Innovative method for evaluating liquid nitrogen consumption of cryogenic transport refrigerated units.

This paper presents an innovative method to evaluate the operational consumption of liquid nitrogen (LIN) which is used as a cold source for Transport Refrigerated Units (TRU’s). First the justification of such development is explained, then the new approach is presented based on big data collection and their analysis. Finally, the method is applied to a fleet of TRU’s with a follow-up over a year of operation to show its effectiveness. The results show that LIN consumption can be predicted in a simpler way as a linear equation with a reference ambient temperature (T) as a variable. Two constants of the equation (A×T+B) represent the sensitivity to factors related the external temperature (A) and other factors (B) such as specific process of logistics of the fleet. To conclude, this new promising method can be used to predict more efficiently LIN consumption based on real data for further applications and can be used to follow the performance of the TRU’s over time and to alert in case of deviation.