Coca-Cola will narrowly miss its ambitious target of only using natural refrigerants—primarily carbon dioxide, as well as hydrocarbons—in all its new vending machines globally by 2015. The soft drink conglomerate’s sustainable refrigeration manager, Antoine Azar, said at the recent Atmosphere conference that there remains a 4% ‘technology gap’ in the smallest vending machine sizes that prevents the company from reaching the goal, set in 2009. For the smallest equipment, Coca-Cola is looking at thermoelectric cooling, Azar said. “It uses no refrigerant, so it has fewer breakdowns, and it is very quiet. The only downside is its energy efficiency.” Coca-Cola now has 1.4 million HFC-free vending machines. Nearly 80% of the new machines operate more energy efficiently than HFC-based machines.

(Source: The HVAC&R Industry, March 26, 2015)