NOVEL ICE CREAM PRODUCTION METHOD


John Brisson
Department of Mechanical Engineering

The estimated 10.9 million liters of ice cream produced each year are made via a process that hasn’t changed much since the invention of the hand-cranked freezer in 1846. This project proposes a cheaper, more energy-efficient process that could substantially change the way ice cream is made and improve the end product.

The current ice cream-making method involves a refrigerated pipe inside which a scraper-dasher assembly rotates, scraping frozen cream off the side of the pipe. Since small crystals are desirable (for a high-quality, creamy product), the clearances between the blades and the walls are necessarily small. This, combined with the large forces on the dasher, makes the system expensive.

This new approach would be less expensive and could have unique, desirable properties.