How is Slurry Ice made?
There are three ways to produce Slurry Ice, each with different characteristics and capabilities: • Slurry ice can be made by crushing or grinding solid ice, and mixing the created sludge with salted or sweetened water. The resultant mix, however, still contains 500 to 15,000 µ (0.5 to 15 mm, or 0.02 to 0.6 in) large ice crystals with sharp edges. A lot of energy is needed to produce this kind of slurry ice: • first to make the pure ice cubes, produced at temperatures of -25°C to -35°C (-13°F to -31°F) ; • then to crush or grind the solid ice; • finally to mix the ice with water, until it has become a sludge or “slurry”. • Slurry ice can be produced using a tube-in-tube evaporator or crystallizer, based on a technology that is 25 years old: • salted or sweetened water is pumped into the inner tube; • a refrigerant is circulated between the inner and outer tube; • on the wall of the inner tube ice crystals are formed at temperatures that range from -15°C to -25°C (+5°F to -13°F); • the
