UK gets first refrigerant-free drinks dispenser

The world’s first non-refrigerated dispenser of chilled drinks has been launched in the UK.

Using the patented Chillcan technology, the drinks are not cooled by refrigerant, but chilled to around 15 degrees Celsius below the ambient temperature by pushing a button on the base of the can.

The button releases pressurised carbon dioxide which is adsorbed onto activated carbon contained in an inner can, cooling the drink.

The first dispenser to house the Chillcan technology has been installed this week at the University of Surrey by its inventor American entrepreneur Mitchell Joseph.

Professor Roland Clift, of the Centre for Environmental Strategy (CES) at the University of Surrey, has been working with the Joseph Company of California in developing a way to deliver cooled drinks without refrigerated storage.

By using Chillcan, drinks dispensers can do away with the need for a power source while they also avoid any risk of leaking refrigerant.

Furthermore, the carbon dioxide used in the new technology is recovered from waste gases and the activated carbon comes from biological waste, such as coconut shells.

Mitchell Joseph, chief executive of the Joseph Company, said: “The potential take-up is huge – what could be more convenient than a drink which cools down when you want it, rather than relying on polluting dispensers or having to carry an ice box to the beach or on a camping trip?  And it’s all the better for its good environmental profile.”

Joseph added, “The pioneering development of the current Chillcan technology was the work of Mark Sillince, an award-winning packaging engineer who had previously developed the ‘widget’, the first foreign object ever inserted into a beverage can to give a beverage the properties of a draught ale.”

Roland Clift, Emeritus Professor at the University of Surrey and executive director of the International Society of Industrial Ecology, said: “Helping the development of the Chillcan has been a unique opportunity to apply the kind of systems thinking we have developed in the Centre for Environmental Strategy to a potentially disruptive high-volume consumer product.”