Abstract: A building's Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system is made more energy efficient and the indoor air quality (IAQ) of the building's circulating air is improved by incorporating a greenhouse as an integral part of the HVAC system and by utilizing a novel feed forward control strategy that maintains the proper levels of temperature, humidity and CO2 concentration in the building under varying conditions of day, time, use and occupancy. A portion or all of the exhaust air from the building is discharged into a greenhouse where the heat and humidity are recovered in the winter by heating the greenhouse and the air conditioning is recovered in the summer by cooling the greenhouse. Selected plants are used in the greenhouse to remove CO2 and pollutants from the building's exhaust air while enriching the air with oxygen and beneficial negatively charged ions.

Abstract: A spray device is used to deliver a liquid, liquid containing a solid or a solid in a shaped flow onto a surface. The spray device can be used to deliver the material downwardly, laterally or upwardly in the form of droplets, a curtain or a mist. The spray device consists of a housing which uses a center shaft to deliver the material from the feed end to the discharge end. At the discharge end this center shaft has a flange which rotates with the center shaft. This flange is adjustable. Disposed over this center shaft flange is a flange fixedly attached to the nozzle housing. The material that is being delivered is shaped into the desired form in this flange region of the spray device. This spray device is non-clogging. In a preferred embodiment the surface that is being coated is the surface of an edible food product such as a cookie, biscuit, cracker or candy. The coating can be an oil, an oil containing dissolved or suspended flavorants, or a confection such as chocolate.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for uniformly coating pieces of food with a viscous, particulate-containing composition in which the coating, e.g., a flavored oil containing, for example, spices, is fed to a rotatable, enclosed, frustoconical reservoir enclosed within a housing having a series of serrations along its upper rim. Centrifugal force radially sprays the coating through the serrations, which serve to limit the size of the particulates in the coating. The coating spray exits the housing and coats pieces of food transported external to the housing.

Abstract: In a fluidized bed drying process, the average temperature of a group of particles being dried rises during a warm-up zone, remains constant during a constant-temperature drying zone and again increases during a final zone. In order to maintain the moisture content of the product at the output of the oven at a substantially constant level despite variations in the moisture content at the inlet to the oven, the temperature and/or flow rate of the drying air to the oven is varied in accordance with measured differences in the temperature of the group of particles at two instants in time during the drying process. At least one of the instants occurs during the warming-up zone or during the final temperature-increasing zone.

Abstract: Disclosed are an improved process for preparing compressed yeast and the product of that process. Prior to filtering yeast, it is conventional to contact the yeast with salt or other osmotically-active material to extract a portion of the intracellular water. Some solids are also withdrawn from the yeast cells; and, unless these are washed away prior to filtration, they tend to clog the filter medium. Our improvement concerns washing the yeast prior to filtration and results in increased filtration rates, increased filter medium life, and yeast of improved quality. The product yeast has improved color and plasticity and a lower salt content.