Ice slurries are extensively used in industry, and one particularly successful application is the ice-pigging technology1,2. In comparison to the conventional foam and solid pig, the ice pig can travel through complex topologies over a long distance because of the lubrication effect of the liquid phase and the elevation of its freezing point as some of the ice crystals melt3,4,5. Even if the pig gets stuck, one can simply wait for the ice slurries to melt and resume the cleaning process later. This method of pipe cleaning is cheap and easy to use.
The ice fraction plays a key role in the performance of the ice pig. To measure the ice fraction, one can use a cafetière (French press) to determine if the ice slurry is thick enough6,7. A high cafetière ice fraction, typically 80%, is required when carrying out ice pigging. Recent research on online ice fraction detection showed that both electromagnetic and ultrasonic waves are suitable for the job8,9,10,11.
The ice pig is usually made by a scraped-surface ice maker from a 5 wt% NaCl solution (brine). It is also the primary way of making ice slurries in industry. This type of ice maker freezes water or brine onto a cold metallic surface, typically a smooth 316 steel surface and then cyclically shears the ice particles off. The liquid-to-metal interfaces are very complex and are affected by a broad range of factors that are essential to ice making12. The interface between non-metal and water can be very different, and one especially interesting example is Kaolinite. The Kaolinite-water interface is special because there is not a favorable ice structure adjacent to the solid's surface, but rather a layer of amphoteric substrate fluid that encourages the ice-like hydrogen-bonded clusters to form on top of it13,14. Another way of producing the ice pig requires crushing the premade ice blocks while high-concentration brine is added simultaneously. For this method, the refrigeration system can run at a much higher evaporating temperature because no freezing point depressant (FPD) is added prior to the formation of ice; it is hence considered more efficient due to the lowered compression ratio and lessened power for a given cooling duty15,16,17.
There are two other ice production methods: producing ice from supercooled water and putting refrigerant and water in direct contact18,19. The supercooling method involves disturbing the metastable supercooled water to generate ice nucleation and growth. The biggest problem for this method is the unwanted ice formation that can block the system. The direct contact method is considered not suitable for ice pigging because neither refrigerant nor lubrication oil are wanted in the final ice product.
The formation of ice requires heat and mass transfer due to the latent heat of fusion generated in the process. It was first discovered by Osborn Reynolds in 1874 that the transportation of heat and mass in gases are strongly coupled and can be expressed in similar mathematical formulae20. This work formed the pioneering paper on the subject of momentum, heat, and mass transfer in fluids and was reprinted several times21,22. This subject was then studied by a number of others, from both analytical and empirical approaches, for gases, liquids, and molten metal23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33. Aside from the heat and mass transfer, the fluid needs nucleation sites where dendritic ice growth can develop. A modern insight into the growth of ice crystals uses Constructal Law, developed by Adrian Bejan, to explain why ice grows in this way34,35,36.
The ice formation in brine is very different from that in pure water due to the existence of salt. First of all, salt changes the thermodynamics of the fluid and depresses its freezing point. Secondly, salt cannot dissolve in the ice matrix (except for hydrohalite, which can only form when the temperature reaches the eutectic point), and it is rejected to the bulk fluid when ice starts to grow. The rejection of salt was discovered in both sea ice and ice studied in the lab37,38. Since the rejected high-concentration brine is at a temperature well below the freezing point of sea water, as it descends, ice grows at the interface between the flowing brine and the quiescent bulk fluid. These ice stalactites, also named brinicles, were first discovered in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica and were studied experimentally39,40,41,42. In 2011, BBC filmed the formation of brinicles in its Frozen Planet series43,44.
In our lab, it was discovered that by reversing the flowing and quiescent fluids when water is introduced to a bath of cold brine, the water may transform into ice under the correct conditions45. It was found that the location where the water is introduced, flow rheology, and brine temperature and concentration are all key factors influencing how much ice can be produced. The overall goal of this study is to investigate if an ice maker can be developed through this mechanism to generate ice slurries, considering that the elevated evaporator temperature and the high rate of liquid-to-liquid heat transfer can enhance the efficiency of energy usage. This article shares key aspects of the experiment.