SolarChill - hydrocarbons for a world without electricity

By Sabine Lobnig, Mar 12, 2009, 12:59 3 minute reading

The HFC-free vaccine cooler and refrigerator is climate friendly, battery free, reliable, and affordable to bridge health and development gaps in remote areas with no electricity. It could help more than 2.5 billion people to store urgently needed vaccines and food. However, delays in certification and lacking financial commitment have blocked its trail of success.

Every year, vaccines worth millions of dollars deteriorate due to inadequate cooling technologies applied in remote areas with no access to electricity. The use of kerosene, gas and lead batteries for medicine and food cooling has brought about constant problems as the cooling chain is interrupted at random due to a break down of batteries or a lack of supply of gas and kerosene, as well as a conflict with maintaining the required temperatures for vaccine cooling. Moreover, they often catch on fire while also contributing to global warming.

SolarChill, a vaccine cooler using isobutane (R600a) as a refrigerant, and cyclopentane as the blown insulation foam, could change the way vaccine and food cooling in areas with inadequate electrical supply can be done in a reliable, safe and cost-efficient way. The technology has been successfully tested over an 18 month period, in Senegal, Indonesia and Cuba. At an ambient temperature of 32°C, the prototype maintained the required temperatures of 2-8°C under normal use, as well as a hold over temperature of 10 to 15°C for more than six days without any solar energy.

Under normal conditions powered by a 2 x 80W photo-voltaic panel, and capable of storing energy in ice-packs through the use of a direct current compressor, SolarChill is outperforming any solar-vaccine cooling technology on the market today, while also being safer, cleaner and more reliable.

Progress slowed down

However, to use the units – where one could serve a population of 50,000 people for preserving vaccines - they first have to comply with a set of performance standards defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Submitted for approval some years ago, and although the certification remains only a formality, the WHO has not issued any certification within the last two years, preventing official “UN-related” bodies, such as UNICEF, from buying and using SolarChill. As a result, project initiator Greenpeace has to buy units for demonstration projects in Africa at higher market prices from Vestfrost, the Danish manufacturer and project partner supplying the units.

Once accredited by the WHO, SolarChill can be made freely available to the world and will be publicly owned. At an expected commercialisation price between $1,500 and $2,000 (including solar panels), SolarChill would be 50 to 60% cheaper than currently available solar refrigerators meeting the WHO specifications.

Next steps: SolarChill Type B & Joint global efforts

Building on the reliable performance of the SolarChill vaccine cooler, the concept has been extended to also cover small domestic and commercial refrigerators. Type B is an upright model featuring the same characteristics as the basic model for health care purposes, without requiring an official certification by the WHO. It promises even more potential for billions of households with no access to electricity. Being operational with both AC / DC, it provides absolute flexibility to use wind, hydropower, bio-gas or grid energy.

Greenpeace and all other project partners have now agreed to gather again for a joint meeting in April to discuss further financing and development of SolarChill type B together with representatives from UNEP. Wolfgang Lohbeck, initiator of “Greenfreeze”, the HFC-free hydrocarbon domestic refrigerator that served as an inspiration for SolarChill, confirmed to hydrocarbons21.com that the project is sparking high interest in African countries. End of February, a SolarChill unit was handed over to Kenya’s Minister of Health, Prof. Peter Anyang Nyong’o, who suggested to use it in Massai Land near Nairobi.

Background: SolarChill history & partners

When, in 1999, the World Health Organisation (WHO) wanted to prescribe HFCs as the technical standard to be used for all future vaccine coolers, the environmental group Greenpeace joined forces with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to initiate the SolarChill project and demonstrate that HFC-free technology could work reliably and efficiently also under difficult climatic conditions and in remote areas without any access to electricity. The seven project partners currently active include Greenpeace, the Danish Technological Institute, GTZ Proklima, WHO, UNICEF, and the Program for Appropriate Technology in Healthcare (PATH). Vestfrost developed and produced the chest freezer prototypes, while Danish manufacturer Danfoss contributed the direct current hydrocarbon compressors. 

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By Sabine Lobnig

Mar 12, 2009, 12:59




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