Systems and methods are provided herein for producing and vending ice in an energy-efficient manner. A system for producing and vending ice comprises: an ice-making device configured to manufacture ice; a reservoir coupled to the ice-making device and configured to store the manufactured ice manufactured; and a control circuit communicatively coupled to the ice-making device, the control circuit configured to: determine a beginning ice inventory at a first time; determine a predicted ice demand for a first period, wherein the predicted ice demand is a function of at least a historical factor, a weather factor, a customer social event factor, and a public social event factor; determine an ice manufacturing quantity based on the beginning ice inventory, the predicted ice demand, and a manufacturing capacity of the ice-making device; and cause the ice-making device to produce an amount of ice consistent with the determined ice manufacturing quantity.

Provided are a refrigerator and an energy-saving control method and apparatus therefor. The refrigerator includes an ice maker. The ice maker includes an ice discharge electric motor (1), an ice storage bin (2) and an ice storage bin position switch (3). The method includes: detecting and determining that the ice storage bin (2) is in a full ice state; controlling the ice maker so that same stops making ice, and acquiring the state of at least one of the ice discharge electric motor (1) and the ice storage bin position switch (3); and according to the state of at least one of the ice discharge electric motor (1) and the ice storage bin position switch (3), determining that the ice maker needs to do heating and ice detection actions.

An aspect of the present disclosure is generally directed to an ice making appliance that includes: an ice making compartment and an ice maker including an ice mold having a total water capacity. The ice mold includes a plurality of ice wells and is configured to release the ice cubes without the use of a heater and by twisting the ice mold. The ice wells are typically no more than about 12.2 mm in depth from a top surface of the ice mold and have a volume of about 20 mL or less. The ice maker is capable of producing at least about 3.5 lbs. of ice or more in a 24 hour span.

An ice making assembly within an appliance with a housing having an inlet and an outlet, and a lower portion and an upper portion. The assembly includes a rotatable shroud within the housing with a first slot in air communication with the inlet, and a second slot in air communication with the outlet. A thermoelectric device with a top side and a bottom side, and having a heat sink on the bottom side between the first slot and the second slot. An ice tray disposed above and thermally connected with the top side, a barrier wall within the housing and in contact with the shroud between the lower portion and the upper portion.

An aspect of the present disclosure is generally directed to an ice making appliance that includes: an ice making compartment and an ice maker including an ice mold having a total water capacity. The ice mold includes a plurality of ice wells and is configured to release the ice cubes without the use of a heater and by twisting the ice mold. The ice wells are typically no more than about 12.2 mm in depth from a top surface of the ice mold and have a volume of about 20 mL or less. The ice maker is capable of producing at least about 3.5 lbs. of ice or more in a 24 hour span.

A refrigeration system includes a generator, a power generation engine, a refrigerator, an electric power converter, an output control unit, and a characteristic estimation unit that estimates a refrigerator characteristic of a refrigerator according to an outside air temperature and a temperature of a cooling target space. The refrigeration system includes an output calculation unit that calculates a drive output as a target drive output that optimizes an energy efficiency of the entire system based on the refrigerator characteristic estimated by the characteristic estimation unit, an engine characteristic of the power generation engine, and a generator characteristic of the generator. Further, the output control unit controls the drive output to approach the target drive output calculated by the output calculation unit.

A vacuum steam blancher using a full-automatic conveyor belt includes a blanching chamber, a pressure casing, a second vacuum pipe; and an automatic control system. The automatic control system is configured to control a steam generation system, a vacuum system, a drainage system and a material conveyor. Steam is introduced to continuously blanch materials. The vacuum steam blancher has a simple structure and reasonable design, and is easily integrated with a production line. Compared to the existing vacuum pulsed blancher that is intermittent and semi-automatic, the vacuum steam blancher of the present application realizes continuous production to meet the needs of the industrialized production.

An ice maker includes an ice tray configured to receive water, where the ice tray includes a plurality of partition ribs that partition an inner space of the ice tray into a plurality of cells, an ejector that is configured to rotate relative to the ice tray, that is configured to cause rotation of ice pieces in a rotation direction relative to the ice tray, and that is configured to discharge the ice pieces from the ice tray, and a motor configured to drive the ejector to rotate in a first direction and a second direction opposite to the first direction. The ice tray further includes a protrusion portion that is located at each cell, that protrudes from a lower surface of each cell, and that extends along the lower surface of each cell in a direction corresponding to the rotation direction of the ice pieces relative to the ice tray.

A method of making a porous, dehydrated food product comprises subjecting a food product to pulsed electric field treatment to form pores in the cell membranes of the food product, freezing the treated food product, and exposing the treated frozen food product to microwave radiation in a vacuum chamber at a pressure that is less than atmospheric and at which the boiling point of water is above 0 C., causing the frozen food product to thaw and water to evaporate to produce the porous, dehydrated product. The process is faster than freeze-drying and consumes less energy. The pulsed electric field treatment does not result in structural damage to the product, despite the thawing of the frozen product during the drying process.

Disclosed herein are embodiments of an energy recovery system for a freeze-drying system. In some embodiments, the freeze-drying system includes a freeze dryer chamber having one or more shelves disposed therein; a refrigeration system comprising a refrigerant condenser; a heat exchanger; a first fluid line to thermally couple the refrigerant condenser to the heat exchanger; and a second fluid line to thermally couple the one or more shelves to the heat exchanger.