US20200340677A1

US20200340677A1 - Renewable electric power based cooking system

Info

Publication number: US20200340677A1
Application number: US16/772,129
Authority: US
Inventors: Dhaval Vasantkumar THAKKAR
Original assignee: Unesar Private Ltd
Current assignee: Unesar Private Ltd
Priority date: 2017-12-12
Filing date: 2018-12-12
Publication date: 2020-10-29
Also published as: WO2019116390A1

Abstract

According to various aspects of the invention, a cooking system is disclosed. The cooking system includes one or more thermal storages capable of storing thermal energy using electric power received from one or more energy source; one or more heat exchanger circuit for transferring the thermal energy from the one or more thermal storages; and a cooking unit arranged in heat exchanging relationship with the one or more thermal storages via one or more heat exchanger circuits. The cooking unit receives the thermal energy from the one or more thermal storages for cooking

Description

CROSS REFERENCE OF RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application having complete specification is based upon and claims priority from Indian provisional patent application no. 201721041401 filed on 12-Dec.-2017 and Indian provisional patent application no. 201821037920 filed on 6-Oct.-2018.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a cooking system, and more particularly to a cooking system operating based on thermal storage and powered by electricity or renewable electric power or renewable energy.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Regular cooking requires thermal energy and thermal energy is abundantly available from various sources in multiple forms, such as renewable solar energy or from other sources as a by-product among others. Several techniques of capturing and using thermal energy are available at different scales. While, solar cookers and other solar powered appliances use solar energy at a smaller scale, solar energy power plants operate at a larger scale to provide electricity power through electricity grids. Most of the available solar cooking solutions operates on solar to thermal conversion, are cumbersome, not convenient, not indoor, not available in absence of direct sunlight etc. Modern cooking solutions are convenient which converts electricity to thermal energy by different technologies like microwave, induction, resistive hot-plate etc. Now having solar electric power becoming scalable, distributed and affordable cooking solution can be designed on it but biggest challenge remains in the gap of power generation time and demand time which can be bridged with electrical battery, but electrical battery being complex, toxic and costly, it becomes economically unviable. As cooking need thermal energy providing effective and economical method of delivering power remains a challenge.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to various aspects of the invention, a cooking system is disclosed. The cooking system includes one or more thermal storages capable of storing thermal energy using electric power received from one or more energy source; one or more heat exchanger circuit for transferring the thermal energy from the one or more thermal storages to one or more cooking units arranged in heat exchanging relationship with the one or more thermal storages via one or more heat exchanger circuits. A cooking unit receives the thermal energy from the one or more thermal storages for cooking.
According to another aspect of the invention, a renewable energy-based cooking system is disclosed. The renewable energy-based cooking system includes an electric energy unit configured to generate electric power from a renewable energy source; one or more thermal storages capable of storing thermal energy from the electric power (e.g. the thermal storage works as electrical heating element) or indirectly by apparatus that converts electricity to heat e.g. resistive electrical heating element; one or more heat exchanger circuits for transferring the thermal energy from the thermal storage; and one or more cooking units arranged in heat exchanging relationship with one or more thermal storages via a heat exchanger circuit if the one or more heat exchanger circuits, wherein the cooking unit receives the thermal energy from the one or more thermal storages for cooking.
In another embodiment of the invention, a method of manufacturing a cooking system is disclosed. The method includes providing one or more thermal storages capable of storing thermal energy using the electric power received from an energy source; providing one or more heat exchanger circuits for transferring the thermal energy from the one or more thermal storages; and providing a cooking unit arranged in heat exchanging relationship with the one or more thermal storages via one or more heat exchanger circuits, wherein the cooking unit receives the thermal energy from the one or more thermal storage for cooking.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a cooking system according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a cooking system according to another exemplary embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of a cooking system according to yet another exemplary embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of a cooking system according to yet another exemplary embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of a programmable controller communicating with multiple sensors according to an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Before describing in detail, embodiments that are in accordance with the invention; it should be observed that the embodiments reside primarily in combinations of apparatus components related to heating utility and thermal storage-based cooking system. Accordingly, the apparatus components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.
As required, detailed embodiments of the invention are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art. Further, the terms and phrases used herein are not intended to be limiting but rather to provide an understandable description of the invention.
The terms “first,” “second,” “top”, “bottom” and the like, herein do not denote any order, quantity, or importance, but rather are used to distinguish one element from another, and the terms “a”, “one”, “the”, “this” and “an” herein do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one of the referenced item. The term plurality and “one or more” as used herein, is defined as one as or more than one and some places even none. The term another, as used herein, is defined as at least a second or more. The terms including—and/or having, as used herein, are defined as comprising (i.e., open language). The term coupled, as used herein, is defined as connected, although not necessarily directly, and not necessarily mechanically. As used herein, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include”, “including”, and “includes” mean including, but not limited to. As used herein, the word “circuit” may be an open loop circuit or close loop circuit.
Various embodiments of a cooking system powered by thermal energy received from renewable energy source or electric power are described. The cooking system includes one or more thermal storages capable of storing thermal energy using electric power received from one or more energy source; one or more heat exchanger circuit for transferring the thermal energy from the one or more thermal storages; and one or more cooking units arranged in heat exchanging relationship with the one or more thermal storages via one or more heat exchanger circuits. The cooking unit receives the thermal energy from the one or more thermal storages for cooking. The thermal storage may be portable or stationary and may store thermal energy, for example, by elevating the temperature of a substance or energy level of a chemical substance as known in the art with sensible heat storage, latent heat storage or thermo-chemical heat storage.
According to one embodiment the thermal energy storage may store thermal energy by reducing the temperature of a substance to any temperature below ambient temperature, for example, below 0° Celsius. The thermal energy storage may be charged to acquire temperature below ambient temperature using cooling agents for example, coolant or any known refrigeration mechanism known in the art. According to an embodiment, the thermal energy utilization may dispense cold by interacting with such thermal energy storage storing substance below ambient temperature for example, below 0° Celsius.
FIG. 1 illustrates a cooking system 100 having thermal storage for storing thermal energy according to an embodiment of the invention. The cooking system 100 includes one or more thermal storages such as, a thermal storage 102 and a thermal storage 104 that are capable of storing thermal energy, from electric power (e.g. the thermal storage works as electrical heating element), or received indirectly through an apparatus (e.g., resistive electrical heating element) that converts electricity received from one or more energy sources to heat. The energy source may be a renewable energy source. As the cooking system uses renewable energy, this can be a renewable energy-based cooking system. The renewable energy sources may include for example, but not limited to, solar energy, solar photovoltaic energy, wind energy, biofuel energy and hydro energy. In another embodiment, the energy source may be an electric energy source, such as, a power grid. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the cooking system 100 may be receive energy (electric energy or any other source of energy) from an energy source 106, an electrical battery 107 and a power grid 108. The energy source 106 may be a renewable energy source. For example, if the energy source 106 is a solar energy source, an electric energy unit 110 is a photovoltaic panel that generates the electric energy or electric power. The electric energy unit 110 may be capable of stabilizing electric energy generated or received from the energy source 106. Further, the electric energy unit 110 may be able to transform from one form of energy to electric energy, or perform voltage conversion/inversion of electric energy (e.g. alternate current (AC) to direct current (DC) conversion or DC to AC conversion). Even though, only the energy source 106 and the power grid 108 are shown in FIG. 1, the cooking system 100 may receive electric power or energy from other sources of energy or electric power.
The electric power from the energy source (such as, the energy source 106 or the power grid 108) may be supplied to a thermal storage for storing energy in the form of thermal energy. A programmable controller 112 controls, but not limited to, for example the amount, time, current or circuit of electric power supply to the thermal storage. The programmable controller 112 may also have other functionalities such as, switching between different energy sources such as, the energy source 106, the power grid 108, electrical battery 107 or other energy source for receiving electric power, controlling the amount of electric power received from the energy source and so on. For example, during daytime when solar energy is available the programmable controller 112 may receive the electric power from solar energy source. When the solar energy is not available, or if there is higher demand for solar energy than amount of solar energy available, the programmable controller 112 connects to the power grid 108 or electric battery 107 based on a pre-set dynamic program, for supplying the electric power for storing thermal energy or functioning of any electrical and electronic components of the system 100. Thus, based on e.g., the cost, demand, reliability alternate, future backup need, time, season, and availability of energy from different energy sources, the programmable controller 112 can shift receiving energy between these energy sources.
As discussed earlier, the energy received in the form of electric power can be transformed and stored as thermal energy in one or more thermal storages. In an embodiment, the thermal storage 102 may include a heating element 114 that is powered by the electric power to be directly transformed into heat or generate thermal energy. The thermal energy is stored in the thermal storage 102. As shown in the FIG. 1, in an exemplary embodiment, the thermal storage 102 comprises a thermal storage material or core, one or more sensors, at least one transfer interface, an optional outer shell, at least one thermally insulation 140, and structural components. The core and the structural components are contained in the outer shell. The outer shell may be fabricated using suitable materials such as materials that provide appropriate rigidity and thermal conductivity. The structural components, support and hold the core and the at least one transfer interface in position. The core may comprise a material that enables storing of thermal energy. The thermal storage material or core may be for example, a sensible heat storage e.g., graphite, metal alloy, composite material, ceramics; a phase change material e.g., NaNO₃, KNO₃or any other thermo-chemical substance e.g. magnesium sulphate heptahydrate (MgSO₄.7H2O), magnesium chloride hexahydrate (MgCl2.6H2O), and calcium chloride dihydrate (CaCl2.2H2O), among others known in the art. The core may also have one or more fins, layers outer shell and heat transfer interfaces. For example, the core may be a thermo-chemical material core which may require one or more shells and some flow control mechanism as known in the art. The thermal energy may be stored by elevating temperature of the material, or by transforming the chemical substance from a low energy state to a high energy state. In other words, the heating element 114 transfers heat energy to elevate the temperature of the core material also known as sensible heat storage or transform phase or state of the material also known as latent heat storage or does thermo-chemical reaction to chemically transform the energy state of the chemical substance for storing thermal energy or combination of thereof.
Alternatively, in another embodiment, thermal storages may have water or other fluid for storing thermal energy. Thus, water in the thermal storage 104 may be heated by a heating element 116. The heating element 116 receives power from the energy source controlled by the programmable controller 112. The thermal energy from the water can be used by the cooking system 100 for cooking. Even though only two thermal storages i.e. the thermal storage 102 and the thermal storage 104 are shown in FIG. 1, there can be single thermal storage or multiple thermal storages present in the cooking system according to various embodiments.
As mentioned earlier, the cooking system 100 may include one or more electric batteries, such as the electric battery 107. The electric battery 107 may be charged by the electric power received from the energy source. In a scenario, when all the thermal storages are completely charged, or not being in use, or not required to be charged, the electric power may be diverted to the electric battery 107 for charging or to power grid 108 (only after suitable transformation). The programmable controller 112 may shift or direct the electric power to charge the electric battery 107. Thus, the charged electric battery 107 may act as an alternate source of energy storage. In addition to the thermal storages 102 and 104, the electric battery 107 acts as energy backup for cooking at night or during other energy demanding conditions. In an embodiment, the electric battery 107 may provide electric power to the programmable controller 112 for its operation, to supply power to other electric and electronic components of the cooking system 100. In a scenario, when energy source is supplying energy, or no more energy is required for thermal storages or cooking unit or electrical battery or heat exchanger circuit, then the controller 112 is programmed by a user or have dynamic capability to divert the electric power to power grid 108 (only after suitable transformation as known in the art).
In an embodiment, the thermal storages 102 and 104 may be provided with thermal insulation (e.g. a thermal insulation 118 for thermal storage 102) to reduce heat loss to the ambient atmosphere over long period of time e.g. hours and days. The thermal insulation may be a vacuum based thermal insulation according to an embodiment e.g. double walled vacuum container with one open mouth like water bottle or water jug as known in art. However, in another embodiment, any other thermal insulation known in the art may be used. Further, it may be envisioned that different combinations of thermal insulations can be provided to the thermal storages 102 and 104 according to various embodiments of the invention. There may be one or more sensors provided in each of the thermal storages to monitor the temperature or energy level and this temperature level or energy level is send to the programmable controller 112 for monitoring by wire or wireless connection. In an embodiment, if the temperature or energy level of the thermal storage falls below a threshold level, the sensor may communicate to the programmable controller 112 and the programmable controller 112 can further charge the thermal storage. Accordingly heating element (e.g. the heating element 114 and the heating element 116) may be powered with electricity to charge the thermal storage. In another embodiment, the sensor may communicate the temperature level or energy level in the thermal storage to the programmable controller 112, thereafter the programmable controller 112 may determine if the thermal storage can be charged further and accordingly charged. Similarly, if sensors of energy level indicate higher energy than a pre-set or dynamic threshold value, then the programmable controller 112 may transfer electrical energy to electrical battery 107. The working of the sensor and programmable controller 112 is further explained in conjunction with FIG. 4.
In order to perform cooking in the cooking system 100, a cooking unit 119 is provided. In an embodiment the cooking unit 119 may be a cooking chamber capable of receiving one or more cooking utensils (such as, utensils 120-1 and 120-2) holding cooking content. The cooking unit 119 as shown in FIG. 1 may have a lid 121. The lid 121 may be a detachable lid that will reduce convection losses in open room/kitchen ambient and steam losses from the cooking unit 119. In an embodiment, the lid 121 may be a thermally insulated lid. The lid 120 may have a pressure valve 122 on it that will maintain the steam pressure level in the cooking chamber. A sensor may be present in the cooking unit 119 or to a cooking utensil (120-1, 120-2) that continuously measures the temperature within the cooking chamber or one or more portion of the cooking chamber, and sends feedback/signals to the programmable controller 112. The cooking unit 119 is arranged in a heat exchanging relationship with a heat exchanger circuit 124. It may be noted that even though only one heat exchanger circuit is shown, there can be multiple heat exchanger circuit arranged in different manner for heating a portion or part of cooking unit 119 or the whole cooking unit 119. During operation, thermal energy from the thermal storage 102 may be transferred through the heat exchanger circuit 124 to the cooking unit 119. In an embodiment, a heat transfer fluid may carry thermal energy from the thermal storage 102 and enters the heat exchanger circuit 124 to transfer the thermal energy to the cooking unit 119. According to an embodiment, the heat exchanger circuit (e.g. a heat exchanger circuit 124) may include fluid pipes with valve, pump and other known fluid circuit forming, handing and managing components. The heat exchanger circuit 124 may be an open or close loop circuit. The heat exchanger circuit may be formed by thermally conductive materials and may be managed by mechanical levers, cam or other mechanism with direct or indirect contact with thermal storage material as known in the art. The heat transfer fluid may circulate with the help of a pump 126. In other words, the pump 126 may drive (via suction mechanism) the heat transfer fluid from the thermal storage 102 to the heat exchanger circuit 124 to circulate the heat transfer fluid thereby facilitating continuous, or interval based transfer of heat between the thermal storage 102 and the cooking unit 119. However, the heat transfer fluid may be circulated and controlled using any other known mechanism or an algorithm running in the programmable controller 112 for better efficiency according to various other embodiments of the invention. In another embodiment, the heat exchanger circuit 124 may have the capability of forced heating the cooking unit 119. The heat exchanger circuit 124 may use mechanisms known in the art to forcibly transfer the thermal energy from thermal storage 102 to the heat transfer fluid and finally to the cooking unit 119 for faster and efficient cooking. In another embodiment, the heat exchanger circuit 124 may include one or more heating elements to pre-heat the heat transfer fluid for reducing its viscosity, because less viscous fluid can be easily transferred by the pump such as, the pump 126. All the thermal subsystems in the cooking system 100 like thermal storage, heat exchanger circuit, heating elements, cooking unit and any other component may perform thermal operation at any temperature range from −50° Celsius to 1500° Celsius.
In an alternate embodiment, another pump (similar to the pump 126) may draw hot water from the thermal storage 104 to heat the cooking unit 119. More specifically, the pump 126 draws the hot water and drives through the heat exchanger circuit 124 to heat the cooking unit 119. After the heat transfer, the low temperature water may be pumped into the thermal storage 104 or another thermal storage to get the water heated again. Even though this thermal storage that can receive the low temperature water is not shown, it can be an integral part of the cooking system 100 according to an embodiment. This thermal storage can be used for transferring low temperature water to the cooking system 100 based on the need for different purposes e.g. used as cooking content or pumped into another thermal storage or discarded. Further, it may be noted that the hot water or low temperature water may pass through the heat exchanger circuit 124 or any other heat exchanger circuit provided to transfer the thermal energy to the cooking unit 119 even though not shown in FIG. 1. This may be provided to avoid the hot water/low temperature water from passing through the heat exchanger circuit 124 which carries a dedicated heat transfer fluid in order to prevent mixing. The hot water and low temperature water are not transferred simultaneously to cooking unit 119 to avoid energy loss.
Any water can be used as cooking content in the cooking unit 119. In an alternate embodiment, water may passed through the thermal storage 104 with separate heat exchange mechanism that converts water into steam or lower temperature water that will be used as cooking content, and the same may be controlled by programmable controller 112 with help of temperature and flow sensors, pump, pipes, valves and other fluid measuring devices known in the art.
In another embodiment, the hot water from the thermal storage 104 may be supplied or pumped into the cooking unit 119 or one of the cooking utensils for the purpose of cooking or as cooking content. The thermal storage 104 may be connected to the cooking unit 119 using a separate connection (not shown in FIG. 1) to supply hot water. The programmable controller 112 may control the amount of hot water being supplied. The cooking unit 119 may have sensor(s) known in the art that can determine the water pumped, level of hot water within it and these sensors provide feedback to the programmable controller 112. If a desired level of hot water is achieved in the cooking unit 119, then the programmable controller 112 stops supplying the hot water to the cooking unit 119. The desired level of hot water is decided by a user and provided as a user input through the control panel or decided by sensor(s) or camera within cooking unit 119 and image recognition algorithm or any technology or algorithm known in the art may be applied by programmable controller 112.
In another embodiment, the heat exchanger circuit 124 may have a thermic fluid (air or liquid) or thermally conductive material or phase change material that changes its energy state and transfers thermal energy for cooking. The thermal energy from one of the thermal storages 102 and 104 may change the energy state by temperature change or phase of the material (e.g. Solid-to-Liquid-to-Solid or Solid-Solid) or thermo-chemical reaction substance to transfer thermal energy to the cooking unit 119 for cooking. In yet another embodiment, the heat exchanger circuit 124 may include a heating element, and may include any electric heating element 127 which can be powered by the electric supply by programmable controller 112 for heating the cooking unit 119 for cooking. The heating element 127 may help in changing the phase of the phase change material or changing the viscosity of heat transfer fluid or thermic fluid (i.e. reduce viscosity of the fluid) in the heat exchanger circuit 124. The programmable controller 112 may control supply of power to heating element from one or more of the available energy sources when more energy is needed for cooking than that can be availed from the thermal storages. The heating element 127 may provide high range/amount of electric power or electric current, or various ranges of electric power to reduce viscosity of the heat transfer fluid or to supply high energy volume needed for cooking (e.g. cooking content volume more than stated capacity of thermal storage), or to perform high temperature cooking applications such as, oil based deep frying cooking, shallow fry, baking and so on.
In an embodiment, the thermal storage 102 may have a hot plate 128 placed on top or just integrated as part of the thermal storage 102 as shown in FIG. 1. The hot plate 128 acts as a cooktop. The hot plate 128 may be fixed or pluggable to the thermal storage 102, and transfers heat by conduction, convection, heat transfer mechanism or radiation from the thermal storage 102 to a cooking container placed on it. Alternatively, the cooking can be performed directly on top of the hot plate 128. In yet another embodiment, the heat from the thermal storage 102 may be transferred using a heat exchange system to the hot plate 128, very similar to heat exchanger circuit 124 with help of pump like the pump 126. The heat exchange system may be part of the hot plate (such as, the hot plate 128) according to another embodiment. In an embodiment, the hot plate 128 may be configured to hold phase change material or any material (e.g. aluminium or highly thermally conductive alloys) to store thermal energy and can be used to release the thermal energy for cooking the cooking content. Usually, the hot-plate is flat on one surface, yet alternatively it can be designed like cooking utensil to hold cooking content. In other embodiments, the hot plate may be an induction-based cook-top or hot plate or a halogen based radiative hot plate or cook-top, or any other electrically powered hot plate.
The cooking system 100 also includes an electrical output socket 130 that can be utilized for electrical cooking appliances like induction, electrical hotplate, microwave, oven or any other electric appliance known in the art. These cooking appliances may be controlled by the programmable controller 112 with sensor feedback (wired or wireless) from the appliances. As mentioned earlier, operation of the cooking system 100 is monitored and controlled by the programmable controller 112 according to an embodiment. The programmable controller 112 may have a control panel and a display (shown in FIG. 4) that enables a user to control the cooking system 100. The control panel and the display are further explained in conjunction with FIG. 4. In another embodiment, the programmable controller, control panel and other control modules can be integrated in the structure of cooking system 100 such that it looks like single appliance. The programmable controller 112 controls the functioning of each subsystem of the cooking system 100, and interaction between all subsystems that facilitates the functioning of the cooking system 100. The subsystems refer to cooking units, electrical heating elements, electrical hotplate, electrical cooktop, thermal storages, programmable controller, electric energy unit, electric battery, heat exchanger circuit, refrigeration unit, fluid pump, electronic lever, any piping connections and so on.
Now moving on to FIG. 2 illustrating a cooking system 200 having a refrigeration capability according to an embodiment of the invention. The cooking system 200 includes a thermal storage 202, a thermal storage 204, a cooking unit 206 and an electric battery 208 similar in construction and operation or functionality to the thermal storages 102 and 104, the cooking unit 119 and the electric battery 107 of the cooking system 100. Hence, these components and their functions are not explained again. The cooking unit 206 can hold cooking utensils (e.g. a cooking utensil 210 and a cooking utensil 212) which can be used for cooking content similar to the cooking utensils 120-1 and 120-2, and the cooking unit 206 has a lid 214 and a pressure value 216 similar in function and structure to the lid 121 and the pressure valve 122 of the cooking unit 119. Accordingly, these components are not explained further. The cooking unit 206 also includes a heat exchanger circuit 218 and a pump 219 that functions in a same manner as the heat exchanger circuit 124 and the pump 126 and hence these components are not explained again in detail.
When the cooking unit 206 is not used for cooking, it can be used for storing raw food items. For this purpose, a refrigeration unit 220 connected to the cooking system 206 supplies cool air or refrigerating air or cold energy to the cooking chamber or to the cooking utensil to give a cold atmosphere to raw food. The food items can be placed in the cooking chamber and can be kept in fresh condition as in a typical refrigerator. The cool air is supplied by a circuit 222 of the refrigeration unit 220. In an embodiment, the refrigeration unit 220 may be a thermal storage. In this case, the thermal storage may have a sensible heat storage material or thermo-chemical storage material substance or phase change material or combination thereof that can store the energy to release cold energy for cooling the cooking unit 206. In an embodiment, the refrigeration unit 220 may supply cold energy to the thermal storage. The thermal storage then sends cold energy to the cooking unit 206. Further, it may be envisioned that the refrigeration or cooling unit 220 may be any typical refrigeration unit known in the art according to some embodiments of the invention. The refrigeration unit 220 may receive electric power from an energy source controlled by programmable controller 230. The energy source may be a renewable energy source 224 or a power grid 226 or a battery 208. The energy from the renewable energy source 224 may be converted into electric power by an electric energy unit 228. In an embodiment, the renewable energy unit 228 may be one or more solar photovoltaic panels that converts solar energy (i.e. the energy source 224) into electrical energy. Even though, only the renewable energy source 224 and the power grid 226 are shown in FIG. 2, the cooking system 200 may receive electric power or energy from other sources of energy or electric power source
A programmable controller 230 controls the amount of electric power supplied to the thermal storages 202 and 204 and the refrigeration unit 220. The programmable controller 230 may also have other functionalities such as, switching between the renewable energy source 224, the electrical battery 208 and the power grid 226 for receiving electric power, controlling the amount of electric power supplies to the cooking system 200 and energy storing or consuming subsystems like 202, 204, 208, 219, 220, 240 (i.e. the heating element) and so on. For example, renewable energy is available, the programmable controller 230 may receive the electric power from the renewable energy source 224 such as and electricity from 228. When the renewable energy is not available, the programmable controller 230 connects to electrical battery 208 or the power grid 226 for supply of the electric power. Thus, based on the availability of energy from different energy sources, the programmable controller 230 can shift electrical supply between these energy sources.
When the cooking unit 206 is presently used for storing raw food in cool condition and needs to be used for cooking, the programmable controller 230 switches off the refrigeration unit 220 or stops supply of cool air from the refrigeration unit 220 to allow the cooking unit 206 to come to room temperature. In another embodiment, the programmable controller 230 may operate one of the thermal storages 202 and 204 to supply heat or thermal energy to bring the cooking unit 206 to room temperature. The programmable controller 230 may be pre-programed to bring the cooking unit 206 to room temperature after being used for refrigeration. In an embodiment, a sensor in the cooking unit 206 monitors the temperature and sends the temperature information to the programmable controller 230. Accordingly, the programmable controller 230 may switch on or off the refrigeration unit 220 to remain closer to desired temperature. In an embodiment, the electric battery 208 may provide electric power to the programmable controller 230 for its operation.
FIG. 3 illustrates a cooking system 300 according to yet another embodiment of the invention. The cooking system 300 includes multiple cooking units such as, cooking units 302 and 304. These cooking unit 302 having a lid 306 and a pressure valve 308, and the cooking unit 304 having a lid 310 and a pressure valve 312 function in the same manner as the cooking units 119 and 206 accordingly they are not explained further in detail. Further, even though only two cooking units are shown in FIG. 3 for sake convenience of representation, the cooking system 300 can include more cooking units. Further, thermal storages 314 and 316 are similar to thermal storages described in conjunction with FIGS. 1 and 2. In an embodiment, the thermal storages 314 and 316 may be positioned within a thermally insulated chamber 318. The thermally insulated chamber 318 prevents any heat loss from the thermal storages. The thermally insulated chamber 318 may be a vacuum-based thermally insulated with for example, a double wall sandwiched chamber, or may be having any other kind of thermal insulation according to various embodiments of the invention and as known in the art. It may be envisioned that the thermal storages can be thermally insulated in any other form of arrangement for example, each thermal storage may be thermally insulated separately, a stack of thermal storages may be arranged in one thermally insulated chamber, or a stack of thermal storages in a thermally insulated chamber may be positioned such that each thermal storage is in each compartment with or without thermal insulation between each and is within the scope of this invention. The thermal storages are charged by respective heating elements similar to the heating elements described with respect to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. The cooking system 300 also includes an energy source 320, a power grid 322 or an electric energy unit 324 and a programmable controller 326 and an electrical battery or combination thereof which are similar to the energy source, the electric energy unit, the power grid, the electric battery and the programmable controller as described in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.
In an embodiment, the thermal storages may be interconnected to each other, i.e. the thermal energy may flow between the two thermal storages 314 and 316. In other words, if the thermal storage 314 is supplying thermal energy to the cooking unit, as the thermal energy level reduces in the thermal storage 314, the thermal energy from the thermal storage 316 is supplied or other way around or any other interconnected circuit route as needed in the system to get needed results as known in the art. Thus, the thermal storages 314 and 316 acts like an interconnected chain of thermal storages.
For the operation of the cooking system 300, the thermal energy is transferred from the thermal storages 314 and 316 to the cooking units 302 and 304 via a heat exchanger circuit 326. One or more pump such as, a pump 327 facilitates the flow of a thermal fluid for transfer of the thermal energy. In another embodiment, the cooking system 300 can include one or more heat exchanger circuits for transferring the thermal energy with one or more pumps, valve and other components as known in the art. For instance, cooking units 302 and 304 may be supplied thermal energy via separate heat exchanger circuits. A programmable controller 326 controls the amount of thermal energy transferred between the thermal storages 314 and 316, and the cooking units 302 and 304. The thermal storage 314 and 316 may have different thermal storage materials and may store energy at different temperature, such that the heat exchange begins from low energy state storage and pass through high energy state storage such that higher state of energy will be achieved with the heat exchange fluid. In an embodiment, the programmable controller 326 may allow only one of the cooking units 302 and 304 or its sub-portion to be heated for cooking. Further, the particular cooking unit that needs to be heated may be supplied with thermal energy from one or more thermal storages depending on the temperature level needed in the cooking unit which will be controlled by the programmable controller 326. In another embodiment, multiple cooking units (such as, the cooking units 302 and 304) may be supplied thermal energy by one thermal storage, for example, the thermal storage 314. All these functions of the thermal storage and the cooking units are controlled by the programmable controller 326 and heat exchange may be done with thermally conductive material or a forced convection of thermic fluid or any other mechanism as known in the art.
Moving on to FIG. 4 illustrating another cooking system 400 according to yet another embodiment of the invention. The cooking system 400 receives electric power from various energy sources such as, an energy source 402 and a power grid 404. The energy source 402 may be a renewable energy source. The renewable energy source is converted into electric power by an electric energy unit 406. A programmable controller 408 controls the operation of the cooking system 400. The cooking system 400 includes a thermal storage 410 having two separate exit ports, and thus a hot plate (e.g. a hot plate 412 and a hot plate 414) may be placed or integrated on each of the exit ports. The hot plate can receive a cooking utensil and transfer thermal energy for cooking. In order to efficiently transfer the thermal energy from thermal storage 410 to hot-plate 412 or 414, high thermal conductive fins 416 and fins 418 are provided to the hot-plate 412 and the hot-plate 414 with another intermediate thin layer of gasket, placing material or none. The fins 416 and 418 may be elongated members that facilitate efficient transfer of thermal energy to the hot-plates. The hot plates 412 and 414 may be covered by lids 420 and 422. The lids 420 and 422 may have thermal insulation. The lids 420 and 422 include a handle 424 and a handle 426 respectively. The lids 420 and 422 can be removed for placing the cooking utensils on the hot plates 412 and 414.
The thermal storage 410 includes a thermal insulation 428 which ensures that the hot plates 412 and 414 seem to be separate hot plates from the top or outside, however connected to single thermal storage 410. As shown in FIG. 4 the thermal insulation 428 located between the hot plates 412 and 414 does not transfer thermal energy due to the presence of the thermal insulation or any other material spacer. In an embodiment, the thermal storage 410 may not have the thermal insulation 428, then, the hot plates 412 and 414 together form a single hot plate. The thermal storage 410 is charged by an electric heating element 430 that is powered by the electric power received from the energy source 406. The electric heating element 430 and the thermal storage 410 may be positioned within a thermal insulation 432 which is covered in outer shell structure. This thermal insulation 432 ensures that there is no heat loss from the thermal storage 410. Alternatively, the thermal insulation 432 could be made of double walled vacuum sandwiched container.
The programmable controller as described in conjunction with FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 operates to control the overall operation of the cooking system. An exemplary programmable controller 500 is illustrated in FIG. 5 according to an embodiment of the invention. As mentioned, this is only an exemplary representation, the programmable controller may or may not have the components shown in FIG. 5, or have additional components or use technology (future or currently known in the art) as shown in FIG. 5, and according to other alternate embodiments, various configurations of the programmable controller are possible within scope of this invention. The programmable controller 500 may include a processor 502 and a memory 504. The programmable controller 500 may communicate with multiple sensors such as, a sensor 506-1, a sensor 506-2, a sensor 506-3, and a sensor 506-4. The sensors communicate with the programmable controller 500 through a wired or wireless connection. Each of these sensors may be placed in different subsystems of the cooking system and may perform different functions. The programmable controller 500 may have a control panel 508 and a display 510. The control panel 508 may be used by a user to provide user input 512. The programmable controller 500 can perform various operations such as, monitoring the temperature in the thermal storages, cooking units and refrigeration unit and controlling its operation. For example, the sensor 506-1 in the thermal storage can determine if it is fully charged or not by measuring its temperature level or thermal energy level. The sensor 506-1 can send this information to the programmable controller 500 to stop supply of electric power or increase or reduce electric power to heating element of the thermal storage based on the thermal energy level. Another function that can be performed by the programmable controller 500 may be monitoring the temperature in the cooking unit. The sensor 506-2 may be used for monitoring the temperature level in the cooking unit and communicating to the programmable controller 500. Based on the temperature level, the programmable controller 500 decreases or disconnects the supply of thermal energy or increases the amount of thermal energy supplied, or continues to supply of thermal energy from the thermal storage. In an embodiment the temperature level may be set by a user through the control panel 508 or through other communication channel known in the art like remote or mobile application or web interface or other or combination thereof. Thus, the user can pre-set the temperature level, duration, time and other values, which may be stored in the memory 504. So, if the pre-set temperature level is achieved, the programmable controller 500 stops supply of thermal energy to cooking unit.
In another embodiment, the user can store different pre-set programs or duration or schedule of operation of the cooking system through the control panel 508 or other communication channel. These pre-set programs or dynamic programs or schedule may be represented as the user input 512. For example, the user can create a dynamic schedule for fixed time slots in the morning and evening the cooking system will be used for cooking, and rest of the time the cooking unit may be used as a refrigerator. The programable controller 500 is programmed to automatically supply thermal energy to heat the cooking unit during the scheduled time slots in the morning and evening, and stop supply of the thermal energy after the cooking is done. During the time slots when cooking is not performed, the refrigeration unit may be operated to supply cooling into the cooking unit for refrigeration or preservation of the food. In an alternate embodiment, the cooking system may have the capability of being controlled remotely by a user through the programmable controller 500 or smart or fuzzy logic or auto sensors base or dynamic or artificial intelligence or heuristic information based or any other mechanisms known in the art or any future improved technology that can be used or combination thereof.
Other functionalities of sensors may be for example, the sensor 506-3 may measure the amount of water level in the thermal storage. If the water level goes below the desired level, then the programmable controller 500 initiates supply of water into the thermal storage from a water reservoir. The water reservoir may be external or internal to the cooking system. Moreover, there may be sensors that determine if there is any failure of any part or subsystem of the cooking system and provide this information to the programmable controller 500. For instance, the sensor 506-4 may determine if there is any clogging of the heat exchanger circuit and this information may be sent to the programmable controller 500. The programmable controller 500 analyses this information and alerts the user through the display 510 of the clogged heat exchanger circuit or any other connected communication method known in the art. Accordingly, the user can take action to rectify the clogged heat exchanger circuit. Similarly, there can be multiple sensors used for monitoring the operating condition or health state of different subsystems of the cooking system and accordingly communicate to the programmable controller 500. The operating condition or health state of the different subsystems may be presented on the display 510 or any other connected communication method known in the art for the user to monitor.
The display 510 may also present the temperature level or thermal energy level in the thermal storages, the temperature level in the cooking unit, the water level in the thermal storage, health of the cooking system and its subsystems, electrical battery level, problem in the cooking system, service requirement in the cooking system, the mode of operation of the cooking unit for example, as a cooking mode or a refrigeration mode or a standby mode etc, whether electric power is currently supplied to the thermal storage by renewable energy source or electric battery or power grid or any alternate source of energy. These information enables the user to understand the operating status of the cooking system. The programmable controller such as the programmable controller 500 may also allow to set limit or values for a few of the stated variables.
In an alternative implementation according to an embodiment, a cooking system (e.g., the cooking systems 100, 200 and 300) may not have a programmable controller and hence it may be manually operated or, may have a programmable controller (e.g. the programmable controllers 112, 230, 326, 408 and 500) that partially controls with manual operation or any combination thereof.
A method of manufacturing a cooking system is also disclosed. This method includes providing one or more thermal storages, may be one or more heat exchanger circuits, and a cooking unit. The thermal storage of the one or more thermal storages is capable of storing thermal energy using the electric power received from one or more energy sources. The one or more heat exchanger circuits facilitate transfer of the thermal energy from the one or more thermal storages to one or more cooking units. The cooking unit is arranged in heat exchanging relationship with the one or more thermal storages via the one or more heat exchanger circuits. The cooking unit receives the thermal energy from the one or more thermal storages for cooking.
In an embodiment, the cooking system (such as, the cooking system 100, the cooking system 200, the cooking system 300 and the cooking system 400) are modular in structure. Thus, various subsystems of the cooking system can be removed and added into the system like a pluggable unit based on the need and convenience of the user. This provides added benefit for the user to scale up the cooking system based on the cooking need.
The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has been described with reference to specific embodiments. However, the illustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the present disclosure and its practical applications, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention and various embodiments with various modifications as may be suited to the particular use contemplated.
The present invention offers various advantages by providing portability and flexibility to capture and utilization of thermal energy storage. The cooking system operates with help of thermal energy captured from renewable energy source with provision of alternate source of energy such as, power grid. The cooking system can be transported and used at a time and place different from a place and time at which the thermal storages are charged. Further, the cooking system allows scalability and much more efficient and cost effective due to usage of renewable energy. The cooking system uses variable number of portable thermal storages to derive various scales of heat capability. The cooking system can be centrally controlled through a programmable controller by a user. The programmable controller can monitor and control the functions performed different subsystems of the cooking system. The cooking system is also modular, wherein the subsystems can be easily re-arranged and additional subsystems (such as thermal storages and cooking units) can be conveniently added as part of the cooking system. Thus, these subsystems can be arranged in pluggable format or in other words plugged into the cooking system as and when needed by a user. Further, the user can also plug-out some subsystems that are not needed from the cooking system.
While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the present invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof, and the scope thereof is determined by the claims that follow.

Claims

1.-24. (canceled)

25. A cooking system characterized in that the system provides a thermal storage for hot water into the cooking unit, a heat exchanger supplying heat to the cooking unit and a refrigeration unit for supplying cold energy to the cooking unit, wherein the thermal energy is powered by electric power, the cooking system comprising:

a. one or more thermal storages capable of storing thermal energy in the form of heat and cold energy using the electric power received from an energy source;

b. one or more heat exchanger circuits for transferring the thermal energy in the form of heat and cold energy from one or more thermal storages; and

c. a cooking unit for receiving thermal energy from one or more thermal storages, wherein the cooking unit is provided with the discretion of receiving heat energy and cold energy from one or more thermal storages for cooking and refrigeration of one or more items in the cooking unit.

26. The cooking system as claimed in claim 25, wherein the cooking system comprises an electric energy unit configured to generate electric power from the energy received from the energy source, wherein the energy source is a renewable energy source.

27. The cooking system as claimed in claim 25, wherein the cooking system comprises one or more sensors and a programmable controller communicating with the one or more sensors for controlling the functioning of the electric energy unit, the one or more thermal storages, one or more heat exchanger circuits and the cooking unit.

28. The cooking system as claimed in claim 25, wherein the cooking system comprises an electric battery capable of storing energy from the electric power received from the energy source, wherein the programmable controller switches between a heating element of the one or more thermal storages and the charging electric battery for storing energy from the electric power.

29. The cooking system as claimed in claim 25, wherein the programmable controller controls the amount of thermal energy transferred from one or more thermal storages to one or more cooking units through one or more heat exchanger circuits, wherein the thermal energy is the heat transferred from one or more thermal storages to one or more cooking units.

30. The cooking system as claimed in claim 25, wherein the programmable controller controls the amount of thermal energy transferred from one or more thermal storages to one or more cooking units through one or more heat exchanger circuits, wherein the thermal energy is the hot water transferred from one or more thermal storages to one or more cooking units.

31. The cooking system as claimed in claim 25, wherein the programmable controller controls the amount of thermal energy transferred from one or more thermal storages to one or more cooking units through one or more heat exchanger circuits, wherein the thermal energy is the cold energy transferred from one or more thermal storages to one or more cooking units.

32. The cooking system as claimed in claim 25, wherein a thermal storage of the one or more thermal storages comprises one of a sensible heat storage material, a phase change material and a thermo-chemical storage material for storing thermal energy.

33. The cooking system as claimed in claim 25, wherein a thermal storage of the one or more thermal storages stores water, wherein the water in the thermal storage is heated using the electric power.

34. The cooking system as claimed in claim 31, wherein the thermal storage is connected to the cooking unit for supplying hot water to the cooking unit for cooking.

35. The cooking system as claimed in claim 34, wherein the cooking system further comprises a water dispensing unit as the thermal storage for dispensing hot water into the cooking unit, wherein the hot water is used as cooking content.

36. The cooking system as claimed in claim 25, wherein water present in a heat exchanger circuit of the one or more heat exchanger circuits is heated by the thermal energy from a thermal storage of the one or more thermal storages.

37. The cooking system as claimed in claim 25, wherein the cooking unit is arranged in heat exchanging relationship with one or more thermal storages for supplying thermal energy in the form of heat and cold energy through one or more heat exchanger circuits.

38. The cooking system as claimed in claim 25, wherein a thermal storage of the one or more thermal storages is a cold thermal storage, wherein the cold thermal storage supplies cold energy to the cooking unit by means of heat exchange mechanism.

39. The cooking system as claimed in claim 25, wherein the cooking system further comprises a refrigeration unit configured to perform at least one of:

supplying cold energy to the thermal storage of the one or more thermal storages, wherein the thermal storage supplies cold energy to the cooking unit; and

supplying the cold energy to the cooking unit.

40. The cooking system as claimed in claim 25, wherein one or more thermal storages is thermally insulated by thermal insulation.

41. The cooking system as claimed in claim 40, wherein the thermal insulation is a vacuum based thermal insulation.

42. The cooking system as claimed in claim 25, wherein the heat exchanger circuit pumps thermal energy to the cooking unit.

43. The cooking system as claimed in claim 25, wherein the energy source is at least one of a renewable energy source and an electric energy source.

44. The cooking system as claimed in claim 25, wherein the cooking system comprises more than one thermal storages and cooking units for performing simultaneous cooking operations at discrete temperatures and heat flow, wherein the programmable controller controls the amount of thermal energy transferred between the thermal storages and the cooking units.

45. A renewable energy-based cooking system, wherein the renewable energy based cooking system comprises:

a. an electric energy unit configured to generate electric power from a renewable energy source;

b. one or more thermal storages, wherein each of the thermal storages is capable of storing thermal energy from the electric power;

c. one or more heat exchanger circuits for transferring the thermal energy from the one or more thermal storages; and

d. a cooking unit arranged in heat exchanging relationship with one or more thermal storages via the heat exchanger circuit, wherein the cooking unit receives the thermal energy from the one or more thermal storages for cooking.

46. The renewable energy-based cooking system as claimed in claim 45, wherein the renewable energy-based cooking system comprises one or more sensors and a programmable controller communicating with the one or more sensors for controlling the functioning of the electric energy unit, the one or more thermal storages, the one or more heat exchanger circuits and the cooking unit.

47. The renewable energy-based cooking system as claimed in claim 45, wherein the renewable energy-based cooking system comprises an electric battery capable of storing energy from the electric power, wherein the programmable controller switches between a heating element of the one or more thermal storages and the charging electric battery for storing energy from the electric power.

48. The renewable energy-based cooking system as claimed in claim 45, wherein the thermal storage of the one or more thermal storages stores water, wherein the water in the thermal storage is heated using the electric power received from the electric energy unit.

49. The renewable energy-based cooking system as claimed in claim 48, wherein the thermal storage is connected to the cooking unit for supplying hot water to the cooking unit for cooking.

50. The renewable energy-based cooking system as claimed in claim 45, wherein the cooking system comprises a refrigeration unit configured to perform at least one of:

supplying the cold energy to the cooking unit.

51. The renewable energy-based cooking system as claimed in claim 45, wherein one or more heat exchanger circuits pump thermal energy to the cooking unit.

52. A method for manufacturing a cooking system characterized in that the method provides a thermal storage for supplying hot water to the cooking unit and a heat exchanger for supplying heat to cooking unit and a refrigeration unit for supplying cold energy to the cooking unit through the control storage, wherein the thermal energy is powered by electric power, the method comprising the steps of:

i. providing one or more thermal storages, wherein a thermal storage of the one or more thermal storages is capable of storing thermal energy in the form of heat and cold energy using the electric power received from one or more energy source;

ii. providing one or more heat exchanger circuits for transferring the thermal energy in the form of heat and cold energy from the one or more thermal storages; and

iii. providing a cooking unit for receiving thermal energy from one or more thermal storages, wherein the cooking unit is provided with the discretion of receiving heat energy and cold energy from one or more thermal storages for cooking and refrigeration of one or more items in the cooking unit.