Microfluidic system and method for producing highly carbonated water/brine

Abstract

A microfluidic system (100) may include a set of replaceable microfluidic cartridges (3), each having a mechanically rigid box (202) and a set of parallel microfluidic capillaries (6), and a cooling system (216) that is in thermal contact with the mechanically rigid box (202). A gas stream may flow through the capillaries (6), and an aqueous fluid stream may flow through a space (5) in between an inner surface of the mechanically rigid box (202) and an outer surface of the set of capillaries (6). A method may include providing such a microfluidic system (100), introducing a gas stream through capillaries (6), introducing an aqueous fluid stream to flow through the space (5), generating gas bubbles (218) in the aqueous fluid stream through the capillaries (6), saturating the aqueous fluid stream with gas bubbles (218), recirculating the remaining undissolved gas through a dedicated contour tube and transferring the gas containing the aqueous fluid stream to an external storage unit.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.