Advanced ice making technology serves Beijing Olympic Winter Games

Low temperatures outdoors cannot cool the hot performance of athletes inside the Capital Indoor Stadium, the venue for figure skating and short track speed skating during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

Chinese researchers developed a low-carbon and energy-saving ice-making system to provide high-quality ice surfaces with stable hardness.

An advanced ice-making system can properly adjust the temperature difference and hardness of the ice surface, according to the Science and Technology Daily on Tuesday. Previous ice-making technologies of artificial ice rinks mainly adopt the synthetic refrigerant methods using freon or ammonia which could bring greenhouse problems or safety risks.

The researchers from Tianjin University cooperated with seven other enterprises in developing the carbon dioxide transcritical direct cooling ice machine system to serve the games.

The ice machine applying carbon dioxide as a refrigerant and realizing evaporation under the ice surface is considered to be a green and energy-efficient solution.

The ice machine system can save more than 50 percent of energy, the newspaper reported. And the temperature difference of the ice surface can be controlled within between 0.3 and 0.4 degrees Celsius.

Figure skating and short track speed skating have strict requirements on the ice thickness and temperature. Thus, constant and rapid conversion of two pieces of ice should be realized according to the game schedule.

The researchers shortened the duration of the conversion to two hours.