Carrier Transicold Donates NaturaLINE Units to Technische Universität Berlin to Advance CO2 Refrigeration Research

Carrier Transicold is donating two NaturaLINE^® container refrigeration units to Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin) to support commercial-scale research into transcritical carbon dioxide (CO₂) refrigeration technology, helping advance cooling systems designed to meet evolving environmental and regulatory requirements across the global cold chain. Carrier Transicold is part of Carrier Global Corporation (NYSE: CARR), global leader in intelligent climate and energy solutions.

The NaturaLINE system uses natural refrigerant for refrigerated container shipping applications. CO₂ is a naturally occurring refrigerant with a global warming potential (GWP) of 1, making it a lower-GWP alternative to traditional synthetic refrigerants used in commercial cooling. Improving the performance and efficiency of transcritical CO₂ systems under a wide range of operating conditions remains a key focus of refrigeration research.

The Institute of Energy Engineering at TU Berlin will use the NaturaLINE units as a hands-on learning tool for graduate students. Fitted with basic instrumentation, the units will allow students to measure temperature profiles, system pressures and power consumption, helping them learn directly on a real commercial system and gain firsthand insight into how transcritical CO₂ differs from conventional refrigeration cycles.

The units will also form part of the institute's research infrastructure. Researchers plan to integrate and evaluate prototype components inside the units to develop and test future heating and cooling systems, with performance assessed through automated test sequences. Researchers also plan to conduct long-term performance evaluations across a range of operating conditions to better understand commercial-scale transcritical CO₂ system behavior.

"We are excited to have access to the next-generation technology embodied in Carrier Transicold's NaturaLINE refrigeration units in carrying out our research," said Professor Stefan Elbel, Chair of Heat Transfer and Heat Conversion, Institute of Energy Engineering at Technische Universität Berlin. "As regulatory requirements tighten and the industry moves toward more sustainable refrigeration solutions, advancing this technology is critical. We hope this marks the beginning of a long-term research collaboration with Carrier Transicold."

By supporting this research, Carrier Transicold is helping advance the study of more sustainable refrigeration technologies for the connected cold chain.

"Transcritical CO₂ systems are an important technology for our industry, and we are proud to support TU Berlin's Institute of Energy Engineering's work in this space," said Jean-Marie Carvalho, Vice President & General Manager, Global Container, Carrier Transicold. "By providing researchers with access to NaturaLINE container refrigeration units, we can help accelerate understanding of system performance, support future innovation and contribute to the development of more sustainable cold chain solutions."

Learn more at Carrier.com/Container or on LinkedIn at Carrier Transicold Container Refrigeration.

About Carrier Transicold

Carrier Transicold helps improve transport and shipping of temperature-controlled cargoes with a complete line of equipment and services for refrigerated transport and cold chain visibility. For more than 50 years, Carrier Transicold has been an industry leader, providing customers around the world with advanced, energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable container refrigeration systems and generator sets, direct-drive and diesel truck units, and trailer refrigeration systems. Carrier Transicold is a part of Carrier Global Corporation, global leader in intelligent climate and energy solutions, committed to creating innovations that bring comfort, safety and sustainability to life. For further information, please visit Carrier.com/Container or follow us on LinkedIn at Carrier Transicold Container Refrigeration.