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EP-4220045-B1 - PLANT FOR CONTINUOUSLY COOLING FOODSTUFFS THROUGH CRYOGENIC LIQUID GAS

EP4220045B1EP 4220045 B1EP4220045 B1EP 4220045B1EP-4220045-B1

Inventors

  • FABIANI, ANDREA
  • BERTO, ROBERTO
  • FRANCA, Franco
  • RUOSI, Daniela

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20230127

Claims (13)

  1. Plant (1) for continuously cooling foodstuffs comprising a container (2) suitable to receive foodstuffs continuously moved by a movement member (4) and refrigerant means (16) for cooling such foodstuffs when moving them, the movement member being a pump (4), wherein the plant comprises a spiral duct (5) wherein said pump (4) continuously directs and moves the foodstuffs to be cooled, along said spiral duct (5) there being arranged refrigerant means (16) which direct a cryogenic liquid gas into the spiral duct and on the continuously moving foodstuffs, such spiral duct having an inlet end (7) which receives the foodstuffs and an outlet end (8) at the aforementioned container (2), said foodstuffs remaining at contact with said cryogenic gas in the spiral duct (5) up to the inlet in the container (2), said spiral duct comprising a plurality of turns (15) arranged superimposed on parallel planes, said refrigerant means comprising injector means (16) suitable to introduce the cryogenic liquid gas into the spiral duct (5) so that it comes into contact with the moving foodstuffs, said injector means (16) being arranged on a plurality of consecutive turns (15) of said spiral duct (5).
  2. Plant according to claim 1, characterised in that said spiral duct (5) has an alternatively vertical or horizontal median longitudinal axis (W).
  3. Plant according to claim 2, characterised in that said injector means (16) are associated with different turns (15) of the spiral duct consecutively arranged along a median longitudinal axis (W) of the spiral duct (5), said injector means (16) being arranged parallel to such median longitudinal axis (W) and consecutively to each other.
  4. Plant according to claim 2, characterised in that said injector means (16) are associated with different turns (15) of the spiral duct (5) consecutively arranged along a median longitudinal axis (W) of said the spiral duct (5), said injector means (16) being arranged parallel to such median longitudinal axis (W) but being staggered with respect to each other.
  5. Plant according to claim 1, characterised in that the spiral duct (5) is arranged around the container (2).
  6. Plant according to claim 1, characterised in that the cryogenic gas is liquid nitrogen.
  7. Plant according to claim 1, characterised in that said injector means (16) are connected through a pipe (30) to a duct (31) for cryogenic liquid gas.
  8. Plant according to claim 1, characterised in that said injector means (16) comprise a sleeve (25) arranged along the spiral duct(5) and having a plurality of openings (26) for introducing the cryogenic gas into said spiral duct (5).
  9. Plant according to claim 4, characterised in that it comprises valve means (33) for controlling the sending of the cryogenic liquid gas to the spiral duct (5), there being provided for temperature and pressure sensors (27, 28) to control such temperature and pressure in the spiral duct (5), said sensors (27, 28) being connected to a control unit of the plant (1).
  10. Plant according to claims 4 and 9, characterised in that said valve means are controlled by actuators (34) in turn connected to the control unit of the plant.
  11. Plant according to claim 8, characterised in that the plurality of openings (26) for the introduction of the cryogenic liquid gas into the spiral duct (5) are alternatively traversed by cryogenic gas in gaseous phase and by cryogenic gas in liquid phase.
  12. Plant according to claim 1, characterised in that the spiral duct (5) terminates in the container with a section (10) thereof, along such section there being provided for a portion (11) provided with openings (12) for the outflow of cryogenic gas in gaseous phase into said container (2) .
  13. Plant according to claim 1, characterised in that the moving foodstuffs in the spiral duct (5) have a speed comprised between 0.1 m/s and 5 m/s, preferably between 0.25 m/s and 0.5 m/s, advantageously between 0.28 m/s and 0.40 m/s, said speed preventing the foodstuffs from freezing in the spiral duct.

Description

Forming an object of the present invention is a plant for cooling foodstuffs according to the preamble of the main claim. As known, in the food industry there often arises the need to rapidly bring the foodstuffs (of any kind, for example fruits and vegetables, dairy products, meat, ready-to-eat meals or semi-processed products, etc.) to a temperature sufficiently low to allow the safe storage thereof; for example, in the field of fruits and products derived from harvested fruits (such as grapes) such products are known to be subjected to rapid refrigeration, for example immediately after harvesting. In particular, there are known plants where foodstuffs in solid pieces (grapes, pizzas, ice-cream, etc.) are subjected to continuous cooling or refrigeration by using cryogenic gases such as CO2 (in atomised liquid form, or, expanding from liquid, in solid form) or nitrogen (in atomised form). A such plant is for example described in US2011/0296853. US 2020/060318 A1 relates to a method for coating food products with a substance which comprises one or more steps of providing frigories in order to cause crusting of the coating substance around the food products. For example, in the wine-making industry there are known plants for cooling grapes or crushed grapes which use even considerably large stainless steel tanks in which there are placed the products to be refrigerated or to be cooled and into which there is injected CO2 to obtain the treatment under the desired temperature. These tanks or containers are often significantly large, therefore heavy and cumbersome. Other plants for cooling, but more frequently for refrigerating or freezing thousands of kilograms of solid food products comprise tunnels which - in the case of mechanical refrigeration - are significantly large. In the case of cryogenic tunnels, such plants are smaller in size, but they can be used for treating solid foodstuffs only. Generally, such tunnels contain a conveyor belt which conveys such food products while they are impacted by drops of liquid nitrogen emitted by nozzles arranged along the path of the conveyor belt. In both cases (mechanical tunnel or cryogenic tunnel), the plant does not allow to carry out the temperature treatment of liquid products. An object of the present invention is to provide a plant for cooling foodstuffs or for refrigerating foodstuffs, in particular liquids and/or viscous fluids containing or not containing solid components (such as for example crushed grapes) which is improved with respect to the known plants. Specifically, an object of the invention is to provide a plant of the type mentioned above that is compact, which can operate continuously (that is without ever stopping for the entire period of time required for the use thereof) and which does not require to pressurise the container in which the foodstuffs are treated. A further object is to provide a compact plant of the type mentioned above which still allows to cool, in a desired fashion and without causing the freezing thereof, high amounts of food products in liquid and/or viscous form and containing or not containing said solid components. Another object is to provide a plant where preferably the product is cooled using liquid nitrogen, cryogenic gas which has no negative environmental impact (unlike CO2), and where such gas can be used in low amounts and can also act as protection for the foodstuffs subjected to treatment. The invention is defined in the independent claim. Preferred embodiments are defined in the dependent claims. For a better understanding of the present invention, the following drawings are attached hereto, purely by way of non-limiting example, wherein: figure 1 is a front perspective view of a plant according to the invention;figure 2 is a perspective view of the plant of figure 1 with some parts in transparency for the sake of greater clarity;figure 3 is a rear perspective view of the plant of figure 1;figure 4 is a top view of the plant of figure 1;figure 5 is a cross-sectional view according to line 5-5 of figure 4;figure 6 is a perspective view of a detail of the plant of figure 1;figure 7 is a perspective view of a component of the plant of figure 1;figure 8 is a front view of the component of figure 7;figure 9 is a cross-sectional view according to line 9-9 of figure 8;figure 10 is a front view of a different embodiment of a plant according to the invention;figure 11 is a lateral view of the plant of figure 10;figure 12 is a top perspective view of the plant of figure 10;figure 13 is a cross-sectional view according to line 13-13 of figure 12;figure 14 is a perspective view of a detail of the plant of figure 10; andfigure 15 is a cross-sectional view according to line 15-15 of figure 14. With reference to the aforementioned figures, and, in particular, figures 1-9, the plant subject matter of the invention is generally indicated with 1 (see figure 3). It is suitable to cool (and possibly refrigerate to temperatures cl