Vol 91, No 4 (2002)

The ways of further development of civilization will determine the scale and forms of application of LTE in future. It is of much importance to appropriately and in due time evaluate the perspectives. This will allow to avoid deadlock ways of LTE development and to choose those directions of LTE that will he much demanding in future. The scale of use of LTE, as in the earlier time, will be primarily determined by the increase in production and consumption of foods.

The deficiency in energy sources will constantly increase hence, the compromises with respect to the use of energy' inefficient systems (methods) of refrigeration will be excluded.

The use of heat using refrigerating systems will he expanded, the use of natural cold will be increased, the use of secondary heat sources, unconventional energy sources, heat pump systems, combined systems of low- temperature power generation will be expanded. There will be no longer a neglecting attitude to «unusual» solutions of heat and cold supply problems that was determined by relatively favorable conditions of the XX century, especially in rich countries. The LTE itself will become the basis and the integral part of fundamentally new methods of energy production. The rote of LTE in the solution of global ecological problems will arise.

The application of LTE in protection of environment will increase. In connection with this the use of natural working substances (refrigerants): ammonia, hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide, water, air will predominate.

There will be a higher interest in new environmentally safe and energetically efficient principles of cold production (for example, metal hydrides — hydrogen).

The priority of refrigerants in the determination of the ways of development of refrigeration in the coming decades — is discussed. Developing the postulates of the Kyoto Protocol the history of problems is considered — beginning from the empirical searches in the XIX century to the purposeful synthesis of refrigerants with pre-determined properties in the century XX. The starting point — synthesis of “Freon⁷' 12 in the year 1930. The consequences of this event for artificial refrigeration, and what is more important — for the human community — are analyzed. The end of illusions which has come in the year 1987, as stated in the paper, has been and up to the present time, remains the most complicated test for the system that has been formed during more than half a century period. Ecological problems in refrigeration have come to a new level, first of all, those associated with such concepts as “ozone holes”, “global warming”, “ozone depleting refrigerants”, “greenhousegases”, “total equivalent warming impact”, etc.

The second stage of the refrigeration revolution — the period between the Montreal (September, 1987) and Kyoto (December 1997) Protocols - has not become the final result, but the beginning of the third step. The innovations of the last years associated with the intensive development of refrigerating systems and heat pumps operating on hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide, air, ammonia, water - may he considered as the sphere of the future, however of not very distant one, as can still be seemed, and certainly not unclouded future, however indicating that the refrigerating engineering is coming out to a new quality level. This conclusion has been illustrated by the examples of developments of refrigerating plants operating on ammonia, air, hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide; their technical data and fields of applications are indicated.

In Russia in the 19th century, there were mainly two types of glaciers: deep in the ground and above-ground (similar to Canadian glaciers). Construction of glaciers of the first type required a lot of work, care in construction, and was more expensive. Therefore, such glaciers were built mainly by wealthy owners and businessmen-traders. The second type of glaciers, more simple, was built in almost every peasant household. In the 1990s, engineers Sokolovsky, Volkov, and later Vasiliev improved an ordinary village icehouse, adapting it for cold stores of food companies, as well as for the needs of artels and large agricultural producers.

The congress took place on February 27, 2002 in Moscow in the hotel complex "Cosmos". It was organized by the Union of Ice Cream Workers of Russia and JSC RTPK Rosmyasomoltorg with the support of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation. About 300 people from 39 regions of Russia took part in the congress - executives and leading specialists ministries and departments, enterprises, research organizations, foreign guests from 8 countries, media representatives. The delegates of the congress were welcomed and wished them fruitful work by Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation A.V. Gordeev, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation E.M. Primakov, President of the PCT, deputy of the State Duma N.I. Ryzhkov, President of the International Academy of Refrigeration, Rector of St. Petersburg State University of Low-Temperature and Food Technologies A.V. Baranenko, Vice-President of the Russian Agricultural Academy E.I. Sizenko and others. The Chairman of the Board of the Union of Ice Cream Workers of Russia, the President of JSC RTPK Rosmyasomoltorg V.A. Vygodin (the report is published in the journal "Production and sale of ice cream and quick-frozen products" No. 2/2002).

Refrigerated transport, combining air, water (sea and river), railway and automobile means of transport into a single refrigerated chain, should be formed taking into account the unification of refrigerated containers and minimization of costs associated with transportation of perishable products. Given the delivery of goods over long distances, the main role in this case should be given to railway refrigerated transport. Containerization of transportation of perishable goods allows to send them in small batches and sharply increases the level of mechanization of loading and unloading operations.