Carbonator

an apparatus for carbonating, that is, impregnating liquids with carbon dioxide. In the mixing of the carbonator unit—the absorber—CO₂ is dissolved under high pressure in the cooled liquid. Carbonators can have batchwise, cyclical, or continuous operation, and the control can be manual, semiautomatic, or automatic. The various methods used to increase interaction between the liquid and gas include mechanical mixing, bubbling the gas through a layer of the liquid, and spraying and stratifying the liquid in the gas. Carbonators are widely used in the food industry for the production of such products as sugar and beverages. They also find use in shops and restaurants to produce carbonated beverages, a process sometimes referred to as carbonation.