Waste-heat driven refrigeration technology represents a promising alternative for food preservation on-board, that could help reducing pollutant emissions and, at the same time, limiting fuel consumption. Aim of the present work is the assessment of possible benefits arising from the use of thermally driven systems, with focus on two technologies: absorption and adsorption. A dynamic simulation of the whole waste heat recovery system and the sorption refrigerators has been performed. For the modelling of the thermally driven chillers, experimental data from two prototypes have been employed. The results show that, for a cooling load typical of the Italian fishing fleet, fuel savings up to 1600 kg/y can be achieved, corresponding to 3 ton/y of avoided CO2 emissions. Moreover, for bigger vessels with 10 kW cooling load needed, up to 7 times higher fuel savings can be obtained. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.