Solar-powered vaccine coolers are one of the fastest moving technologies within the cooling chain. A joint venture between Danish Technological Institute, Secop (Danfoss Compressors at that time) and Vestfrost Solutions have resulted in a global technological breakthrough in terms of storage of vaccines in areas without regular power supply.
When Danish Technological Institute in 1999 first applied for financial support from the Danish Energy Agency, nobody could predict this kind of global breakthrough. The idea of the project was to develop vaccine coolers where sun panels directly supply cooling compressors with energy. Up until then, solar-powered vaccine coolers were equipped with batteries of lead in order to ignite the compressors to enable cooling at all times. This solution was problematic because battery life was very short due to the immense discharge. The end-result was that batteries had to be changed frequently. The batteries were also a potential object of theft. Additionally, there were environmental issues with all of the battery waste.
The basic idea was to replace the batteries with ice storage. This was also a way of solving the problem with the industry using absorption refrigerators running on LPG or kerosene.These solutions are both inefficient and in need of fuel on a regular basis. Furthermore, this technology lacked optimal temperature control and often vast quantities of vaccine were destroyed and had to be discarded. During the project, it became clear that the energy content of ice storage, relatively speaking, is larger than in lead acid batteries. This observation provided further inspiration for the development work. [Source: HVAC Magasinet, 02/2016, Denmark]
Case Story SolarChill (Solar-Powered Vaccine Cooler)
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Other case stories for Secop´s application areas can be found here.
About Vestfrost Solutions
Vestfrost Solutions is a global developer and manufacturer of innovative and efficient refrigerators and freezers for the professional market. A/S Vestfrost was founded in Esbjerg, Denmark in 1963 with one vision in mind: To create the world’s best refrigerators and freezers. After gaining worldwide recognition through half a century with sales exceeding 15 million units, the vision remains the same, while the business model has been sharpened. Vestfrost Solutions is serving specific business needs within three distinctive segments: Biomedical / Merchandising / Wine & Food
