System for cooling non-liquid conveyable product

A method for providing a predetermined amount of cooling to a quantity of non-liquid conveyable product in a vessel within a given length of residence time in the vessel, comprising:

• (A) continuously feeding a mass of non-liquid conveyable product into the vessel, through the interior of the vessel, and out of the vessel, at a rate that provides a given predetermined length of residence time within the interior of the vessel, wherein the non-liquid conveyable product is moved through the interior of the vessel by engagement thereof with an impeller that is positioned in the interior of the vessel;
• and
• (B) feeding cryogen out of a plurality of nozzle openings directly into or onto the non-liquid conveyable product in the interior of the vessel while the impeller is moving the non-liquid conveyable product continuously past the nozzle openings, wherein the cryogen is fed into said non-liquid conveyable product from a sufficient number of said nozzle openings to provide the predetermined amount of cooling to the non-liquid conveyable product within the given period of residence time in the vessel, and wherein the flow of cryogen out of each nozzle opening is continuous or intermittent;
• wherein (i) flow of cryogen out of a first group of one or more nozzle openings in the plurality of nozzle openings is turned on while flow of cryogen out of a second group of one or more nozzle openings in the plurality of nozzle openings is turned off, and then (ii) flow of cryogen out of the first group of nozzle openings is turned off while flow of cryogen out of the second group of nozzle openings is turned on.