Abstract: The thermal serving tray is a serving tray that can maintain either hot or cool temperatures relative to ambient temperature. The tray may have any desired shape or configuration, which may be rectangular, circular or any other shape, with no sidewalls, with walls that are substantially orthogonal or sloping, with or without handles, and with or without a lid or cover. Preferably, the bottom wall is hollow, in whole or in part, and encloses a thermal gel for keeping the tray and its contents warm or cool, as desired. A transparent window is formed in at least a portion of at least one wall of the tray so that a color change indicator is visible to indicate whether the temperature is either warm enough or cool enough to maintain the food at the desired temperature. The color change indicator may be layered above or intermixed with the thermal gel.

Abstract: The physio-chemical method to break down raw materials utilizes a pressure- and temperature-controlled vessel to hold the raw materials in an expansive solidifier solution. The pressure and temperature are cycled to create large solution volume increases, to create high supersaturation ratios with reset to the hydrated phases of the salt or other chemicals, to produce rapid precipitation of the hydrated form of the salt or other chemicals from a supersaturated solution, and to produce rapid volume increases in the solution system. The rapid volume increases in the system create undrained crystallization pressures within the raw materials that break down the raw materials in to smaller pieces with higher surface area.