrigeration units are operating in different mode: full load, regulation, start-stop, defrost … For their characterization, their refrigeration capacity and fuel consumption are generally measured at full load as required in the international Agreement for the Transport of Perishables goods of the United Nations (ATP) or other standards. The units are then optimized for these regimes of operation even if, most of the time they are functioning in other modes in which their performance may be very different. At the cross of refrigeration and transport, two major energy consumption sectors, refrigerated transport is strongly concerned by energy efficiency. Several studies were conducted to characterize, classify, or labelize energy efficiency of transport refrigeration equipment. All of them concluded on the need to measure the energy efficiency of the unit in other operation modes and especially at partial load. Cemafroid proposed some years ago test protocol to measure energy efficiency at partial load for mechanical refrigeration units. This protocol was tested with different type of transport refrigeration units and improved. This paper presents the test protocol to measure at partial load the energy consumption of different types of refrigeration units: motor driven, diesel units in route mode, diesel units in standby mode. The results of the test are also presented for some units. The paper describes the possible use of these results for labelization of units or white certificates deliverance for energy saving.