HEAT PUMP INSTALLATION FOR FISH DRY-CURING Russian patent published in 2013 - IPC A23B4/03 

FIELD: food industry.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to refrigerating engineers, in particular, to a heat pump drying installation and may be used for fish dry-curing. The thermal pup installation contains a cooling machine operating with a circuit with an intermediary coolant medium, the machine having a compressor, an internal and an external condensers (connected in parallel) and an evaporator heat exchanger. Crates with fish are placed inside the drying chamber. The installation has a heat exchanger, an air cooler for the coolant agent dehumidification, a three-way valve (placed upstream the air cooler and intended for passing the coolant medium through the air cooler or so that to bypass the latter), a temperature sensor (installed at the drying agent outlet from the internal condenser) and a humidity sensor (installed at the drying agent inlet into the air cooler). Included in the circuit is a solenoid valve for bypassing part of coolant medium hot vapours via the heat exchanger and for the cooling machine stop prevention. Envisaged in the heat pump installation is simultaneous regulation of the drying agent temperature and humidity in the process of dry-curing within a wide range of characteristics. The product safety is ensured due to application of a circuit with an intermediary coolant medium.

EFFECT: invention ensures production of dry-cured fish having identical weight fraction of moisture across the bulk and high quality indicators.