IOC Experts: Beijing Olympic Ice Scheme The greenest in the history of the Winter Olympics

On January 24th, the "Beijing Winter Olympics Ice Making Technology Ventilation Meeting" was held at the main media center of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, and Arthur Gibert SUTHERLAND, an ice expert of the International Olympic Committee with ice making experience for eight Winter Olympic Games and a special consultant of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, introduced the ice making technology of each venue of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

Starting from the four aspects of energy, venues, transportation and carbon sinks, the Beijing Winter Olympics launched 18 carbon emission reduction and 4 carbon neutrality measures, demonstrating the concept of green Olympic Games. Undoubtedly, the ice refrigeration system of each venue is an important part of it. Susseland revealed that this Winter Olympics adopted a new type of refrigeration technology, the venue's ice-making scheme from design to implementation, the concept of "green Olympics" has been implemented throughout.

Carbon emissions are approaching zero The ice scheme is the greenest in the history of the Winter Olympics

"The 7 new and reconstructed ice venues for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, a total of 9 ice surfaces, all use environmentally friendly refrigerants and refrigeration systems, including 4 ice surfaces used in Wukesong Sports Center, Beijing National Aquatics Center, National Gymnasium and other venues using R449A refrigerant, and 5 ice surfaces using carbon dioxide (R744) transcritical direct refrigeration system." Sutherland said at the press conference. For example, the National Speed Skating Hall, known as the "Ice Ribbon", is the world's first Winter Olympic speed skating venue to adopt this new technology of carbon dioxide refrigeration.

According to the IOC's special consultant, carbon dioxide refrigerants have an ozone depletion potential of 0 and a global warming potential of 1, while conventional refrigerants used in PyeongChang four years ago produce 3,985 times more carbon emissions than this new refrigerant.

It is worth mentioning that after the waste heat generated by carbon dioxide refrigeration is recovered, 70 °C hot water can be provided for domestic hot water and dehumidification regeneration. Compared with the traditional refrigeration method, the national speed skating hall uses carbon dioxide to make ice to improve the energy efficiency by 30%, which can save about 2 million kWh of electricity a year.

It can be seen that the Beijing Winter Olympics will become the most environmentally friendly winter Olympic event in history.

Helping athletes achieve great results from Beijing to the world

The Beijing Winter Olympics is the best stage for athletes around the world to show themselves, which also puts forward higher requirements for venues. Taking the National Speed Skating Hall as an example, in the previous test matches, the most talked about was not the athlete's performance, but the ice surface in the venue.

After the actual skate, the athletes who participated in the test match gave it a high evaluation, including the description of "best". Striving to create the "fastest ice" and helping players achieve good results at the Beijing Winter Olympics is the ultimate goal of Suseland and the venue ice team.

The biggest advantage of the carbon dioxide transcritical direct cold ice making technology enabled by the "ice ribbon" for the competition level is that the ice surface ice temperature made of it is very uniform, and the most intuitive feedback to the participating athletes is that the hardness of the ice surface is always consistent. If the temperature difference on the ice surface is too large, it will lead to different soft and hard sites, which is not conducive to the skating of the players. This new refrigerant can make the ice surface temperature difference not exceed ±0.5 degrees Celsius, the smaller the temperature difference, the more uniform the hardness of the entire ice surface, the smoother the ice surface, which helps athletes to create good results.

Sutherland said: "There are many factors that affect the athletes' good performance, ice quality, air humidity and so on are variables. Our ice team is best prepared, so let's take a look at what the athletes can do here. ”

Sutherland further believes that this environmentally friendly refrigerant in the context of carbon neutrality has set a sustainable demonstration for the future of winter sports and will take Beijing to the world.

Text/Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee official website Wang Mengru Wang Yefeng