A new passive cooling material developed by deep-tech startup Cooling Photonics has reduced shipping container temperatures by up to 22\u00b0C during a pilot at the Valenciaport Sandbox in Spain, without consuming energy.<\/p>\n
The trial was conducted over 15 consecutive summer days at the Transbase Soler depot, with support from Valenciaport\u2019s open innovation hub Opentop, the Fundaci\u00f3n Valenciaport and the wider port community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Valenciaport Sandbox was created so that innovative ideas can prove their value in a real port operations environment, with data gathered on the ground,\u201d said Juan Manuel D\u00edez, head of innovation at the Port Authority of Valencia.<\/p>\n
Four identical 20-foot containers with the same solar exposure were monitored. One remained untreated, another used a conventional internal thermal blanket, while the remaining two were coated with Cooling Photonics\u2019 material on the roof, and on the roof and side walls respectively. Independent sensors recorded temperatures every 15 minutes, generating more than 5,600 readings.<\/p>\n
The untreated container reached 53\u00b0C and spent more than one-third of the test period above 40\u00b0C. By contrast, the fully coated container remained below 34.2\u00b0C. Its daily peak temperature was reduced by an average of 17.5\u00b0C, with a maximum difference of 22\u00b0C on the hottest day.<\/p>\n
The CoolPly material works by reflecting solar radiation before it penetrates the container\u2019s steel shell, allowing the container to cool naturally at night rather than trapping heat through conventional insulation.<\/p>\n
Salvador Furi\u00f3, deputy director general and director of innovation and development of the Cluster at Fundaci\u00f3n Valenciaport, said the pilot demonstrated its commitment to helping startups validate technologies in operational environments.<\/p>\n
The technology could potentially protect cargo, reduce heat stress for workers and improve the reliability of electrical equipment. It could also provide ports and logistics operators with a passive tool for adapting to increasingly hot summers.<\/p>\n
Alfredo Soler, chief executive of Transbase Soler, said the results showed the value of testing innovations in everyday operations.<\/p>\n
Javier Achiaga, chief executive of Cooling Photonics, said the trial provided strong validation of the material under real Mediterranean summer conditions and highlighted opportunities to protect cargo and improve working conditions without additional energy consumption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cooling Photonics\u2019 passive film cut container temperatures by up to 22\u00b0C during a successful Valenciaport summer pilot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":12321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,8],"tags":[2699,2700,1000,189,2701],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-12320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-greenport","category-projects-initiatives-greenport","tag-containers","tag-cooling-photonics","tag-port-authority-of-valencia","tag-valenciaport","tag-valenciaport-sandbox"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12322,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12320\/revisions\/12322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12320"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=12320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}