Apparatus for rapid, high volume production of solid CO2 pellets

摘要

A lightweight, highly mobile and efficient apparatus for instantaneously producing a high volume of solid carbon dioxide (CO2) pellets. The apparatus utilizes liquid CO2 that is discharged and expanded through a nozzle or nozzles and expanded to reach a triple point condition where liquid, gaseous and solid phases of CO2 can coexist and flash to a mixture of CO2 in a gaseous phase and particles of snow by a process well known in the art. The gaseous CO2 is discharged into atmosphere or recovered for converting back to liquid or used to also extinguish fires. The snow particles are aggregated into larger flakes and compressed into pellets in a compression structure by a rotor with radially movable blades forming variable volume pockets associated with the interior of a housing to compress the flakes into pellets. The pellets may be discharged from the housing into an airlock which includes a rotor to convey the pellets to an air discharge that is isolated from the compression structure to facilitate conveyance of the pellets to a point of use, such as the site of a fire in order to extinguish the fire.