Human ancestors went from consuming hair and drinking blood to knowing how to make fires for warmth and cooking. This is one of the important signs that distinguish human ancestors from other animals. Knowing how to use heat allowed humans to develop rapidly. In ancient China, the royal family stored ice in winter and used it in summer, which has developed from the utilization of heat to the utilization of cold energy. It was not until 1905 when the American Carrier Company invented the first compressor air conditioner that mankind officially spread towards the use of cold energy.
In China today, almost every room has an air conditioner. I often hear this sentence in summer, this year’s life is given by air conditioning! Society is developing and technology is advancing rapidly! The average life span of human beings is constantly extending, and refrigeration technology plays an important role!
Ultra-low temperature technology is increasingly valued by humans, and its various functions are constantly being discovered and refreshed! However, due to the high cost of producing ultra-low temperature cold energy technology, it has not been taken seriously in the civilian field and cannot be popularized. For example, the United States stored a large amount of ultra-low-temperature beef during World War II. It was only put out for sale today, 80 years later, and it is still as fresh as ever.
With the continuous innovation of science and technology, the manufacturing cost of ultra-low temperature cold energy technology has become so cheap that it can be widely popularized. For example, to produce 100,000 kcal of cooling capacity at minus 100 degrees, it consumes about 30 degrees of electricity. The theoretical target is within 10 degrees.
To put it more simply, the cooling capacity required to freeze two tons of beef and mutton from normal temperature at minus 100 degrees to minus 18 degrees is about 100,000 calories! The key point is that refrigeration equipment is very cheap. This is a leap in refrigeration technology, a leap in human civilization and living standards!
Modern practical refrigeration technology can generally be divided into three major categories
The first category is based on gas dynamics, which continuously extracts heat from the low temperature end, such as using refrigerators to freeze and store food, or using air conditioners to cool down. These refrigerations require the use of compressors The second type of implementation of
is to use certain chemical and physical phenomena, such as thermoelectric effect , paramagnetic effect, and tunneling effect. For example, a certain water dispenser uses electronic refrigeration. The basic principle is the temperature difference thermoelectric effect.
The last category is to directly use cryogen refrigeration, such as throwing ice cubes into beer.
generally uses different refrigeration methods according to needs. Since the maturity of air liquefaction technology and Dewar technology, nitrogen liquefaction is used as a refrigerant, which has become a very convenient and practical refrigeration technology. In addition, nitrogen is the main component in the air, and the current cost of liquid nitrogen is already cheaper than mineral water. Moreover, nitrogen is chemically inert and can directly contact biological tissue . Even if it is frozen immediately, the biological activity will not be destroyed.
The following are examples of the role of ultra-low temperature cold energy in their respective fields.
First, the biggest role of ultra-low temperature technology is that food processing and preservation will reach unprecedented heights.
For example, grain reserves , China’s estimated annual volume is 200 to 300 million tons, but reserves have costs! The biggest storage cost is the fresh grain that ends up being turned into feed! If it is refrigerated in a cold storage, it will last for hundreds of years!
Second, the significance of ultra-low temperature to the production, processing and storage of meat is even more epoch-making.
For example, in the pig raising industry, if ultra-low temperature processing technology is used, three points can be guaranteed:
1. Meat prices are single digits without rising food prices;
2. Pork reserves last for N years;
3. Ultra-low temperature processing Frozen meat eaten at any time after defrosting will surpass fresh meat in terms of taste, nutrition and quality.
Third, ultra-low temperature technology is suitable for most food processing and storage.
Hunger and poverty still exist in the world, but every year due to backward food preservation technology, the food wasted can at least feed hundreds of millions of people.
Fourth, the output of today's planting and breeding industries is far from the limit of production, but a choice that cannot be effectively preserved!
I predict again that if ultra-low temperature technology becomes popular (very cheap, in batches, freezing and refrigeration costs a few cents per kilogram per year), the total amount of human food production may double in the short term!
Five, marine resources.
Seafood is delicious, but now 99% of seafood is consumed by humans after its quality has deteriorated to varying degrees. Once ultra-low temperature freezing technology is popularized, ordinary people will be able to eat unparalleled fresh seafood ( The same price as the original.
Six, cold induction of plant seeds (cold induction is not genetically modified, but it is better than genetically modified technology in improving yield and quality).
Seven, various electronic industries, chemical industry, military, medicine, and life engineering. The application fields of ultra-low temperature refrigeration storage are becoming more and more extensive, and have continuously expanded from the traditional fields of medicine, biology, and scientific research to many new application fields. , such as aerospace, industrial and mining enterprises, electronics industry, metal material processing, security industry, etc. At present, the main influencing factors of my country’s ultra-low temperature refrigeration storage demand are the following:
(1) Biosample library From the perspective of domestic Research institutions led by foreign governments and universities have high requirements for the standardization, high quality and complete clinical data of biological samples. More representative biological sample banks such as Chinese bone marrow bank and national gene bank were established. As the number of samples stored in the established sample library increases, the demand for cryogenic storage equipment continues to increase. At the same time, hospitals, pharmaceutical R&D service companies, and third-party medical testing companies will also have greater demand for cryogenic storage equipment in the future
(2). Ultra-low temperature low-temperature storage equipment is an important infrastructure in the biomedical field. According to my country's " medical device classification catalog ", my country's medical devices can be divided into 22 major categories such as clinical testing equipment, of which clinical testing equipment includes 16 subcategories, biomedical Low-temperature storage equipment belongs to the "inspection and other auxiliary equipment", which mainly covers medical refrigerators, blood refrigerators, medical cryogenic storage boxes and other equipment. It is currently widely used in downstream
application fields, and its end users include hospitals, biopharmaceutical companies, Universities and other scientific research institutions specifically include the following application scenarios: biological sample banks, drug and reagent safety, vaccine safety, and blood safety. Through the precise mixing ratio of multiple refrigerants, the long-term and reliable low-temperature storage of biological samples is ensured
. (3) The medical device industry is in a golden development period
With the rapid and stable development of my country's economy and the serious aging of the population, investment in medical and health services is getting higher and higher, and people's health expenditures are also increasing year by year, with a relatively high proportion of The level of medical device spending is increasing year by year. According to statistics from the "China Medical Device Blue Book", the size of China's medical device market reached approximately 525 billion yuan in 2018. From the demand side, it can be seen that the demand for the medical device industry will continue to be released. From the supply side, Look, industry support policies such as priority review of innovative medical devices will also optimize market supply. Taken together, the increase in demand, optimization of the supply side and government industry support policies will promote the sustainable development of the medical device industry.
I believe everyone has some knowledge about ultra-low temperature refrigeration technology. The development and development of ultra-low temperature technology will bring unlimited possibilities in the future. Next, the editor will share more knowledge about ultra-low temperature products with you. Remember Follow
