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US 8,011,190 B2Granted
Product cooling
AssigneeIMI Cornelius Inc.
InventorPhilip Andrew Simmons
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A cooling system for beverage dispense has a circuit 5 in which binary ice is circulated. A modular heat exchange unit 13 for a plurality of beverage lines 25,27,29,31,33 is connected to the circuit 5 for cooling beverage prior to dispense from a dispense tap 35 in a serving area such as a bar. The ice fraction in the binary ice provides a thermal store that can absorb heat without increasing the temperature of the binary ice and enables the system to respond quickly to changes in the cooling requirements in the circuit 5.
Claims17
A method of cooling beverages, comprising the steps of:
- generating binary ice;
- and
- heat transfer coupling the binary ice to the beverage to cool the beverage,
- wherein said generating step comprises generating binary ice at a first location, and including the step of flowing binary ice from the first location to a second location, said heat transfer coupling step comprising heat transfer coupling binary ice at the second location to beverage to be cooled,
- wherein said flowing step comprises flowing the binary ice through a closed loop coolant recirculation circuit extending between the first and second locations.
2 more elements
A beverage dispense system, comprising:
- a beverage dispenser having a beverage dispense head;
- means for flowing beverage from a beverage supply to said dispense head for dispensing of the beverage by said dispense head;
- means for generating binary ice;
- and
- means for heat transfer coupling generated binary ice to beverage to be dispensed by said dispense head to cool the beverage,
- wherein said means for generating binary ice generates binary ice at a first location, and including means for flowing binary ice from said first location to a second location, said means for heat transfer coupling comprising means at said second location for heat transfer coupling binary ice to beverage to be dispensed by said dispense head,
- wherein said means for flowing binary ice includes means for flowing binary ice through a coolant circuit extending from said first to said second location, and said means for heat transfer coupling comprises a heat exchanger through which binary ice and beverage from the beverage supply are flowed to cool the beverage by heat exchange with the binary ice in the coolant circuit,
- wherein said coolant circuit is a closed-loop binary ice coolant recirculation circuit.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.