Deepchill Technologies Inc. (previously known as Sunwell Technologies Inc.) registered the world's first

slurry ice Slurry ice is a phase changing refrigerant made up of millions of ice "micro-crystals" (typically 0.1 to 1 mm in diameter) formed and suspended within a solution of water and a freezing point depressant. Some compounds used in the field are sa ...

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application in the U.S.A. in 1976. Deepchill pioneered and continued to develop the field of slurry ice and is today the world leader in slurry ice systems, with numerous patents worldwide covering various processes for the production, storage and distribution of slurry ice.

History and development

Deepchill Technologies marketed slurry ice under the

trade name A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name ...

Deepchill®. The first slurry ice system was sold in 1978. In the 40 years following, Deepchill concentrated on developing equipment to manipulate and optimize slurry ice, resulting in an adaptable cooling medium called Deepchill^® Slurry. Since then, slurry ice has been widely adopted in major fisheries around the world and in the industrial

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

industry in Japan. Deepchill now has installations in over 40 countries and is the largest supplier of slurry ice systems and technology. Its head office and main operating facility is currently located in

Woodbridge, Ontario Woodbridge is a very large suburban community in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, along the city's border with Toronto. It occupies the city's entire southwest quadrant, west of Ontario Highway 400, Highway 400, east of Ontario Highway 50, Highway 50, n ...

(

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. Deepchill also has operating facilities in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

, Japan through Sunwell Japan Corporation.

Products

Many food products require different types of ice during the various stages of

processing Processing is a free graphical library and integrated development environment (IDE) built for the electronic arts, new media art, and visual design communities with the purpose of teaching non-programmers the fundamentals of computer programming ...

and storage, to optimize

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and

freshness Freshness may refer to: * Post harvest freshness * ''Freshness'' (album), a 1995 album by Casiopea * Freshness (cryptography), certainty that replayed messages in a replay attack on a protocol will be detected as such See also *Fresh (disambigu ...

. Being able to vary the ice state is important because changing the state of the medium also changes its behavior and allows one to create ideal preservation conditions. A single Variable-State Ice System can deliver ice in a complete range of ice-states to suit any preservation requirement: ice fraction can be varied from very liquid ice, to a very thick paste, and ultimately dry (liquid free) ice crystals; the salt content can be controlled to create salt-free slurry or salt water slurry of any salt concentration; and the size of the crystals in the slurry can be controlled. The most effective state of Deepchill can then be pumped and discharged at different points in a facility- for example, very liquid with low ice concentration for rapid pre-chilling, slurry for continued chilling during processing, long-lasting paste with very high ice concentration for temporary or overnight storage, and dry (pure water) crystals for packing.

Features

The main features of Deepchill^® Slurry include: * Slurry with an ice concentration of up to 70% ice

fraction A fraction (from la, fractus, "broken") represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, a fraction describes how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, eight ...

can be transported through standard piping using conventional pumps. * It has the highest

heat transfer Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the generation, use, conversion, and exchange of thermal energy (heat) between physical systems. Heat transfer is classified into various mechanisms, such as thermal conduction ...

or cooling rate of any form of ice. * It refrigerates evenly without freezing the product. * The ice particles have no sharp edges to damage the product. * The ice particles do not bridge or collect into clumps. * Ice temperature can be controlled and maintained for prolonged periods.

Applications

The following are current users of Deepchill^® Slurry Systems: * Fishing boats (seiners,

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

boats,

trawler Trawler may refer to: Boats * Fishing trawler, used for commercial fishing * Naval trawler, a converted trawler, or a boat built in that style, used for naval purposes ** Trawlers of the Royal Navy * Recreational trawler, a pleasure boat built traw ...

s and longliners etc.) * Industrial ice vendors *

Seafood Seafood is any form of sea life regarded as food by humans, prominently including fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of molluscs (e.g. bivalve molluscs such as clams, oysters and mussels, and cephalopods such as octopus a ...

processing plants * High-value seafood industries (e.g. sashimi grade tuna) * Growers and packers of fresh produce * Construction industries cooling buildings using thermal energy storage * Beverage cooling industries * Supermarket refrigeration and displays *

Railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

car cooling (for the transport of perishable goods) * Poultry processing plants * Deepchill^® ice pigging to clean pipes

References

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External links

Deepchill Technologies Inc. website
Manufacturing companies of Canada Companies based in Vaughan