VIDEO: Ice slurry, kinematics combo could enhance chilling process

A new approach that incorporates advanced kinematics within either conventional chilled water or alternative ice slurry could lead to more effective in-line immersive poultry chilling.

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Ahmet Naim | BigStock.com
Ahmet Naim | BigStock.com

A new approach that incorporates advanced kinematics within either conventional chilled water or alternative ice slurry could lead to more effective in-line immersive poultry chilling.

Comas Haynes, Ph.D., research faculty at Georgia Tech Research Institute, explained how the new process superimposes optimized rotational patterns to heighten chilling pathways through the chiller media at the Virtual Poultry Tech Summit 2020.

Although thermally effective, conventional immersive chilling methods (i.e., screw auger based) are labor-intensive, and this issue is under intense scrutiny right now due to several COVID-19 outbreaks at processing plants earlier this year.

How it works

The approach rotates or churns poultry carcasses placed in an in-line immersive chilling arrangement.

Once we introduce this additional component of motion (i.e. the rotary motion), that in and of itself gives the carcasses an additional relative speed between themselves and the chiller medium,” Haynes said. This additional relative speed augments (convective) heat transfer.

Given the addition of rotary motion, the carcasses may serve as agitators in the ice slurry, keeping the media from agglomerating or “clumping up” while the carcasses move via the in-line translation.

Another benefit is that there is no rehang needed, reducing the amount of labor needed during processing.

“We’re not taking the carcasses off of the shackles, so we don’t have to worry about putting the carcasses back on the shackles,” noted Haynes.

Testing has shown promising results

Initial results are promising. Initial rotary kinematics have reduced projected chill time (in-line, immersion) by at least 20%.”

“These are just early results. We are aggressively pursuing more R&D to further reduce these thermal time constants,” Haynes added.

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