Syed S.H. Rizvi is no stranger to supercritical carbon dioxide and other gas applications. More than 13 years ago, FE featured an Engineering R&D interview on a supercritical fluid extrusion (SCFX) process for cereal and snack-food products. (See “Super products with SCFX,” FE, April 2003.) Since then, Rizvi, professor of food process engineering at Cornell University, has been hard at work, researching other potential applications for supercritical CO2 and has come up with one for producing ice cream.
Rizvi and co-inventor, Michael Wagner, both from Cornell’s Institute of Food Systems, have filed a PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) application, entitled “Process and Apparatus for Rapid Freezing of Consumable and Non-consumable Products Using The Expansion of Dense Gas” (WIPO WO 2015/148882 A1). The patent document describes an apparatus and a process which can be used as a full-scale industrial process, in a vending machine or potentially in a single-serve package for consumers who need a little ice cream refreshment at a moment’s notice.