Gas hydrate and Carbonated ice for cosmetic and skin care applications (16-Dec-2009)

Beverage including CO2 represent now very  traditional drinks. The typical brands include the well known Coca Cola, Pepsi…. etc….

These products are packed with a typically CO2 pressure around 3 bar, and are consumed in liquid form.

A gas hydrate is a crystalline solid; its building blocks consist of a gas molecule surrounded by a cage of water molecules. Thus it is similar to ice, except that the crystalline structure is stabilized by the guest gas molecule within the cage of water molecules. Many gases have molecular sizes suitable to form hydrate, including such naturally occurring gases as carbon dioxide.

With the hydrate technology, it is possible to produce CO2 hydrate, and then  to include more CO2 within the ice. So far some patents have been published using the hydrate concept for food applications. However, it seems that the exploitation of these patents will be costly.

In the present publication a simple method is proposed  to turn a  familiar CO2 beverage into hydrate, method which can be implemented even with household type  equipment.

The figure  here-below  illustrates  an example  of implementation  to  produce 500ml Coca Cola Hydrate made from CO2 gas. 

• Solubility CO2 (6.9bar at 24C)=0.2276mol/kg

• Solubility CO2 (3.8bar at 24C)=0.1274 mol/kg

• Dissolubility (6.9bar-3....