Environmental Profiles of Stirling-Cooled and Cascade-Cooled Ultra-Low Temperature Freezers

Sustainability

David M. Berchowitz¹ 

关键词: Stirling;    ULT;    cascade;    refrigeration;    bio-repository;    TEWI;    embodied energy;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su4112838

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The environmental footprint of ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers as used in bio-repositories, universities and other research organizations is investigated. These freezers, employing the cascade refrigeration system, use between 10 and 20 times the energy of an average household refrigerator/freezer. In addition, they often require high greenhouse gas potential (GWP) refrigerants. A new technology employing the Stirling cycle machine promises to reduce energy consumption of ULT freezers by 50% or more. The cascade and Stirling systems are compared for equivalent sized freezers in terms of embodied energy and equivalent CO₂ production from cradle to gate and use, including total equivalent warming impact (TEWI) estimations. End-of-life issues are discussed but not quantified. It is shown that Stirling technology is able to significantly reduce the environmental impact of ULT freezers.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.