Ice–liquid–vapour equilibria of ammonia and ethanol aqueous solutions applied to the production of ice-slurries: Prediction and experimental results

Ice-slurries have gained high attention as they can achieve performant cold storage and transport with higher heat transfer rates; nevertheless, the technique of production of ice-slurries remains a subject of research that limits the development of this technology. Existing applications use scrappers or brushes to produce the dispersed ice, which is to be transported by an aqueous solution. In vacuum cooling evaporation, the aqueous solution “cools itself down” by its own evaporation. This technique has already been used to produce icy water. Lower temperatures can be reached if aqueous solutions are used, but this requires that the triple points of aqueous solutions be known; in this paper, ice–liquid–vapour equilibria measurements of aqueous solutions of ammonia and ethanol are presented and compared to the predictions of thermodynamic models. The use of these data in the design of ice-slurries generation processes is also explained.