Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Robert J Shaw

Joseph Perry Cohen

Edward F Kiczek

David J Klee

Russell Ira Snyder, Iii

Kimberly Schroeder Grassi

An open loop, air refrigerant heat pump process is set forth for producing a refrigerated atmosphere inside an enclosed space, in particular the enclosed space of a food freezer. A key to the present invention is that it uses a portion of the cold expander discharge to cool the air feed to the expander, prior to using said portion as a regeneration gas for the front end, adsorbent-containing drier. This is key because it allows one to eliminate the prior art's need to recover refrigeration from the air exiting the enclosed space which, more importantly, allows one to eliminate the prior art need to remove any cryogenically generated ice that the air picks up inside the food freezer.

Open loop, air refrigerant, heat pump process for refrigerating an

The present invention is a tunnel freezer which incorporates a 'dual flow' design whereby the refrigerant is introduced at each end of the tunnel and withdrawn from the middle of the tunnel. A key to the present invention is that the dual flow design allows one to confine the pressure gradient for leaks between the ends of the tunnel where it will not be a concern since the item entrance and exit ports (which ports provide a ready access for leaks) are located at the ends of the tunnel.

Dual flow tunnel freezer

The present invention is a tunnel freezer which employs two distinct chambers for crust freezing the bottom surfaces of items to be processed without substantially refrigerating the remainder of the items. In this manner, the product is made ready for transfer to downstream operations without worry of sticking to belt surfaces. The present invention has application in setting the bottom surface of food items such as cookies, bakery items, caramel coated candies, taffy and the like.

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Allentown, PA, United States of America

Robert J Shaw