Ice storage

Origins of the science associated with thermal insulations coincide with the development of thermodynamics and the physics associated with heat transfer. These technical subjects date to the eighteenth century. Early obseiwations that a particular material was useful as thermal insulation were not likely guided by formal theoi y but rather by trial and error. Sawdust was used, for example, in the nineteenth centui y to insulate ice storage buildings. 

Collins, G.M., Bravo-Shugarman, M.B. and Terasaki, P.I. (1969). Kidney preservation for transplantation. Initial perfusion and 30 hour ice storage. Lancet ii, 1219-1222. 

For ice on coil type ice storage tank, water inside the tank is sometimes agitated to enhance heat transfer on coil surface. Small water or air pumps are used for this purpose. This agitation is effective until ice is formed on the coil, because temperature during ice forming is uniformly freezing point. Degree... 

Figure 153. Temperature response of ice storage tank for melting without agitation...

Mixing status in the tank has large affection on outlet response for the ice storage tank with out agitation. If the ice packing factor is small, thermal characteristics of the tank resembles to a stratified water tank. Since the ratio of sensible heat to latent heat is relatively large, conditions should be set to maintain stratification as much as possible. Therefore, large temperature difference in the inlet is preferable. 

Since ice storage tanks are used in HVAC system, the performance should be evaluated from system point of view. If the water distribution system had poor performance, performance of tank would be worse than its design value. Furthermore, heat load characteristics of the building also have large relation to system performance. System performance will be different for the building that has peaky load comparing to the building with flat load. 

A set of curved tube or coil in which refrigerant or glycol solution run is installed in a tank and cooled inside of the coil. Ice is formed on the surface of the coil and melted from boundary between ice and water. Stored heat is usually recovered by supplying water directly to secondary system. Some systems use heat exchanger to reduce water head loss. This type of ice storage... 

Figure 187. Types of ice storage tanks, Left Ice on coil type, Center Slurry type, Right Encapsulated type...

Figure 189. A schematic diagram of package ice storage system...

The large scale of slurry ice storage system is installed in Kyoto station building. The building of 237,689 m2 floor area is air conditioned with 4 absorption chillers of 5,830 kW and slurry ice tank of 1,700 m3. Sub cooled water is projected into tube shape inlet where ice is made by release from sub cooling state. Slurry ice is conveyed to separate tanks through a pipe (Figure 192). 

In seasonal snow/ice storages frozen water is stored from winter to summer, when the cold is utilized. The snow/ice can be stored indoor, on ground, in open ponds/pits and under ground, Figure 200. 

There are a number of suggested and implemented techniques of snow and ice storage for cooling applications. In Japan about 100 projects have been realized during the last 30 years, and in China there is about 50-100 snow and ice storage systems (Kobiyama, 2000). Also Canada, USA and Sweden have made efforts in the field. Below both realised and suggested techniques are presented. 

A number of different open pond snow and ice storage techniques have been suggested. In Ottawa a storage for 90,000 m3 of snow in an abandoned rock quarry (120 x 80 x 9.5 m3, L x W x H), was studied. The mean cooling load was 7,000 kW. A light colored PE plastic tarpaulin was suggested as insulation, with melt water re-circulation for cold extraction. The estimated payback time was 10 years (Morofsky, 1981). 

In seasonal snow/ice storages frozen water, snow or ice, is stored from winter to summer, when the cold is extracted. The basic idea is that a cold carrier (water or air) is cooled by the snow, to utilize the large latent heat of fusion, and then delivers the cold. The cold carrier is either circulated between the load and the snow or rejected after it has been used for cooling. 

Haugen, E., Undeland, I. (2003) Lipid oxidation in herring fillets (Clupea harengus) during ice storage measured by a commercial hybrid gas sensor array system. J. Agric. Food Chem. 51 752-759. 

It was ultimately concluded that low-dose gamma irradiation of fresh shrimp reduced melanosis and resulted in a significant extension of their iced-storage life. However, if shrimp were held beyond the onset of melanogenesis, subsequent low-dose irradiation accelerated blackspot formation, which reduced consumer appeal, and therefore was definitely undesirable (3,13). 

Benjakul, S., Seymour, T.S., Morrissey, M.T., and An, H. 1997. Physicochemical changes in Pacific whiting muscle proteins during iced storage. Journal of Food Science 62 729-733. 

Dileep, A.O., Shamasundar, B.A., Binsi, P.K., Badii, R, and Howell, N.K. 2005. Effect of ice storage on the physicochemical and dynamic viscoelastic properties of ribbonfish (Trichiurus spp.) meat. Journal of Food Science 70 537-545. 

Pickova, J., Hogberg, A., Durand, T., and Nilsson, C., 2001, Oxidation of redfish muscle, a comparison between storage in modified atmosphere and conventional ice storage, Lipidforum, 21stNordic Lipid Symp., Bergen, June 5-8. 

Sankar, T.V. and Raghunath, M.R., 1995, Effect of pre-freezing iced storage on the lipid fractions of Ariomma indica during frozen storage. Pish. TechnoL Soc. Pish. TechnoL India, 32, 88. 

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