Method and apparatus for storing heat in ice by using refrigerant jet

Abstract

The method stores heat in ice by freezing water through its direct contact with a hardly-water-soluble refrigerant; i.e., water is mixed with the refrigerant at a high pressure to produce a liquid mixture while preventing evaporation of the refrigerant, and the liquid mixture is jetted from a nozzle into a space at a lower pressure, whereby the refrigerant evaporates at the lower pressure and the water in the liquid mixture is frozen into sherbet-like ice and dispersed over a wider area than in the case of non-sherbert-like ice. A device based on the method uses a heat-insulating water tank whose top space above water level therein is kept at a pressure P2 lower than saturation pressure P0 (P2<P0) of the refrigerant for water freezing point 0.degree.C. A mixer mixes the refrigerant of liquid phase and water at a pressure P1 which is higher than the saturation pressure P0 of the refrigerant for water freezing point 0.degree.C. (P0<P1), so as to produce a liquid mixture without allowing evaporation of the refrigerant. A nozzle having an opening in the top space of the water tank jets the thus prepared liquid mixture to the top space at the pressure P2, whereby the refrigerant evaporates so as to freeze the water of the liquid mixture into sherbet-like ice.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.