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Tempratech Self-Cooling Can
r.future writes "I saw on Gizmodo that a company called Tempratech has created an 100% safe and environmentally friendly aluminum can that uses a self-chilling process involving a cooling gel, desiccant, and heat sinks, to chill itself. The self-contained I.C. Can is the approximate size of a 500 mL beverage can. This includes the beverage container itself, and the integral self-chilling device, and according to Tempratech the can is 'proven to lower beverage temp by a minimum of 30 degrees Fahrenheit in only three minutes.'"
I thought this was going to be from the Self-heating Soup can guys, but it's not.
This one seems a little more real (not a case study), as the company already has some temp technology products that are further along... Also, the Gizmodo link says it holds 10oz.
And hopefully, it will cool better than 30 degrees Fahrenheit under more situations. Coke is probably best about a few degrees above the freezing point of the solution, maybe around ~35 degrees Fahrenheit. If you can cool a can only 35 degrees Fahrenheit, and room temperature when you want to drink is about 80 degrees, that Coke isn't going to be cold enough for me.
Who says it's going to be $20? I'd buy it if it was $1.25 compared to teh $1. First for the coolness (no pun) factor, and second, I wouldn't have to worry about drinking it as soon as I got it. Buy it now, through it in my bag, drink it later when I'm thirty and have it self cool itself. Oh, and I don't know if any of you have had this experience, but putting an already chilled can in a bag causes massive amount of condensation to be left in the bag, getting everything wet. Being able to put in a room temperature can and not have to worry about everything getting wet is a plus in my book. But of course, this is all dependant on the cans only being slightly more expensive, not significantly.
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On the other hand, a lot of desiccants are recycleable. You can pop them into an oven to dry the material out. Still, there's a lot of infrastructure behind the traditional aluminum can recycling schtick. I guess maybe this would be most appropriate for fancy (expensive) things anyway, like maybe a nice bottle (er, can?) of white wine. :) Don't expect to see it in your 50 cent can of coke.
Damn. That should be it's, not its, up there. Beware the grammar police.
If you check out the temp chart, it takes up to 13 minutes to reach full-cold temp. That means it would get colder as I drink my soda or whatever. That would be rather odd....I'm used to drinks getting warmer!
Moo.
Good stuff.
Two fish swim into a wall, one turns to the other and says, "Dam".
I've been toying with building my own single can cooler that would be usable for any 12 oz beverage can. Most of those car "refrigerators" use peltier modules to cool, but spread the thermal action across 6-12 cans. I was going to order just the module kit (from a place like http://electronickits.com/kit/complete/peltier/ck5 00.htm) and have one of the metal fabricators posted here a couple of weeks ago fabricate an aluminum sleeve with a plate and connect that assembly to the peltier module instead of the larger plate that the normal coolers would. You'd end up with a monstrocity that would slide over a single can and cool it down pretty quickly.
A revised design would turn it upside down, with the heatsink underneath and exhaust fans to dump out the heat, giving you more of a can holder instead of a can "hat", which would be more easily integrated into things like home theater seating or just an attractive housing for setting on your desk.
The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things
connection to power in order to run the money-accepting process
The power required for cooling is MUCH greater than the power required to make change
There's not not much to save there compared to the cost of the special cans
I don't know how much the cans will cost, but the price reduction of mass production can be HUGE. Don't underestimate it.
Pittsburgh Brewing Company manufacturers Iron City Light, known widely as IC Light. When I saw the can, that's the first thing I saw. I wonder if a fight will brew (pun intended) or if PBC will just do the typical thing and threaten a fight to get a sweet deal on the cans.
-- Fugacity: Confusing chemists since 1908
How fast can you safely cool a carbonated soft drink? Seriously, there is a limit, but I'm not sure what it is.
You see, I once had a warm 12-pack of Dr. Pepper in the kitchen, and 20 liters of liquid nitrogen in the garage, and I was thirsty... anyway, I had the sense to only try one can at a time, and I opened the can first. Only took a few seconds to get it cooled down to a slushy consistency, but in the process half of the Dr. Pepper came foaming and frothing out the top of the can, ran down the sides, and froze into a solid block of carbonated foam.
The end result was drinkable, but a bit wasteful and really messy. Perhaps next time I'll just try the dry ice, but I really don't think the heat transfer rate is going to be enough.
Funny you mention that, since Aluminum recycling is one of the few materials that are actually cost-effective to recycle vs produce from raw ore. Most things, like PET plastic use more energy in the recycling process than manufacturing the things from scratch (once you include sorting and transportation costs, which are not insignificant).
fluid ounces are different from dry ounces. One is a unit of volume, another is a unit of force (force equals mass times acceleration).
And anyway, it's a pint of milk that's a pound, but that obviously differs with the temperature and fat content of the milk (density varies with both).
"A pint's a pound, the world around...if by this mnemonic you mean to remember that there are 16 units called 'ounces' in each, although the actual dimension being measured is different, and if by 'world' you mean 'United States of America and its territories.'" But that's a really long thing to remember.
Oh, go on, check out my job.
In any cooling system, the heat removed from the stuff being cooled is more than compensated for by heat somewhere else. You know, laws of thermodynamics and all that.
So the question is, when this device activates to chill the beverage, what is it that gets hot?
Energy must be conserved, but nothing necessarily has to get hot, at least in the short term. If you put you can into an ice/water bath, the can will cool down, and the temperature of the ice/water bath will not change.
In general, you are correct; you can't cool something down without warming something up, but there are ways to buffer this chemically so that the cooling and the warming don't have to happen at the same time. In my example, the warming already happened, back when the ice was made (the coils of the refrigerator warmed up).
Those Quebec people make some damn fine beer. I think I've had most of their offerings (including a couple of hard to get ones) and I agree, Le Fin du Monde is one of my favorite beers.
Most places around here (Colorado) will sell you a shaker glass as a 'pint'. While these might hold a pint when filled to the rim, owing to the shape (what ever a rotated trapezoid solid is called) you would be lucky to actually be served 14 oz.
This is where our EU friends have the advantage; their bar glasses are required by law to have a calibrated fill line on them.
I recall seeing this idea on the "The Inventors", which screened on Australian TV in the early 1970's. Clive Hale was the host from memory. Being an Australian invention, it was pitched as a self-cooling beer can.
I'd like to try one out, but the 10oz deal kinda sucks, since 12oz cans are the norm. I also buy my beer in the 24oz, besides the 12oz.
Another cooler that I've been using for years is made by LIFOAM of Canada Inc out of Toronto. It's called "The Fridge" drink cooler. Just toss them in you're freezer, and after they freeze they're good to go...just insert cold brew... keeps them good and cold for hours. Walmart and Kmart sell them, + a few other places I'd imagine. (just a happy consumer)
Life was hell, then I discovered Linux...
I bought a couple of self cooling kegs in Germany. Their device? Compressed air. All you did was release the valve, and the escaping pressurised air surrounding the beer inside reduced the temperature. Really neat, even if you only got 20 L in a keg.
I wonder if this could be applied to the cans. They'd probably be 20 lb or something. Guess I'll just have to keep buying kegs.
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