ARB Holding Workshop on Regulatory Concepts for Prohibiting ICE-Powered TRUs
01 March 2009
The California Air Resources Board (ARB) is holding a public workshop 23 March in Sacramento (and via webcast) to discuss regulatory concepts for prohibiting the use of internal combustion engines to power transport refrigeration units (TRU) on trucks, trailers, shipping containers, and railcars for extended cold storage.
On 11 December 2008, the California Air Resources Board approved this measure as a component of the Goods Movement Efficiency Measures in the Climate Change Scoping Plan pursuant to the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32).
At the workshop, ARB staff will present draft regulatory concepts for the TRU Cold Storage Prohibition Control Measure. Specifically, staff will discuss concepts regarding applicability; requirements for prohibiting the extended use of TRUs for cold storage; and monitoring, record keeping, and reporting.
ARB staff will also provide a brief overview of the regulatory development process. ARB is requesting input from interested parties on these draft concepts and throughout the development of this control measure.
??? WTF could replace the ICE?
Posted by: dursun | 01 March 2009 at 12:27 PM
Batteries, vehicle connections.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 01 March 2009 at 07:45 PM
"WTF could replace the ICE?" you ask.
Why fuel cells, of course.
"What fuel cells?, you might ask.
Well, affordable fuel cells are coming.
The only problem is they are years away and the frozen goods will thaw in hours.
A minor disconnect.
Posted by: ToppaTom | 01 March 2009 at 09:37 PM
(TRU) stands for TRANSPORT refrigeration units, ie a power unit is moving it somewhere.
Refridgerated shipping containers are plugged into ships the moment they are loaded.
How is this hard to understand???
Posted by: Paul | 02 March 2009 at 12:17 AM
Those trailers are often left by themselves in a shipping yard until a drayage truck delivers it where it's unloaded.
Posted by: dursun | 02 March 2009 at 06:23 AM
They'll be fine as long as they don't sit for too long. If they need to be left for a while, the yards can always be wired for power. It wouldn't be much of a trick to equip trailers with visual, audio and radio alarms to alert people nearby that power was not connected; something like Bluetooth could even help log trailers in and out and keep their status available in the office. That might pay for the system right there.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 02 March 2009 at 06:12 PM