Plug-and-chill system for refrigerated transport of perishables wins award

A Pune-based start-up is basking in the limelight, having won global attention at the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue last week for its mobile refrigeration technology.

The company was one of the six winners of the prestigious Startup Energy Transition awards instituted by the Deutsche Energie–Agentur, the German Energy Agency, for innovative business ideas in energy transition from across the world.

Named Thermal Energy Service Solutions Private Limited (TESSOL), the company bagged the award in the ‘Mobility meets Energy Transition’ category for the development of a plug-and-chill system for refrigerated transport of perishables. The cold chain technology is based on patented thermal energy storage technology.

The international jury for the awards chose Tessol because cooling systems can have high impact in increasing the efficiency of food supply worldwide. Tessol, according to the jury, was able to clearly demonstrate the benefits of their technology in reducing carbon emissions and fossil fuel consumption.

Founder CEO of Tessol Rajat Gupta and product manager Raj Dhami received the award at Berlin on March 20. Tessol and five other start-ups from France, Germany, Bangladesh and Nigeria were selected from more than 500 entries from 66 countries.

Patented technology

Mr. Gupta, an alumnus of IIT, Delhi, and Harvard University, told The Hindu the company’s patented technology permits cold chain vehicles to obviate the use of diesel fuel for refrigeration.

“The refrigeration is based on a heat exchanger using an advanced phase change material (PCM) and is independent of the vehicle’s engine. It is charged from the grid and can be tuned to maintain the temperature from -25 to +15 degree celsius”.

The firm has already customised 200 cold chain vehicles with modular TES units for bakeries, fruit and vegetable vendors, dairy and ice cream manufacturers and e-commerce, food processing, poultry and seafood companies.

Tessol claims that its technology had demonstrated a reduction of 60% to 65% in the operating cost of refrigerated vehicles. Mr. Gupta said the company was working on thermal energy storage solutions for village level pack houses, hybrid system for buses and household airconditioning.