Beverage preparation machine and cooling module
AssigneeKoninklijke Douwe Egberts B.V.
InventorsHendrik Johan Dees, Willem Plantinga, Jacobus Dessing
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Abstract
A beverage preparation machine has a cooling module (70) for cooling a liquid beverage ingredient. The module comprises a heat exchanger (72) having a liquid conduit (74) and a thermal energy accumulator (80) comprising a phase change material (PCM) (82) thermally coupled to the heat exchanger. A heat pump (78) is thermally coupled to the heat exchanger discretely from the thermal energy accumulator so as to extract thermal energy from a liquid flowing through the liquid conduit in preference over the PCM. More than one thermal energy accumulator (80) may be coupled to the heat exchanger. The beverage preparation machine may have a flow-through heater for heating a liquid beverage ingredient.
Claims22
A cooling module for cooling a liquid beverage ingredient, the module comprising a heat exchanger having a liquid conduit for a liquid beverage ingredient to be cooled, at least one thermal energy accumulator comprising a phase change material (PCM) thermally coupled to the heat exchanger, and a heat pump thermally coupled to the heat exchanger discretely from the at least one thermal energy accumulator and configured, in use, to extract thermal energy from a liquid beverage ingredient flowing through the liquid conduit in the heat exchanger and from the PCM in the at least one thermal energy accumulator.
A modular cooling module for cooling a liquid beverage ingredient, the module comprising a heat exchanger having a liquid conduit for a liquid beverage ingredient to be cooled, at least one thermal energy accumulator comprising a phase change material (PCM) thermally coupled to the heat exchanger, and a heat pump thermally coupled to the heat exchanger discretely from the at least one thermal energy accumulator and configured, in use, to extract thermal energy from a liquid beverage ingredient flowing through the liquid conduit in the heat exchanger and from the PCM in the at least one thermal energy accumulator, wherein the module is configured such that at least one additional thermal energy accumulator comprising PCM can be selectively coupled to the heat exchanger.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.