Production of CO2 clathrate hydrate frozen desserts by flash freezing

CO2 clathrate hydrate is a crystalline water–carbon dioxide structure that can enable novel, strongly carbonated frozen desserts. A CO2 flash-freezing process has been developed to form CO2 hydrates during freezing of a dessert mixture. In the process, liquid CO2 and liquid dessert mixture are emulsified and then sprayed into a chamber in which the CO2 flashes to a vapor causing the dessert mixture to freeze into a low-density powder. To ensure CO2 hydrate formation it is important to avoid ice formation because ice to CO2 hydrate conversion proceeds too slowly to occur during flash freezing. To avoid ice formation it is important to flash the emulsion to a pressure greater than 4.7 bars and disperse the mixture in fine droplets. In this work the key parameters of the process are described, which will enable development of commercial dispensers.