San Jose Sharks hockey skates on sustainable ice

Hockey rinks traditionally use hot water to maintain their ice for players. But this approach requires heaters and compressors – mechanisms that emit greenhouse gases that cause climate change. Now the San Jose Sharks, a professional hockey team in Northern California, are hoping to remedy this problem.

Sharks Sports & Entertainment, the team’s owner, recently installed REALice water conditioning systems that maintain the ice without heating water. The systems are based on the vortex process technology developed by Watreco, a Akarp, Sweden-based technology company. The REALice method is using pressure through the vortex instead of heat to remove micro air bubbles trapped in the water. Those need to be removed either through heat or pressure to make great skating ice. 

The systems are expected to save Sharks Ice at San Jose around $50,000 in energy costs, conserving around 250,000 kilowatts of electricity and more than over 11,000 Therms of natural gas annually, or the equivalent of the energy that 30 homes consume in a year. The systems will also eliminate 230 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or the same emissions that the average gasoline-powered car would emit while driving half a million miles.

REALice-treated water has a lower viscosity and higher density, requiring 35 percent less compressor time. REALice-treated water also has a higher brine setpoint compared to ice made with hot water floods. In San Jose, operators have frozen water at temperatures that are 4 degrees Fahrenheit higher than using hot water.

“Utilizing the REALice system marks a substantive change in our on-ice maintenance practices, towards a less expensive, more sustainable ice-making model,” said Sharks Ice at San Jose General Manager Richard Rocha in a press release. “We are continually striving for efficiencies and to reduce our carbon footprint and REALice does both. It’s such a simple installation, that brings immediate savings, which is a real win for us.”

REALice is marketed in Canada by Swich Services, a company co-founded by Florian Gabriel, an entrepreneur born in Switzerland. In the USA, California-based Cypress, Ltd. is REALice's energy consultant. ce/jd