Improving Ice Formation by Additive for Cold Energy Storage

Ice storage is one technique for effective use of thermal energy. Application of Snomax® (a protein from the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae) as a snow inducer in ski field has shown great potential to enhance the quantity of snow and increase freezing temperature. In this study, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and lab-built ice formation reactor were employed to study experimentally the heterogeneous ice nucleation under super-cooled conditions at different dissolved Snomax® concentrations. From our study results, it was found that homogeneous freezing temperature of tap water is far below the heterogeneously frozen water temperature containing Snomax®. In our DSC measured heat release study, there is an increase in latent heat release as the amount of dissolved Snomax® increases when Snomax® acts as ice nucleation agents. In another test, the supercooling didn’t occur in 0.5% Snomax® solution, it began to freeze around 0°C. Our results suggest that, the addition of Snomax® may help induce ice nucleation and increase freezing temperature thereby reduces the energy consumption of ice formation for cold storage.