Exploring transformative innovations and future possibilities in industrial refrigeration.

I’ve been thinking a lot about innovation recently. More specifically what is it, why do we need to do it and what stops us from doing it more?

My conclusion, regarding the refrigeration industry, is that there are incremental improvements to products and systems happening all the time but these do not change the fundamental ways in which we do refrigeration. It could be contended that the introduction of evaporative condensers was the last substantial change to the core design of industrial refrigeration plants and that was in the 1930s. Others might call the introduction of the oil-injected screw compressor, developed by Howden in the late 1950s and widely promoted in the United States by Dunham-Bush in the early 1960s, a major step-change, but when you boil it down it’s just a different type of machine in the engine room, not a different way of life.

The following are my picks for the things that truly transformed the way we conducted industrial refrigeration in the past.

The development of the industrial compressor, which started in the 1870s. The use of electric motors instead of steam engines to power the compressor (1910). The use of welded pipe instead of screwed and flanged joints and the introduction of welded vessels instead of riveted construction (also around 1910), and most recently, as mentioned earlier, the introduction of evaporative condensers instead of river water (1935). This last innovation enabled plants to be constructed anywhere—not just where there was a plentiful source of cooling water or enough space for a naturally ventilated atmospheric condenser (a huge grid of pipes with water running over them). The democratizing effect of these innovations, which made cooling plants much more affordable, was akin to Henry Ford’s introduction of the Model T (1908). In comparison, all of our recent efforts are tame.

It might be argued that fluorinated hydrocarbons belong on this list, they certainly had a substantial effect in the domestic and commercial refrigeration markets. However, in the industrial market they were only introduced in the 1950s in some regions, with R-22 and R-502, and were being phased out again by the 1980s, just 30 years later. In other regions, such as North America, they never really penetrated the industrial market at all.

Here are some “what-ifs” for future radical departures in refrigeration. What if we could eliminate food waste by selective breeding, genetic engineering, microbial manipulation or irradiation? Would I still want my ice-cream to be teeth-jarringly cold? Would I want my fruit and vegetables chilled? If meat could not spoil would I be able to digest it?

What if we were able to tune microwaves in the way that my noise-cancelling headphones tune sound waves to decrease molecular activity? Would it be possible to have a microwave freezer in the same way we have microwave ovens? Would we be able to set up microwave barriers to eliminate heat transfer instead of using insulated panels to do half the job? What would a cold store look like if it had no walls or ceiling and trucks could drive through the microwave thermal barrier at any point?

What if?