Home ice cream machines are pretty common, but there's a new machine that can whip up these frozen delights in mere seconds.
From Oddity Central:
Food scientists have created a machine that uses that uses pressurized carbon dioxide to turn a liquid ice cream mix into a cold, creamy treat in just three seconds.
The new way to create ‘carbonated ice cream’ patented by Syed Rizvi, professor of food science engineering, and Michael E. Wagner, Ph.D., is very different from traditional ice cream. The latter usually involves a dairy-based mix flowing through a heat-exchanging barrel until it starts to freeze, while the newly-patented method has highly pressurized carbon dioxide passing over a nozzle and drawing in the liquid ice-cream mix. When the carbon dioxide goes from extremely high pressure to a lower pressure, it instantly cools the ice cream mix to about minus 70 degrees C, turning it into the frozen treat we all know and love. This is known as the Joule-Thompson Effect.
“It’s very simple, and this machine converts the mix into a scoop of ice cream in about three seconds,” Prof. Syed Rizvi explained in a press release. “The mix can be made commercially, locally or you can make it at home.”
Rizvi and Wagner built a prototype ice cream machine to show that their process actually works in real life, and if everything goes according to plan, we might start seeing commercially-available ice cream machines hitting the market in the near future. That means anyone will be able to make fresh ice cream in the comfort of their own home in just three seconds.
Carbonated ice cream may revolutionize commercial transportation as well, because it essentially removes the need for freezer trucks from the equation. Since the liquid ice cream can be flash-frozen on location, you don’t really need to keep it frozen at minus 20 degrees Celsius for long periods of time.
There's some serious brainpower and science behind this, I'll tell ya!
I'll be eagerly waiting for the day I can have one of these puppies in my kitchen.
