Water and energy recovery process for an ice rink
AssigneeBassai Limited
InventorRussell W. Blades
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A water and energy recovery process for an ice rink is disclosed. The process includes softening and carbon filtering water for use as flood water on an ice rink. The water is then demineralized by reverse osmosis to produce flood water having a specific conductance of about 2 to 30 micromhos/cm. The demineralized water is heated to 90.degree. F. and utilized in a resurfacer to flood the surface of the ice rink. The ice shavings removed from the surface of the ice by the resurface are deposited into a holding means and melted by utilizing recovered heat from the ice rink's refrigeration unit. The melted water from the holding means is used as a coolant in the ice rink's refrigeration unit. The steps of the process are then repeated, utilizing the warmed water from the refrigeration unit.
Claims14
An ice making and water recovery process for an ice rink having an ice surface comprising the steps of:
- demineralizing water to remove substantially all impurities including mineral salts and dissolved solids from said water thereby producing demineralized water;
- heating said demineralized water for use a flood water for an ice rink;
- resurfacing the surface of said ice rink by (i) scraping said surface to remove ice shavings comprising dirt, snow and slush (ii) flooding said surface with said heated demineralized water;
- depositing said ice shavings in a holding means and melting said shavings thereby producing recovered water;
- cooling a refrigerant of a refrigeration unit with said recovered water, said refrigeration unit for maintaining the temperature of said ice surface;
- repeating said steps of demineralizing, heating, and resurfacing utilizing said recovered water.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.