Carrier Transicold is donating two NaturaLINE container refrigeration units to Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin) to support research into transcritical carbon dioxide refrigeration technology.
The equipment will be used by the university’s Institute of Energy Engineering for graduate-level learning as well as research into commercial-scale refrigeration systems.
The NaturaLINE units use CO₂ as the refrigerant, with a global warming potential of 1. Equipped with basic instrumentation, they will allow students to measure temperature profiles, system pressures and power consumption while studying the operation of transcritical CO₂ systems. Researchers will also integrate prototype components into the units and evaluate their performance under different operating conditions.
The research programme will include automated testing and long-term performance evaluations to improve understanding of commercial-scale transcritical CO₂ refrigeration. Carrier said the collaboration is intended to support research into refrigeration technologies responding to evolving environmental and regulatory requirements in the cold chain.
The donated systems will also provide a practical platform for exploring system optimisation, energy efficiency and the integration of emerging refrigeration components. Through hands-on experimentation and data analysis, students and researchers will be able to examine how transcritical CO₂ systems perform across varying load and
operating conditions, helping generate insights that could support the wider adoption of lower-impact refrigeration solutions in commercial cold-chain applications.
