A method of curtailing power for driving a compressor in a heat pump and a compressor operating according to such a method

Abstract

 There are disclosed a heat pump compressor and a method for curtailing power for driving said compressor, in which a cooling liquid (W) is atomized and sprayed into a vapor (S) being compressed in the compressor (1) to control rise of the temperature of the vapor by utilizing the evaporation of the atomized and sprayed liquid.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a method of curtailing the power required for driving a compressor in a heat pump and to a compressor operating according to such a method.

[0002] Compression-type heat pumps comprise an evaporator which absorbs heat energy from a lower temperature heat source, a compressor which adiabatically compresses the working fluid vapor evaporated by the evaporator, a condenser which provides heat energy to a higher temperature heat sink by condensation of heat medium vapor having a temperature and a pressure raised by the compressor, and an expansion valve which flashes and expands the heat medium condensate formed in the condenser, wherein an arrangement is made such that from the expansion valve, the working fluid is sent back to the evaporator.

[0003] Where the output required is relatively small (for example up to about 500 kw), use is made as the compressor of one of displacement compressors such as reciprocating displacement compressors, rotating displacement compressors (including screw type ones) and so forth. Displacement compressors are simple in structure and, in addition, can provide a constant pressure ratio even under partial loading conditions by changing the number of rotation, so that they are suitably useful in or for heat pumps or heat pump systems. However, the volume of fluid that they can deal with is relatively limited and also their volume efficiency tends to lower under partial loading conditions, whereby it has been difficult to realize a scale-up of heat pumps with use of a displacement compressor.

[0004] Then, where a relatively large output is required, use is made primarily of a centrifugal-type compressor since centrifugal-type compressors characteristically have a large capacity of fluid compression in spite of their being relatively limited in size.

[0005] Whereas conventionally heat pumps have been utilized mainly for air conditioning purposes, lately it has been increasingly attempted to make use of heat pumps also in various industrial fields by elevating the operation or working temperature and enhancing the operation efficiency of the heat pump. The present invention is in line with such tendency in the art and seeks for effectively elevating the operation or working temperature of the heat pump up to about 300° C, which conventionally has been about 100° C at the highest, and providing a heat pump which can satisfactorily stand practical uses even if a large extent of temperature rise is made so as to largely broaden the field of application or use of heat pumps.

[0006] Generally, as the temperature difference to be set between a (lower temperature) heat source and a heat sink is greater, the power required for driving the compressor becomes greater and the coefficient of performance (the transferred heat/the power input for the driving of the compressor - hereinafter referred to as COP -) becomes lowered.

[0007] Thus, although there have been attempts made to utilize heat pumps in industrial fields, it is difficult to attain a sufficient effect of energy saving in addition to the difficulty that it is costly to install a heat pump, and in many instances no high effect has been provided of the economical advantage and the investment, with the result that today the fields in which heat pumps are put for an actual or a practical use are still limited.

[0008] It is object of the present invention to realize an improvement in or relating to the operation efficiency of heat pumps.

[0009] In order to accomplish the object of the invention or to improve the COP that is the most important performance index of the heat pumps, the present invention reduces the power required for the driving of the compressor. As a means for accomplishing this object, the present invention atomizes and injects cooling liquid from an injection valve into superheated vapor which is in a compression process, and evaporates the cooling liquid. In this manner, isothermal compression or a compression approximate to it can be effected due to the cooling effect by evaporation, and the power necessary for driving the compressor can be reduced.

[0010] Whereas this method can be applied most optimally to a compressor of the reciprocating type, it can be applied also to a compressor of the screw type and the vane type and further to turbo compressors. This method can directly atomize the cooling liquid in a quantity matching with the existing state of the vapor during the compression process, and can control the temperature of the vapor during the compression by evaporation of cooling liquid.

[0011] The present invention further proposes to make use of water for the working medium, and although in the following description of the invention water is termed to mean the working fluid, liquid or medium and steam is termed to represent vapor, it will be appreciated that this is not in any sense to limit the scope of the invention, which is to be understood to cover broadly the use of any other suitable working medium or fluid.

Fig. 1 is a system diagram of a conventional heat pump;

Fig. 2 is a system diagram of a heat pump in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a Morrie diagram in the heat pump shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a system diagram, taken for illustration of the function of the heat pump according to the present invention;

Fig. 5 is a Morrie diagram of the heat pump shown in Fig. 4;

Figs. 6 and 7 are system diagrams, illustrative of the function of the heat pump according to the present invention;

Fig. 8 is a Morrie diagram of the heat pump shown in Fig. 7;

Fig. 9 is a Morrie diagram, representing the operation of a turbine unit;

Fig. 10 is a system diagram of the heat pump according to the present invention;

Fig. 11 is a diagram, showing the relation between the COP and the evaporation temperature;

Fig. 12 is a system diagram of the heat pump of the present invention;

Fig. 13 is a Morrie diagram of the heat pump of Fig. 12;

Fig. 14 is a schematic block diagram of a compressor having an intermediate cooler;

Fig. 15 is a Morrie diagram of the compressor shown in Fig. 14;

Fig. 16(A) is a schematic view of a compressor used for practising the gas compression method according to the present invention;

Fig. 16(B) is a diagram, showing the relation between enthalpy and the piston stroke; and

Fig. 17 is a diagram of steam in the vapor compression process in the compressor according to the present invention and in a conventional compressor, respectively.

[0012] A conventional heat pump system will be first described before the present invention is described in detail.

[0013] As shown in Fig. 1, this compression heat pump comprises an evaporator 11 for absorbing heat energy from a low temperature heat source, a compressor 17 for adiabatically compressing a heat medium steam from the evaporator 11, a condenser 19 for providing the heat energy to a higher temperature heat sink from the heat medium whose temperature and pressure are elevated by the compressor 17, and an expansion valve 22 for flushing and expanding the heat medium liquefied in the condenser 19. The heat medium is returned from the expansion valve 22 to the evaporator 11.

[0014] Thus, the conventional heat pump is not free from the problems described already.

[0015] Next, the heat pump in accordance with the present invention will be described.

[0016] Fig. 2 is a diagram of a heat pump including the present invention. The heat medium supplied from a piping arrangement 12 to an evaporator 11 absorbs heat from a low temperature heat source 13 and evaporates and turns into steam S₁, which is introduced into a foreside stage compressor 15 through another piping arrangement 14. The steam S₁ is compressed into an intermediate pressure steam S₂ by the compressor 15 and is introduced to another compressor 17 through a piping 16. The steam is compressed by the compressor 17 to a high temperature and high pressure steam S₃, which is supplied to a desuperheater 37 disposed at an intermediate portion of a piping 18. The desuperheater 37 has a nozzle 38, and the superheated steam S₃ makes direct heat exchange with a liquid heat medium atomized from this nozzle 38, and is cooled near to saturation and is changed to a substantially saturated steam S₄. This saturated steam S₄ is supplied to a condenser 19 through the piping 18. Since the heat medium atomized from the nozzle 38 evaporates and turns into a steam, too, the quantity of steam introduced into the condenser 19 increases.

[0017] The heat medium is atomized and sprayed into the compressor 17 through a pipe 36. The foreside stage compressor 15 is connected to a later-appearing expansion turbine 28 by a shaft 26, thereby forming a steam supercharger 25.

[0018] In the condenser 19, the heat energy of the saturated steam S₄ is supplied to the high temperature heat sink 20 and is condensed. The heat medium liquid L condensed in the condenser 19 makes indirect heat exchange with a later-appearing steam S₅ in a superheater 41 disposed at an intermediate portion of the piping 21 and is then expanded by the expansion valve 22. Thereafter, the heat medium liquid L is separated into a liquid L₁ and a steam S₅ by a vapor-liquid separator 23.

[0019] The steam S₅ is introduced into the superheater 41 through a piping 24, makes heat exchange with the heat medium liquid L derived from the condenser 19 and is heated to a superheated steam S₆. This superheated steam S₆ is introduced into the expansion turbine 28 for driving the foreside stage compressor 15 through a conduit 27. In the expansion turbine 28, the steam S₆ is expanded to a pressure below that of the evaporator and preferably, to vacuum, and a steam S₇ derived therefrom is sent to a condenser 30 through a piping arrangement 29, where it is condensed to a low temperature liquid L₂. After its pressure is raised by a pump 32 disposed at an intermediate portion of a piping 31, it is mixed by a mixer 45 with the liquid L₁ subjected to the vapor-liquid separation in the vapor-liquid separator 23 through a piping 31, and is thereafter recirculated to the evaporator 11 through the piping 12.

[0020] As the heat medium liquid atomized from m of the compressor 17 and n of the desuperheater 37, it is possible to use the heat medium liquid recirculated from the piping 12 to the evaporator 11 of this system or the heat medium liquid L derived from the condenser 19 or the heat medium liquid L₁ derived from the vapor-liquid separator 23, but it is recommended to use the heat medium liquid L₁ in the present invention. As shown in Fig 2, the pressure of the heat liquid medium is raised by the pump 35 disposed at the intermediate portion of the piping 36 branched from the piping 34 and the heat medium liquid is then atomized and injected into the compressor 17 from a nozzle (not shown) at the tip of the pipe 36. Similarly, the heat medium liquid is atomized and injected from the nozzle 38 of the desuperheater 37 from the piping 39 branched from the piping 36. In the drawings, the reference numeral 40 represents a motor and 46 a pressure control valve.

[0021] Fig. 3 is a Morrie diagram of the heat pump system shown in Fig. 2.

[0022] Like reference numerals are used in all the drawings to identify like constituent elements as in Fig. 2.

[0023] Fig. 4 shows a fundamental system for converting the internal energy of the condensate in the condenser 19 to the power. The condensate is flashed by the expansion valve 22 and the resulting steam is supplied to the steam expansion turbine 28. The resulting power is used as part of the driving force for the compressor 17. Some conventional expansion turbines assembled in the heat pump are based upon the concept of expanding the steam to the evaporation pressure of the evaporator such as a total flow expander but they supply the resulting steam as such to the compressor. In accordance with the present invention, the resulting steam is expanded to a pressure below the evaporation pressure and preferably, to vacuum, and sufficiently great power is recovered. It is necessary to condense the expanded steam by the condenser 30 and to raise its pressure to the evaporation pressure by the pump 32, but the power necessary therefor can be neglected. The compressor 17 and the expansion turbine 28 are directly connected by the shaft 47.

[0024] Fig. 5 is a Morrie diagram which explains the operation of Fig. 4 and symbols a, b, c, e, f, f′, f˝, g and h correspond to the respective positions in Fig. 5.

[0025] Fig. 6 is a diagram of a system accomplishing the concept of Fig. 4 as an actual system, wherein the compressor 17 is a displacement compressor. The expansion turbine 28 is a steam turbine which is a turbo machine and the compressor 15 to be driven by the steam turbine is a turbo compressor which is also a turbo machine, and they are directly connected by the shaft 26, thereby forming a steam turbocharger 25. Since the turbo machine rotates at a high speed, it is small in size and since it supercharges the displacement compressor, the latter can be made compact in size. Therefore, the cost of production can be reduced.

[0026] As shown in Fig. 7, in the superheater 41, the condensed hot water moves from e to e′ and in this instance, emits the heat and heats the flashed steam. Therefore, the steam shifts from the saturated state f˝ to the superheated state F‴. Since the steam is introduced into the turbine 28 in this superheated state, a greater expansion ratio can be secured without causing an excessive drop of the quality (dryness) of the steam at the turbine outlet.

[0027] Namely, in Fig. 9, it will be assumed that the saturated steam f˝ having a pressure P₁ is adiabatically expanded in the turbine and the quality (dryness) x at the turbine outlet is 0.85. Then, the steam is expanded to g′ and a pressure P₂ shown in Fig. 9. The thermal drop in this case is represented by Δi_A. If the steam is superheated at the same pressure P_iA(f‴), the steam is expanded to a pressure P₃ when it is expanded to the same quality (dryness).

[0028] Fig. 8 is a Morrie diagram of the heat pump system shown in Fig. 7. The positions represented by symbols, a, b, b′, c, e, e′, f, f′, f˝, f‴, g and h represent the same positions as those in Fig. 7.

[0029] Fig. 10 is a system flow diagram when the recovered power of the present invention exceeds the power necessary for compressing the steam. In such a case, some start means are necessary and the heat pump operates without external power. In case of system performance at a condensation temperature of 300° C as shown in Fig. 11, the system shown in Fig. 10 can be operated at an evaporation temperature of above 250° C and since there is no external power in this case, the COP becomes indefinite.

[0030] On the other hand, in order to improve the performance of the heat pump, it is necessary to effect power recovery, and at the same time, to take into consideration a reduction of the compression power itself.

[0031] As shown in Fig. 12, the superheated steam S₃ having a high temperature and a high pressure which is compressed by the compressor 17 is supplied to the desuperheater 37 disposed at an intermediate portion of the piping 18. This desuperheater 37 has the nozzle 38, and the liquid heat medium atomized from this nozzle 38 cools the superheated steam S₃ into saturation. The saturated steam S₄ is supplied to the condenser 19 through the piping 18. The heat medium atomized from the nozzle 38 turns into the steam, too, and is therefore supplied to the condenser 19, where the quantity of steam thus increases.

[0032] Part of the liquid L₁ derived from the vapor-liquid separator 23 passes through the piping 36 branched from the piping 34 and its pressure is elevated by the pump 35. Then, the liquid is supplied to the nozzle 38 inside the desuperheater 37.

[0033] With the increase in the condensation quantity of the heat medium in the condenser 19, the flash steam quantity increases and contributes to the increase in the output of the expansion turbine 28. Since the output of the expansion turbine 28 is thus increased, the compression ratio of the foreside stage compressor 15 increases so that the power necessary for driving the motor 40 for driving the compressor 17 can be reduced.

[0034] Fig. 13 is a Morrie diagram of the heat pump system shown in Fig. 12 and symbols a, b, c, d, e, f, f′, f˝, g and h represent the same conditions at the positions represented by the same reference numerals in Fig. 12.

[0035] When water is used as the heat medium of the heat pump, the degree of superheating due to compression becomes extremely great. Accordingly, the heat transfer area of the condenser becomes large and the cost of production becomes great, too. In this sense, disposition of the desuperheater is advantageous from the viewpoint of the cost of production.

[0036] Fig. 14 shows a case where intermediate cooling is effected in order to reduce the compressor power. In this case, too, the flash liquid L₁ is injected into the cooler 50 disposed at the intermediate portion between the compressors 17a and 17b in order to reduce the temperature by direct heat exchange and evaporation. Since the flash steam quantity increases for the same reason as shown in Fig. 12, the recovered power increases and the COP increases, too.

[0037] Fig. 15 is a Morrie diagram in the compression stroke when intermediate cooling is effected.

[0038] To further improve the effect of intermediate cooling shown in Fig. 14, the present invention uses a displacement compressor as the compressor 17, injects the liquid into the steam during its compression stroke, controls the compression temperature by the evaporation of the steam and brings the compression close to isothermal compression.

[0039] Next, the operation when the displacement compressor is used as the compressor and the heat medium liquid is atomized and injected from m will be explained.

[0040] In Fig. 16(A), the liquid-atomizing type steam compressor 1 includes a piston 3 which reciprocates inside a cylinder 2 and a suction valve 5, a delivery valve 6 and a liquid atomizing valve 4 that are disposed at a cylinder head 2a.

[0041] The liquid atomizing valve 4 is specifically disposed in order to practise the present invention. Its operation timing is regulated so that when the piston 3 moves to the right and compresses the steam, the valve 4 atomizes the cooling liquid into the cylinder 2.

[0042] When the piston 3 is at the bottom dead point or the position represented by a solid line, the suction valve 5 and the delivery valve 6 that are fitted to the cylinder head 2a are closed, and the steam S is supplied into the cylinder 2 and is hermetically sealed therein.

[0043] When the piston 3 moves to the right as represented by a dash line, the capacity inside the sealed cylinder 2 decreases and the steam S is compressed so that the temperature and the pressure increase. During the steam compression process in which the piston 3 moves to the right, the high pressure heat medium liquid W is supplied in an atomized state from the liquid atomizing valve 4. The steam exchanges heat with the superheated steam sealed in the cylinder 2 and then evaporates. For this reason, it is possible to control the temperature rise of the steam S due to compression in accordance with the atomized quantity.

[0044] The opening and closing timing of the liquid atomizing valve 4 is regulated so that it stops atomization of the cooling liquid when the pressure inside the cylinder 2 reaches a predetermined value. Incidentally, liquid injection into a compressor has been known in the past, but the present invention is characterized in that the temperature control is effected while the steam is in the superheated state, makes direct heat exchange with the liquid and evaporates.

[0045] In Fig. 16(B), the curve M represents the increase of enthalpy of the steam with respect to the piston stroke x in the conventional steam compression method by adiabatic compression while the curve N represents that of the liquid atomizing system according to the present invention.

[0046] In Fig. 17, the curve A - B represents a saturated liquid line while curve C - D represents a saturated steam line.

[0047] In this embodiment, a saturated steam H (60° C, 0.203 ata) is compressed to a steam I (110° C, 0.28 ata) and turned into a superheated steam. Here, when atomization of the cooling liquid W is started, the cooling liquid exchanges heat with the superheated steam from a point (85° C, 0.28 ata) on the curve A - B and evaporates, thereby cooling the steam S.

[0048] When the piston 3 is moved to continue the compression while controlling the quantity of the cooling liquid atomized from the liquid atomizing valve 4, the compression take a ruote ① of the curve I - J and the steam becomes 175° C, 675 Kcal/kg at the final stage.

[0049] Here, the curve I - J and the curve C - D have the temperature difference of 25° C for the same pressure.

[0050] In this diagram, too, the afore-mentioned effect can be obtained and the recovered power is increased by the injecting the flash liquid L of the heat pump.

Claims

1. A method of curtailing power required for the driving of a vapor compressor, characterized in that it comprises atomizing and spraying a cooling liquid into vapor being compressed in the compressor.

2. A heat pump compressor for carrying out a method as set forth in claim 1, characterized in that it comprises means for compressing a vapor in an operation cycle of the heat pump and means for atomizing and spraying a heat medium liquid into said vapor so that compression of the vapor causes evaporation of said liquid to control rise of the vapor temperature through said evaporation of the liquid.

Drawing