Rotterdam, 20 July 2022

An innovative 9-month collaboration between equipment service provider TIP Trailer Services, global consumer goods company Unilever, transport company Daily Logistics Group (DLG) and green-tech experts maxwell+spark, is estimated to have saved the emission of more than one ton of CO2 per month per refrigerated reefer so far.

The pilot’s aim was to replace diesel refrigeration systems on reefer trailers with a cleaner, lithium-ion powered battery, one that can if needed, draw on diesel as a contingency. It is an innovative attempt to create sustainable, greener transport solutions in the logistics industry. Two more reefers have been fitted with this system and are now on the road for summer.

maxwell+spark, has been designing and building lithium-ion powered transport refrigeration systems since 2017. Their systems result in significantly reduced CO2 emissions, less noise and particulate pollution on roads and in cities.

With this goal in mind, the pilot project began in the second half of 2021 when the first two TIP reefers used to transport Unilever’s Ben & Jerry ice-cream, were fitted with maxwell+spark’s advantage.li system. The target was to save 80% of the diesel used in traditional refrigeration systems, by replacing them with a battery that could draw from a green electric grid. Not only was this achieved, but current project data show that the system reached more than a 99% saving of fossil fuel over the last few months.

Based on these results, not only is there a huge CO2 saving per system, comparable to taking between 7 and 15 diesel cars off the road, and an even larger particulate emission saving equivalent to taking between 50 and 150 diesel cars off the road, but there are also very substantial running cost savings. The advantage.li system drastically lowers energy costs and reduces maintenance costs, resulting in an extremely attractive total cost of ownership and payback period.

maxwell+spark attributes this success to a combination of factors including high system reliability, driver attitude and willingness to use the new system, as well as the upgrading of existing charging infrastructure at warehouses.

Commenting on the pilot project’s positive results to date, maxwell+spark CEO, Clinton Bemont, said, “All companies involved have worked together to implement this carbon, noise and pollution reducing system, and so far it has been more successful than expected. We hope to roll the technology out to a larger proportion of the fleet in the next 12-24 months.”

These positive results mean big cost and carbon saving for industry, and of course, cold ice-cream in time for a greener summer!

If you are interested in finding out more about advantage.li or our other COsaving products, please get in touch. Info@maxwellandspark.com or sales@maxwellandspark.com