Refrigeration – Processes – Reducing pressure on compressed gas
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-23
2002-02-26
Capossela, Ronald (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Processes
Reducing pressure on compressed gas
C062S467000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06349551
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to heat engines and refrigeration apparatus that utilize bottoming and topping cycles and binary working fluid, and more particularly to a combined thermodynamic power and cryogenic refrigeration system utilizing a binary working fluid and having a low-temperature bottoming cycle and an open or closed modified Rankine topping cycle.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
It is known that any thermodynamic system operating on a cycle and receiving heat while doing work must also have a heat-rejection process as part of the cycle. Most prior art systems having thermodynamic cycles require two external heat reservoirs. However, a heat-rejection process may be made up in closed cycles with only a single external heat reservoir, provided that the work medium is a combined mixture of a non-condensable first gas such as helium or hydrogen and a low-temperature liquid such as liquefied nitrogen, methane, water with antifreeze, etc., wherein the low-temperature liquid is used as an internal cold reservoir to carry out the heat-rejection process and the non-condensable first gas is supercooled during adiabatic expansion producing useful work and serves as a coolant to heated liquid recovering from an initial condition of the gas/liquid mixture. Therefore, it is possible to construct a heat engine which will do work and exchange heat using a single external heat reservoir with heat of seawater and/or ambient air as a heat source in an open or closed low-temperature cycle. The conversion of the heat energy into another form is appreciably enhanced by employing a binary working fluid in a low-temperature closed bottoming cycle for cooling and to liquefy the working fluid of a closed modified Rankine topping cycle or for cooling ambient air before compressing it in an open topping cycle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a combined thermodynamic power and cryogenic refrigeration system using a low-temperature heat source such as ambient air and seawater which can generate a large amount of refrigeration and power simultaneously.
It is another object of this invention to provide a thermodynamic power and cryogenic refrigeration system which can utilize a variety of low-temperature heat sources, including solar, ambient air, seawater, geothermal heat, etc.
Another object of this invention is to provide a combined thermodynamic power and cryogenic refrigeration system using a low-temperature heat source which may be effectively used for liquefaction of several gases.
Another object of this invention is to provide a combined thermodynamic power and cryogenic refrigeration system using a low-temperature heat source that can be used as a heat pump wherein a portion of cool ambient air is used to cool or to heat another portion of air simultaneously.
A further object of this invention is to provide a combined thermodynamic power and cryogenic refrigeration system using a low-temperature heat source which may be effectively used in superconductivity technology.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a combined thermodynamic power and cryogenic refrigeration system using a low-temperature heat source which does not produce environmentally damaging emissions.
Other objects of the invention will become apparent from to time throughout the specification and claims as hereinafter related.
The above noted objects of the invention are accomplished by a combined thermodynamic power and cryogenic refrigeration system that utilizes a cryogenic refrigeration bottoming cycle operating on a binary working fluid in combination with an open or closed modified Rankine topping cycle wherein the low-temperature bottoming cycle functions to cool and liquefy the working fluid of the modified Rankine topping cycle.
The apparatus of the bottoming cycle includes a sliding-blade gas/liquid compressor, a sliding-blade expander, a vortex separator, a heat exchanger, a plurality of liquid atomizers, a pump, gas and liquid storage tanks, temperature and pressure sensors, and control means for adjustable controlling the volume of fluids in the system contained within a thermally insulated housing.
In operation, rotation of the gas/liquid compressor rotor, draws a first gas (such as helium or hydrogen) into the gas expander where it is adiabatic expanded producing useful work and supercooled. Simultaneously, a fine dispersed low-temperature liquid (such as liquefied nitrogen, methane, water with antifreeze, etc.) is injected into the operating chamber of the gas/liquid compressor through the plurality of liquid atomizers to produce a cool gas/liquid mixture at a quantity sufficient for polytropic heat adsorption and polytropic compression of the first gas.
The compressed cool gas/liquid mixture is discharged into the vortex separator where the cool first gas that rejected polytropic heat is separated from the low-temperature liquid and supplied to the heat exchanger where it is isobarically heated using rejected heat of the working fluid of the modified Rankine topping cycle (latent heat of vaporization) and then enters the expander operating chamber where it is adiabatic expanded and supercooled doing useful work by simultaneously rotating the expander and gas/liquid compressor rotors. The adiabatically expanded and supercooled first gas with a cryogenic temperature is discharged from the expander and enters the gas/liquid compressor and is mixed with the fine dispersed low-temperature liquid to serve as a coolant and facilitate rejection of polytropic heat and supplement the cool gas/liquid mixture which is polytropically compressed to complete the bottoming cycle.
The apparatus of the closed topping cycle includes a pump, a gas (ambient air) heat exchanger, a liquid (seawater) heat exchanger, a gas expander, a gas storage tank, temperature and pressure sensors, and control means for adjustably controlling the volume of fluids in the system.
In operation of the closed topping cycle, rotation of the pump rotor draws a second gas from the heat exchanger of the bottoming cycle where it is cooled and liquefied rejecting mainly latent heat of vaporization. The liquefied second gas enters the pump where it is compressed and discharged into the topping cycle heat exchanger where it is isobarically heated and evaporated using a low-temperature heat source such as ambient air and seawater and then enters the operating chamber of the gas expander where it is adiabatic expanded doing useful work by simultaneously rotating the gas expander and the pump rotors. The expanded second gas is discharged from the gas expander into the heat exchanger of the bottoming cycle and is cooled and liquefied transferring its rejected heat to the working fluid of the bottoming cycle. The expanded, cooled and liquefied second gas with a cryogenic temperature is discharged from the heat exchanger of the bottoming cycle and is fed to the pump and compressed to complete the topping cycle.
The apparatus of the closed bottoming cycle may also function without the apparatus of the topping cycle using a low-temperature heat source to produce power and liquefy different gases. The closed bottoming cycle may function with an open topping cycle as a heat pump for warming cool ambient air by the addition of an air compressor and expansion valve connected with the gas compressor. In this modification, cool ambient air is drawn into the operating chamber of the air compressor upon rotation and it is adiabatically compressed and discharged into the expansion valve, which throttles the compressed air, and supplies heated air to the user. It may also be used without a topping cycle as a cooling system in the summer.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3154928 (1964-11-01), Harmens
patent: 3992891 (1976-11-01), Pocrjna
Jirnov Alexei
Jirnov Mikhail A.
Jirnov Olga
Capossela Ronald
Roddy Kenneth A.
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