From physical properties of ice slurries to industrial ice slurry applications

The use of ice slurries dates back many millenniums, e.g. the ancient Romans applied the cooling of snow-water and ice-water mixtures. Approximately two decades ago a breakthrough of the new technology of producing ice slurries has set in the refrigeration domain for the cooling of shops and supermarkets. After some difficulties at the beginning, it is now possible to build systems, which operate as designed. However, there is still a huge potential to lower the energy consumption and the costs of the systems. Actions in this direction are the design of new ice slurry generators, the development of new concepts for storage and mixing, etc. In this article a short review of the basic research on ice slurries is presented. Furthermore, practical problems of the application of the technology in refrigeration and process techniques are discussed.