TIAX LLC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: Large quantities of ice are needed to sustain war fighters and field-feeding in hot climat

Description

Large quantities of ice are needed to sustain war fighters and field-feeding in hot climates. Ice is used for drinking water and beverage cooling; for food preparation, serving, and preservation; and for medical purposes. At 8 lb/day per supported person, the logistical burden transport resources and risk of death and injury to transport personnel of delivering pre-produced ice or of producing ice at a forward operating base using electric power generated by a field genset is substantial. Ice-making technology that is suitable for operation on photovoltaic (PV) power could reduce this burden significantly. TIAX LLC is proposing an approach that will convert 100% of the supply water to ice, will sequence operations to fully utilize any available level of unconditioned PV power output, and that systematically maximizes the refrigeration efficiency and minimizes the various energy losses associated with ice making processes. The ice-making process is broken up into small, variable capacity steps. An intelligent control system will sequence and optimize which steps are powered at any given time, so that when PV output is insolation-limited, it is fully utilized.