Ice Slurry Formation in a Cocurrent Liquid-Liquid Flow

A new technique for ice slurry production was explored. Multiple small water-drops were formed in another immiscible chilled liquid by a single-nozzled atomizer and frozen in the fluidized bed by direct contact heat transfer. Experiments were conducted to investigate the dynamic behaviors of the ice crystal making system. The results demonstrate that the ice crystals could be produced continuously and stably in the vertical bed with the circulating coolant of initial temperature below -5℃. The size distribution of the ice crystals appears non-uniform, but is more similar and more uniform at lower oil flow rate. The mean ice crystal size rests seriously with the jet velocity and the oil flow rate. It decreases with decreasing the oil flow rate, and reaches the maximum at an intermediate jet velocity at about 16.5 m.s y. The ice crystal size is also closely related to the phenomenon of drop-coalescing, which can be alleviated considerably by reducing the flow rate or lowering the temperature of the carrier oil. However, optimization of liquid-liquid atomization is a more effective approach to produce fine ice crystals of desired size.