Effects of Container Geometry on Energy Consumption During Hardening in Ice Cream Manufacturing

Energy consumption by the dairy food industry in the United States constitutes 10% of all energy consumed by the U.S. food industry. Reducing energy consumption in cooling and refrigeration of foods plays an important role in meeting the challenge of the energy crisis. Hardening is an important and energy-intensive step in ice cream manufacturing. This work presents Finite Element Method (FEM) investigation of the ice cream hardening process, aiming to provide insight and guidance for energy savings in ice cream manufacturing. Effects of container shape and dimensions, container layers, and heat transfer boundary conditions on energy consumption for hardening of ice cream were investigated.