Reverse Microwave? Hardly - Tornado Cooling Your Beer!

Now everyone by now has heard something about this "reverse" microwave.  Well, for those looking at the convenience only, we can see the coorelation; however, if one was to assert that this is a similar process, well they would be absolutely wrong.  

Microwaves, as the name suggests, are using microwaves to vibrate water molecules.  Much like a tuning fork that resonates at the resonant frequency of H2O.  Hence, vibration and the subsequent heat sustained by it.

Conversely, this so called reverse microwave doesn't use microwaves at all.  It uses spinning theories and thermal dynamics - a tornado to be specific.  Much like that spiraling tornado you used to watch when you unplugged the tub when your were a kid.

Background

Sustainable cooling system are gargantuan draws on energy.. In comes, the European

Commission with their Rapid Cool project. The rapid cool project sponsored by the joint efforts of the UK, Slovenia, Spain, and the Netherlands have produced a break through product, V-Tex.  Born from Enviro-Cool Limited, V-Tex is an environmentally-friendly, efficient system that cools beverages in a matter of seconds. From wine bottles to soda cans, the unit is able to chill drinks in all types of containers without disturbing carbonation. 

How does it Work?

V-Tex uses a “start stop rotational sequence” to create a Rankine vortex, which essentially keeps a drink in its original state while quickly bringing down the temperature. The reverse microwave requires nearly 80% less energy than many standard drink chillers, allowing consumers to save money and keep things green. It also frees up standard refrigerator space, since most beverages can be stored at room temperature elsewhere until right before serving.  From ambient to 5 degrees celcius, dispensed at a kiosk – cools your beverage in 10 seconds alleviating the need for sustainable coolers/refrigerators. 

The team found that by rotating the beverage at a certain speed to create a Rankine vortex the carbonated liquid could be mixed without disruption to the bubbles of carbon dioxide. The team also discovered that by simply rotating the beverage the vortex behaved like a solid, with the outer liquid cooling faster than the inner liquid. Tests showed that cooling rates could be improved by collapsing the vortex and then recreating it; this was achieved by a stop start rotational sequence … Further tests revealed that it was possible to interrupt the vortex without stopping the rotation. This was achieved by rotating the beverage around twin axes.

Other than making things super-cold, super-quick, the tech also has significant energy benefits. It is believed, a £700 saving per fridge replaced, though it’d be nice if there were more details comparing size, power-use, etc. to get a expanded idea of just how much better it is.

Yet, even without the numbers, it’s easy to understand how cooling drinks as needed, rather than keeping them constantly cold in inefficient fridges, would be the greener alternative.

History

William John Macquorn Rankine, FRSE FRS (5 July 1820 – 24 December 1872) was a Scottish civil engineer, physicist and mathematician. He was a founding contributor, with Rudolf Clausius and William Thomson (1st Baron Kelvin), to the science of thermodynamics, particularly focusing on the first of the three thermodynamic laws.

Rankine apparently regarded energy, as we do today, as being classified into two kinds, viz., kinetic and potential, and his thermodynamic theory was developed by considering the transformation of one into the other. He began with the hypothesis that matter was constituted by molecular vortices (without considering the cyclic process) and obtained the quantities "pressure", "specific heat", etc., from that consideration. Though his theory of circulating streams of elastic vortices whose volumes spontaneously adapted to their environment sounds fanciful to scientists formed on a modern account, by 1849, he had succeeded in finding the relationship between saturated vapour pressure and temperature. The following year, he set out to calculate the efficiency of heat engines and used his theory as a basis to deduce the principle, that the maximum efficiency possible for any heat engine is a function only of the two temperatures between which it operates.   

The Rankine vortex model is a simple two-equation parametric description of a swirling flow, characterized by a forced vortex in the central core and a free vortex with increasing distance from the center. The two parameters are the radius of maximum winds and the peak wind speed. The Rankine vortex is used as the basis for a number of simple descriptions of hurricane wind fields.

Source(s):

• http://www.ud.infn.it/~osmer/RnD_group/Giaiotti/PhD_EFM/l03_rankine.pdf
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_tube
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_John_Macquorn_Rankine
• http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10409-005-0073-3#page-1

So “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;”

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About Rick Ricker

An IT professional with over 21 years experience in Information Security, wireless broadband, network and Infrastructure design, development, and support.

For more information, contact Rick at (800) 399-6085 x502