SOEs & Winter Olympics: COFCO Contributes to Technical Construction of Olympic Venues

COFCO Corporation (COFCO) has played a key role in environmentally-friendly ice and snow making for the venues of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics with its self-developed innovative technology.

Take the direct carbon dioxide trans critical cooling ice production system adopted at the National Speed Skating Oval as an example.

Wang Bin, the general manager of COFCO's Winter Olympics project, explained that the system generates a large amount of waste heat while working, much of which can be used for various processes like heating water. Compared with the traditional system, the newly-adopted system improves energy efficiency by more than 30 percent.

The temperature difference under the ice surface can be limited to within 0.5 degrees thanks to the system and can improve ice surface conditions according to the feedback from athletes, which guarantees a favorable competition environment.

It's worth noting that the system can save more than 2 million kilowatt-hours of power annually when it is fully operated throughout the whole ice surface.

The technology is currently one of the most advanced, environmentally-friendly and highly-efficient ice making technologies for winter sports venues in the world, but it has not yet been widely used in ice and snow sports competitions.

The technology was tested at the National Speed Skating Oval for the first time in China in April 2021 and was praised by speed skaters.

The use of the technology also makes the National Speed Skating Oval the world's first winter Olympic speed skating venue to use the natural refrigerant carbon dioxide and to have the world's largest multi-functional ice surface based on the carbon dioxide trans critical cooling ice production system.

COFCO Group was also responsible for design of the ice and snow making systems of many other Olympic venues like the National Sliding Center and the National Alpine Skiing Center.

For example, the ice making system of the National Sliding Center is based on natural refrigeration process ammonia, which is environmentally friendly and efficient.

The National Speed Skating Oval and the National Alpine Skiing Center adopt the ice making system based on a combined cooling and heating technology, which recovers the waste heat generated from the ice making process and uses it for various scenarios like heating and dehumidification of the venues.

The technologies are playing a crucial role in conserving energy and contributing to achieving China's goal of peaking carbon dioxide by 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2060.

(Executive editor: Niu Yilin)