APPARATUS FOR COMPRESSING GAS USING HEAT AS ENERGY SOURCE

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the technique of refrigerant compressors, and more particularly, to refrigerant compressors without moving parts, using thermal energy as power source for the compression.

BACKGROUND

When using a heat pump, it may be of type geothermal/water, geothermal/air, air/air etc, it is quite common that the refrigerant condenses at a temperature ranging between 30° and 60°. Before and after the condensation has occurred, the refrigerant has often only slightly lower temperature, but it has changed its physical state. If you for example have an evaporation temperature of 0° and a condensation temperature of 50°, this means the most optimal compression would result in a gas having exactly 50° and the saturation pressure corresponding to 50°. Temperatures above this corresponds to unnecessary work. If one then lets the gas condense to liquid, it might have a temp of about 49°. If one assumes constant heat capacity over the range 0 to 50, 49/50 of the work remains as heat.

In summary, If you reuse this energy wisely much can be gained. If this energy could be used to compress gas and do so with 100% efficiency, only a small amount of the original compression energy would be needed to compress new gas. If one where to use a regular heat engine, the maximum theoretical efficiency of a heat engine (which no engine ever attains) is equal to the temperature difference between the hot and cold ends divided by the temperature at the hot end, all expressed as absolute temperatures, which would approximately, using the temperatures above, render in a theoretical efficiency of about 15%.

In this patent a method to use waste heat and also, of course, other sources of thermal energy to compress gas, by letting hot high pressure gas compress cold low pressure gas. It shows how this can be used to compress gas before and after compressors have performed their work why you can reduce the necessary work performed by said compressors.

Referring to FIG. 1, one preferred embodiment utilises a cooled unidirectional flow as the compressor part, whereby the hot input gas puts pressure on the cold output gas, thereby compressing said output gas.

A number of inventions cool down the refrigerant before the compressor to decrease the pressure of the refrigerant or possibly to increase the density and thus reduce the energy consumption of the compressor.

In U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,277, the refrigerant is cooled down by condensation from the evaporator in a heat exchanger that simultaneously cools the refrigerant condensed from the condenser. However, a pressure reduction of the refrigerant seems inevitable in this process. Furthermore the gas is not superheated prior to the cooling, the cooling does not seem to be controlled as to recycle the energy whereby the compression isn't very energy efficient.

In U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,885 a transducer is used, which takes the expansion valve location, but also compresses the refrigerant out of the evaporator. The refrigerant that then flows towards the compressor can then be fed directly to the compressor or heat exchanged against refrigerant flowing from the condenser.

However, in neither of these patents it seems like the gas is consciously superheated solely for the purpose of applying pressure on cold gas and thereby compress it. None of the above patents shows a device where the refrigerant (after evaporator) is first heated, partly ejected into a compressor part, and then having non ejected gas cooled while at the same time recycling left energy. This behaviour of the present invention solves the problem of getting low pressure gas entering the apparatus. Also their only examples show cooling of evaporated gas, wherein the superheating of the gas tend to be very small, and therefore the pressure increase above saturated pressure is small.

To make the compression energy efficient it is recommended that cooling under pressure is done recycling the energy otherwise it wont render in energy efficient compression.

To make the compression ratio large, you either need a very large temperature increase or several units working in series. None of the above shows examples of such solutions. Also to make the units work in series, you need to solve the problem of how to get lowpressure gas entering each unit, described below.

One problem with the previously described solution in section [005] is that it is difficult to inject lowpressure gas into a highpressure volume (see FIG. 2). Assume you have a sealed highpressure hot gas volume, applying pressure on a cold gas volume, compressing said cold gas volume. It can start compress said cold gas volume, but when it looses it's density it will have less pressure than the cold highpressure destination, whereby it will not eject any gas into said flow. Neither will an evaporator add any gas into said hot highpressure volume, since it has still quite high pressure.

Referring to FIG. 2, let's assume said highpressure hot gas sealed volume, has some sort of devise, like a spring or equivalent, keeping the pressure constant in said volume, putting pressure on a cold gas volume, compressing it. It can then continue compressing said cold gas volume, even when it's loosing gas, since the spring keeps the pressure constant. But when said volume has lost all gas it has to be refilled. This volume can't be refilled by an evaporator for low temperature gas since the spring is then conFigd for a high pressure gas.

Referring to FIG. 4, one proposed solution to the previously described problem is to have a the heat exchanger unit, comprising a heating part, heating up cold low pressure gas while keeping the density sufficiently high, superseded by an ejection part ejecting high pressure gas into said compressor part, superseded by an cooling part cooling down non ejected gas till it has low enough pressure to be refilled by an evaporator for low temperature gas, by which means you can keep a fairly constant gas flow entering the compressor part, while at the same time being able to inject gas into said heat exchanger unit from a source of cold low pressure gas.

Another problem with the previously described solution is that if you manage to achieve a volume of high pressure, it is difficult transfer that pressure to a different destination volume. For example assume you have 2 containers, a source and a destination, with the same volume, the source having a start pressure of 2 bar and the destination of 1 bar, whereby you would get something close to 1.5 bar in both containers when you connect them. Therefore to keep the pressure high in the flow of the compressor part in previously described solution, you can only eject a small part of the superheated gas in the ejection part, to prevent it from decreasing in pressure. In theory this problem can be solved, since most of the energy is still in the non ejected gas, which theoretically can be reused, to heat up new gas. Part of the solution is therefore an advanced heat exchanger unit for gas. In this solution, you often want to transfer energy from a refrigerant to a gas, gas to gas and gas to refrigerant. This can be difficult, parsley because hot gas has a higher pressure than cold gas and therefore cold gas will not flow towards hot gas, furthermore you might have to warm up the heat exchanger to heat the gas and this probably has greater mass than the gas. Therefore it is specified what the patent requires in such heat exchanger unit and also provides suggestions for such. The preferred embodiment utilises a heating apparatus from another patent though.

Another part of the solution of the previously described problem, is to, when using the ejection part, eject gas in several steps, ejecting gas of decrementally lower and lower pressure. Instead of ejecting only the gas of the highest pressure, gas is ejected into several flows of different pressures, thereby you can still make use of superheated gas with less than maximal pressure, while still having one destination with very high pressure. Furthermore larger amounts of the heated gas are ejected, whereby less amounts have to be cooled down and reheated.

An improvement of the solution above in sections [014] to [016] is to inject gas from the different output flows in the reversed order compared to how it was injected, into a destination volume with an originally low pressure, meaning that gas from the flow with the lowest pressure out of said flows of different pressures, is first injected into the destination volume, then the one with slightly higher pressure, then the one with slightly more and so on, whereby the pressure from the ejection part is more effectively transferred into a destination volume. Another benefit of doing this, is that compressing a destination volume, with incrementally increasing pressure is more energy efficient. If, for example, a large volume of high pressure gas (ex 2 Bar) is to be discharged into a small volume of low pressure gas (ex 1 Bar) the work performed could be represented by the graf in FIG. 16, even though needed work is represented by FIG. 15 only. By compressing the destination volume in 4 steps, you could get a work represented by FIG. 17 which is an improvement compared to FIG. 16.

The present invention will solve the problems above.

SUMMARY

In this patent an apparatus to use different sources of thermal energy, like for example internal waste heat from a heatpump, to compress gas. It shows how this can be used to compress gas before and after compressors have performed their work why you can reduce the necessary work performed by said compressors.

It is an object of the present invention to provide compressor for compressing gas using thermal energy as the energy source.

In some embodiment the compressor part comprises an unidirectional flow. The unidirectional flow is cooled down in the flow direction, while hot gas at the same time applies pressure on the cold gas, whereby the density increases in the cooling direction.

In one preferred embodiment the invention proposes an apparatus separated in two parts, a compressor part wherein hot gas applies pressure on cold gas and a second part comprising a heat exchanger unit for gas wherein gas is heated to a high pressure, whereafter it is ejected into said compressor part, whereafter thermal energy from non ejected gas is recycled as described.

In some embodiment the heat exchanger unit comprises an apparatus that heats up cold gas while keeping it's density fairly stable wherein gas is heated to a high pressure, whereafter it is ejected into said compressor part, whereafter thermal energy from non ejected gas is recycled while cooling down said non ejected gas, whereby a volume cooled non ejected gas is either decreased in pressure, whereby new external gas with substantially the same temperature but with higher density can be absorbed into said volume. Or said cooled non ejected gas is decreased in volume whereby new external gas with substantially the same temperature and density can be injected in parallel to said volume. In this way hot gas can be constantly injected to said compressor part.

In one preferred embodiment the heat exchanger unit comprises an apparatus from another patent PCT000033, referenced in this patent, as the heat exchanger unit for gas.

In one embodiment the heat exchanger unit comprises an apparatus more thoroughly described in this patent.

Hence, according to the invention, the compressor part and the heat exchanger unit, in combination, create a compressor designated “cooling compressor”, that receive cold gas of low pressure an eject slightly hotter gas of slightly higher pressure. The output from one cooling compressor, can be injected into a second cooling compressor. The cooling compressor can advantageously be implemented in several steps to become a compressor that together can perform a large compression. Since it is suggested that thermal energy should be recycled as well as possible, both in the first and second part, recycled energy from one cooling compressors can be used as energy for another cooling compressor, and thereby you can get a fairly large compression from a fairly small energy.

The problem with heating gas in a energy efficient way, and recycling the energy from non-ejected gas is to a large extent addressed in another patent of “an energy efficient apparatus for heating gas”, PCT000033, which is used in a description of the preferred embodiment. For the purpose of description, another apparatus is also used, which can be easier to understand.

In addition, it can often take longer to heat up gas than fluids why a solution for this problem is described. In addition, the patent describes additional methods that improve the performance of the basic requirement:

For example, it may be difficult to transfer pressure from one gas chamber to another as it just becomes an average pressure of the two separate pressure chambers. The patent describes how the gas pressure in an energy efficient way can be transferred from one gas chamber to another.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be described in more detail in the following, by way of example and with reference to the appended drawings, in which

FIG. 1 Embodiment stand alone cooling compressor with 2 containers.

FIG. 2 Problem 1 using stand alone cooling compressor without heat exchanger unit.

FIG. 3 Problem 2 using stand alone cooling compressor without heat exchanger unit.

FIG. 4 Description of fictional Optimal heat exchanger with cooling compressor

FIG. 5 Fictional heat exchangers for gas if gas had been fluid.

FIG. 6 Alternative heat exchanging unit: fixed Some Bottom Vy1

FIG. 7 Alternative heat exchanging unit 1) Fixed some Bottom, 2) Rotating part 3) fixed part lid

FIG. 8 Alt heat exchanging unit Rotating part in from the top, diagonally from the side

FIG. 9 Bad pressure equalization between 2 containers, non-interconnected

FIG. 10 Bad pressure equalization between 2 containers, interconnected

FIG. 11 Optimized pressure equalization between 2 containers, with controlling press-device in each connector

FIG. 12 Counter-flow pressure equalization without controlling pressure-device process-step 1

FIG. 13 Counter-flow pressure equalization without controlling pressure-device process-step 2

FIG. 28 Two Compressor partA connected in series with the cross join, process step 8.

FIG. 14 the explanatory table showing why it is quicker to heat with many chambers.

FIG. 15 work necessary for compression

FIG. 16 unnecessary work for compression, if using maximal pressure directly

FIG. 17 improved the work of compression, using incremental compression

FIG. 18 Embodiment of Compressor

FIG. 19 Embodiment of two Compressors connected in series with the cross join

FIG. 20 Embodiment with cooling compressor attached to the output of the compressor

FIG. 21 Effect of Embodiment comparing against cooled and non cooled compressor.

FIG. 22 Apparatus for Heating Gas

FIG. 23 Special pump that can be used in preferred embodiment

FIG. 24 Preferred embodiment, in series in heat pump, process step 1

FIG. 25 Preferred embodiment, in series in heat pump, process step 2

FIG. 26 Preferred embodiment, in series in heat pump, process step 3

FIG. 27 Preferred embodiment, in series in heat pump, process step 4

FIG. 28 Preferred embodiment, in series in heat pump, process step 5

FIG. 29 Preferred embodiment, in series in heat pump, process step 6

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

All illustrations of the drawings are for the purpose of describing selected versions of the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. The present invention is to be described in detail and is provided in a manner that establishes a thorough understanding of the present invention. There may be aspects of the present invention that may be practiced or utilized without the implementation of some features as they are described. It should be understood that some details have not been described in detail in order to not unnecessarily obscure focus of the invention.

The present invention disclosed herein is “A compressor using heat as energy source”. While the apparatus may be used as a stand alone compressor, the main focus of the present invention is on lowering the work performed by regular compressors. The present invention seeks to provide a solution to this problem. In general, the solution presented by the present invention uses superheated high pressure hot gas to put pressure on cold gas. This can be accomplished using a double acting compressor, having cold gas on one side and by repeatedly injecting hot gas on the other, compressing the cold gas.

In some embodiments, this is accomplished through unidirectional flow, cooled down in the flow direction, while at the same time preventing mixing between hot and cold gas performing inductive heat exchange within the flow, and while keeping the pressure substantially constant. One benefit of this solution, compared to the one using a double acting compressor, is the simplicity, you get a constant flow without having to empty an fill said compressor. Another benefit is the, the energy efficiance, you can easily cool the unidirectional flow using counterflow heat exchange, whereby you can recycle a lot of the energy, at a high temperature, while compressing the gas through unidirectional flow, to be used for heating up new gas.

Referring to FIG. 1, in general, the present invention comprises a gradational heat transfer element 1 comprising a temperature gradient unidirectional flow following the gradational heat transfer element 1 between a cold end 10 and a hot end 11 of the gradational heat transfer element 1. It should be noted that the present invention may comprise more than one gradational heat transfer element in various embodiments and conFigurations.

Referring to FIG. 1, in some embodiments, the gradational heat transfer element, (cooling compressor) is a singular apparatus.

Referring to FIG. 20, in some embodiments, the gradational heat transfer element, (cooling compressor) is positioned in a heat pump between the input of the condenserer and the output of the regular compressor, the regular compressor being configured to reach a certain output pressure, created by both increased density and the gas being superheated, in other words not an output density, whereafter the cooling compressor converts extra pressure created by gas being superheated into extra pressure created by gas having higher density.

Referring to FIG. 18, in some embodiments, the gradational heat transfer element is preceded by an Apparatus for Heating Gas (AFHG). The AFHG has a heating part, the heating parts objective is to heat up the gas till it gets a notably higher pressure than the input gas, in other words while trying to keep the density fairly stable. Subsequent to the heating part is an ejection part, the objective of the ejection part is to, eject said, heated gas of high pressure, into said “cooling compressor”. Subsequent to the ejection part is an cooling part, the objective of the cooling part is to, after the gas ejection, cool down non ejected gas, that still has high temperature to a low temperature, since this solves the problem of how to add new gas of low pressure into AFHG, more thoroughly described in the appendix.

In some embodiments, from section [037], it is preferred that the heating part heats up the cold gas, using other warm refrigerant/s, in an energy efficient way, meaning that the gas gets as close a temperature to the other warm refrigerant maximum temperature as possible, while steeling as little energy as possible from the other warm refrigerant/s, also while keeping the density of the heated gas as high as possible.

In some embodiments, from section [028], it is preferred that the cooling part, cools down subparts of the heated gas within the AFHG, after other subparts of the heated gas have got ejected into the cooling compressor, using other colder refrigerant/s, in an energy efficient way, meaning that the other colder refrigerant/s getting as close a temperature to the warm gas maximum temperature as possible, while steeling as little energy as possible from the warm gas, getting as low output pressure of the cooled gas as possible.

Referring to FIG. 18, in embodiments, from section [037], it is preferred to have an input part following the cooling part, wherein the input part inject new external gas, of low pressure and temperature, into the AFHG, and direct it together with the cooled gas from the cooling part into the heating part. The preceding cooling part, having cooled down said returned gas, to either cool low densed volumes, with lower pressure than the external gas, that will be pressure equalized by the incoming external gas, or it will be comprised during the cooling into a smaller returning volume, whereby the external gas can be added to a small volume parallel to said returning volume. A combination of said two solutions is also possible.

Referring to FIG. 19, in some embodiments, an array of apparatuses according to the description in section [037] are connected in series, characterized in that the output from each arbitrary cooling compressor, except for the last one, is connected to the input part of a subsequent apparatus according to the description in section [028], whereby the compression ratio of each apparatus are multiplied with each other.

Referring to FIG. 19, in some preferred embodiments there is an ejection-injection part, comprising at least one source volume and at least one destination volume, characterized in that the source volume ejects gas in steps, via an array of connections, to destinations of decrementaly lower pressure, thereby decrementaly lowering the source volumes pressure, also caracterized in that the destination volume injects gas in steps, via an array of connections, from sources of incrementally higher pressure, thereby incrementally increasing the destination volumes pressure. By doing like this you get a good pressure exchange between the source volumes and destination volumes.

Referring to FIG. 19, in some preferred embodiments, the solution from section [042] is accomplished using a series of source volumes and a series of destination volumes, caracterized in that each source volumes connections are conFigd to periodically connect in sequential order, ordered by destination pressure from highest to lowest, to each of the destination volumes of the series of destination volumes. Also caracterized in that each destination volumes connections are conFigd to periodically connect in sequential order, ordered by source volumes pressure from lowest to highest, to each of the source volumes of the series of source volumes.

Referring to FIG. 11, in some preferred embodiments, the solution from section [042] is accomplished by an apparatus comprising a source volume and a destination volume and a series of intermediate volumes of pressures ranging between the source volumes start pressure and the destination volumes start pressure, being substantially stable in those pressures, caracterized in that the source volume is conFigd to periodically connect to each intermediate volume, sequentially in order by intermediate volume pressure from highest to lowest. Also caracterized in that the destination volume is conFigd to periodically connect to each intermediate volume, sequentially in order by intermediate volume pressure from lowest to highest.

Referring to FIG. 1, a less optimal embodiments, in where the gradational heat transfer element, (cooling compressor) is a singular apparatus. The principle of the cooling compressor is as following. You have two gas volumes, a cooler destination quantity (2), and a hotter source (1). The hot is superheated, temperature-warm (Tw), so hot that it produces notably higher pressure than gas with the same density and saturated temperature.

Then a connection from this via the hypothermic flow (4), comprising one or more heat exchangers (3) and possibly including rectifier. Rectifier may not be necessary but prevents cold gas from going backwards and be warmed up again and/or mixed with warmer gas. If you can prevent backward flow in other ways, this is acceptable. Important is that the gas flow (4) should flow freely in the direction towards the colder parts with very little or no pressure drop, but that gas, as far as possible, be prevented from flowing backwards. If the gas is cooled down with a liquid refrigerant, larger volume liquid per volume of gas should be found in the colder parts because the gas has higher density there. These steps will gradually cool down the gas to a temperature Tcold (Tc). If cooling is performed, with the above-described technique, with one to many steps of heat exchangers (3), one can hypothetically regain most of the dissipated energy, from cooling, to be used at a later stage.

In any case, the gas from the last of the above steps will be cold. Preferably the gas has cooled down close to the saturation temperature (Ts). However, it will not have been reduced much in pressure since the gas can flow freely in the flow (4) due to pressure equalization, the cold tank have at least as much pressure as warm (hypothetically, the due to rectifiers cold gas might at some point even have higher pressure). Each pressure reduction, due to cooling, in one step, will be pressure equalized by the higher pressure in the previous step, which in turn will be pressure equalized by its previous step etc.

In short, in comes gas with high pressure, high temperature and low density, out goes gas at high pressure, low temperature and high density. We have made compressed gas using the pressure of input heat. A large amount of Energy to heat up the gas from the start temperature (Ts) to Tw can be recycled. Note the Ts represents the temperature the gas in the large Chamber (3) had before it was heated up to Tw. It is this energy that has been used for the compression and, unless a big part of this is recovered, the system is not effective. Theoretically, a large part of the energy emitted to the heat exchangers can be recycled.

In FIG. 20 is an embodiments, where the gradational heat transfer element, (cooling compressor) is positioned in a heat pump between the input of the condenserer and the output of the regular compressor. A unidirectional flow, according to Compressor part, which is placed after a compressor (5), possibly in combination with a device for maintaining preferred pressure (1). For example it might comprise a piston chamber with a spring that creates an even pressure, or alternatively a large Chamber that due to it's size, maintains relatively even pressure. When the gas is compressed, it is almost inevitable that the gas becomes excessively heated, thus increasing the pressure more than necessary and thus increases the work which the compressor must perform. By placing, at the compressor output, a back-pressure device that giving the pressure, corresponding of as a gas with the right compression ratio and saturation temperature, the compressor will not be required to work with pressure higher than the optimum pressure. Due to this the gas of the compressor's output (1) will, partly due to increased density but also due to excessive increase in temperature, have high pressure, and the Compressor part will transform this hot high pressure gas with lower density to a slightly cooler gas with the same pressure but higher density. In theory the compressor don't really need to compress to the expected compression ratio. In theory only compression so that the pressure (in combination with unnecessary temperature) corresponds to the pressure of the expected compression ratio is needed, after which the device will transform the hot gas to the gas with higher density. In a regular heatpump the problem with overheating during compression of the gas is lolved using cooling during compression. This is possibly more efficient from the energy point of view but to just place a device on the compressor's output (1) should be easier to apply.

FIG. 21 corresponds to a non restrictive solution with a refrigeration compressor: The dot-dashed line represents the work of a compressor without cooling or refrigeration compressor. The dotted line corresponds to a non restrictive solution with a refrigeration compressor. The solid line represents the work of a compressor with perfect continuous cooling which allows gas to keep the saturation temperature for every given pressure. The first 2 graphs follows until they reach optimal pressure (approx. 2.2 in the graph), then the device with cooling compression won't increase more, because that has a device that gives a maximum high pressure of 2.2. Devices without either cooling or cooling compression must, however, continue to compress the gas until it receives the correct density why it also will increase in temp and pressure, and the work becomes larger. Appliance with refrigeration compressor will instead, after reached optimal pressure perform a steady work.

Even the other devices will, after having reached the targeted pressure perform a steady work, because then the work consists in pushing the gas into a flow, but for the compressor without cooling or cooling compression the resistance becomes larger. Least work is done by the device with perfect cooling, because it achieves maximum pressure last of all. However, it is difficult to cool down gas during the compression because you have to cool down the compressor itself and you have to cool down the different amounts at different compression ratios. The risk is then that the gas is cooled too much in those cases, in which the gas can condense long before expected. Alternatively, you let the compressor compress to the expected compression ratio and use excess heat to compress it further. Of course, you can take advantage of the heat emitted by the cooling in the cooling compressor and then use this energy.

The first preferred embodiment, referring to FIG. 18, the apparatus comprises a compressor part (42) and an AFHG (51). Referring to FIG. 6 for description of the apparatus for heating gas (AFHG), it is the bottom part of the invention. Referring to FIG. 7 is an exploded view of said AFHG: a cavity (1) with a rotating part (2) that is to be sealingly covered by a lid (3). FIG. 8 is an exploded view of said rotating part (2) of said AFHG. The rotating part (2) is separating the sealed chamber created by the cavity (1) and the lid (3), into several mutually sealed wedge chaped subvolumes (wcsv), while at the same time moving the subvolumes to pass by chamber walls, of different temperature. The rotating part will stay, in stages, so that all wcsv are separated from each other.

Heat exchange is described in this embodiment as a common static cylindrical cavity divided by various circulating (and gas insulating and heat-insulating) walls, walls described as striking a pointer on the images. These circulating walls insulate the cylindrical cavity in a number of wedges, which have external walls of different temperature for each slice temporary volume. The circular walls advances the gas in a clockwise motion, preferably with a notch so that the cake pieces do not fall between the two temperatures for a longer while, in such a way, as well as with the temperate walls placed so, that the gas passes through the hotter and hotter walls until they reach a maximum temperature, then releases its overpressure. Thereafter they pass colder and colder walls and give off their excess energy.

Referring to FIG. 7: As can be seen walls are temperated. In other words every wcsv created by the various elements, is completely enclosed by walls with the right temperature, except for the rotating part (2), i.e no other part of the AFHG will be both heated and cooled. The rotating part (2), might be heated and cooled by the gas or the surrounding walls, and therefore should be as light as possible, be of an insulating material as possible, in order not to steal energy. It must also be sealingly and slidingly, connected to the surrounding walls, so that the gas does not move to a neighboring chamber.

Referring to FIG. 7: the lid (3) can, also conduct heat to the containers. It is the task of heat exchanger to deliver right temperature in the correct position. On the lid as on the bottom each specific grey section has its specific temperature and it is the same in both the bottom and the lid. I.e. the temperature is higher the closer to the top in the Fig. In the Fig. you can see that the gas inlet through the lid, of course this is not necessary, it can come in from the side or the bottom also.

Referring to FIG. 6, the gray rectangles to the right and left are containers for the refrigerant, as well as heat exchangers. How these are designed in detail are fairly uninteresting. What is important is that the fluid is still gradually separated from warmest to coldest (darker=warmer, brighter=cooler). The refrigerant should only route when it is cooled down (by the gas inside the circle) or heated (by the gas flowing through the heat exchangers). In other words temperature will stay constant in each part of the tank why you do not have to warm up the heat exchangers in order to heat to the gas.

Refrigerant reservoir (42,50) has a controlled feed of refrigerants and hot and cold should not be mixed. How this is controlled is omitted from the solution. From each temperature range in the reservoir goes different heating pipes (41,45), described by lines in the image, to the various separate temperature levels, highlighted with grey areas in the FIG. (43,44). Gray means heat conduction to/from their separate temperature in the container. It may well mean that the liquid is directly against heat leader's back. White in between stands for isolation.

The circle in the middle is a cavity, all grey triangles (9-16 and 25-32) within represent heat conducting walls to a fixed area of the container. Each triangle has i.e. a fixed temperature.

The small crossed-circles (17-24), at the top right represent outputs for gas that will form in the circular cavity. The gas, which lies in the various wedges (1-32), formed by the bottom part ( ), the rotating part (2) and the top element should be moved as the clock in erosion, and therefore the warmed up in the left part (9-16) of the large circle. When it crosses the upper Chamber (16), is warmer and then emptied, step by step, into the outputs, in chambers (17-24). Subsequently, the cooled gas in chambers 25-32.

Process

Now that the various elements have been described, it is well position to describe the function.

Referring to FIG. 18, the gas enters the AFHG, possibly from a previous step, via several parallel flows of varying pressure (i1-i8). In the drawing, the left input (i1) contain the highest pressure with the pressure decreasing the further right you go, i.e. (i8) has the lowest pressure, and in between there will be different pressures, wariying between the lowest and the highest. They're all injected into a separate chambers created by the 3 parts. Each gas chamber will pass the position 1-8 and it will then be compressed via the inputs i8-i1, emitting higher and higher pressures. Every time, before the parallel flows inject gas to the AFHG, the rotating part moves one step.

The Chamber at the last position (24), is then moved to position 1 and filled with the lowest pressure (via i8). It is then moved one step and is therefore filled with gas by the second lowest pressure (i7). Next time the rotating part will move one step further and the same chamber will then be filled by the flow with the 3rd lowest pressure (i6), of said several parallel flows, etc. In this way, it keeps on until there is no gas of higher pressure to inject into said chamber.

In the above manner incremental compression is achieves, i.e. a gas volume starting with a low pressure, isn't compressed with gas of maximum pressure directly, instead said low pressure gas volume is compressed, in sequence, by gas volumes with incrementally higher pressure, preferably only slightly higher than the low pressure gas volumes momentary pressure. By which means less work is done by the volumes of higher pressure, meaning that resembles the work described in a graf in FIG. 17, instead of in FIG. 16. The more increments that is used, and the closer they are in pressure, compared to the destination, the closer one gets to the graf of the optimal work described in FIG. 15.

When the gas comes to the area of input i1, the gas has achieved the maximum pressure that the previous steps may generate. The heat conductors aren't connected to this subvolume, no heat transfer to this gas volume occurs yet. The only heat added comes from the compression. In this embodiment, however there's nothing to prevent one. When the then head over to the next step (9) begin warming. Step 9 to 16 consists only in heating. When the throttle is moved between the steps, in this range, it will be heated by the hotter and hotter walls. In this way, it has achieved something almost equivalent to counter-flow heat exchange. Just as it leaves position 16, it has passed the walls with the maximum temperature, so by then it is at it's maximum pressure.

In a later process step the rotating part brings up the gas volume to position 17. In position 17, it is pressure equalized into a flow with the highest pressure. Then it is moved into position 18, ejects some gas of slightly lower pressure, and then 19 of even less pressure, and so it continues till position 24. The gas is ejected through the holes in the Fig (the pre-ticked rings). You can choose if you want to heat/cold or not at all in this range. However, it is probably a waste of energy to heat.

From the outlets above in positions 17-24, gas is led into parallel compressor parts of lower and lower pressure. In FIG. 33 they are led into a number of parallel cooling compressors from highest (o8) to lesser (o7) and lesser output pressure down to minimum at output (o1). Observe that the higher the output pressure, the higher the output temperature, since higher pressure requires higher temperature not to condensate.

When the gas is brought to the position 24, it has probably a lot of heat left in the gas. You have a good heat exchanger, with a, well insulated, rotating part, with little weight with many temperature step (corresponding positions 25-32 in FIG. 18). A large portion of the thermal energy used for heating, remains in the gas. In Step 25 to 32 consists only in cooling. When the throttle is moved between the steps, in this range, it will be emit heat to the colder and colder walls. In this way, it has achieved something almost equivalent to counter-flow heat exchange, giving away energy to a refrigerant at a high temperature.

This energy can be transferred to the gas in the subvolumes being heated (9-16), to the highest possible temperature. However, the gas in position 24 has lost both mass and temperature, so it can not even ideally reverse temperature to Tmax.

When a subvolume is moved away from position 32, it has it's minimum pressure, lowest temperature, since it's maximally cooled, and lowest density since it has passed the last ejection outlet in position 24, whereby it has its lowest pressure. Therefore, gas of low pressure, is likely to be injected into it, from an external flow in position 1, where it's moved to in the next step.

In a second preferred embodiment, referring to FIG. 19, the apparatus comprises at least two cooling compressors connected in series. In FIG. 19, there are only 2 but many more can be connected. In this way the compression ratio of the whole apparatus can be the product each cooling compressors ratio multiplied with each other. This opens for much greater ratios. Furthermore recycled refrigerant, less than maximally heated, from one unit, can be reused in another unit having a lower max temperature, which open for a better use of the thermal energy.

In addition the embodiment utilises counter-flow pressure exchange. To explain try to FIG. 2 disconnected chambers of same size, but one with greater density, say 1 and 2. Ignoring the temperature, assume they have a pressure relative each other according to FIG. 9. After connection, they will have a pressure similar to FIG. 10 if cooling is neglected. This is the same kind of problem we face when a volume gas is superheated to a pressure, that is to be delivered to a destination.

Referencing FIG. 11, when a dispenser chamber has it's highest pressure, it is connected to an intermediate channel with substantially constant pressure, slightly lower and is discharged to said channel, whereafter said chamber is sequentially connected to passage channels in the order from highest decreasingly down to lowest pressure, preferably always to an passage channels with only slightly lower pressure.

The receiver chamber, on the other hand, when it has it's lowest pressure, is connected to an intermediate channel, with substantially constant pressure, slightly higher than said receiver chamber, whereafter said channel is discharged to receiver chamber, and whereafter said chamber is sequentially connected to an intermediate channels in the order from lowest, increasingly up to highest pressure, preferably always to an passage channels with only slightly higher pressure.

Observe that the compressor parts, from a preceding unit, are connected to each subvolume of the subsequent unit, in the order of incremental pressure lowest to the highest, but that the subvolumes of the preceding unit are connected to each compressor part of the preceding unit, in the order of decremental pressure of the compressor parts, highest to lowest. In other words, the compressor parts represents said intermediate channels in the sections [071] to [073]. By these means a larger amount of gas is transferred between two volumes, with a higher maximum pressure at the destination.

In a third preferred embodiment, another heat exchanging unit “Apparatus for Heating Gas”, in patent PCT000033 is used. The heat exchanging unit, basically performs the same operation as the heat exchanging unit, described in this patent, designated This Heating Unit, but probably slightly better. The chambers of the Heating Unit in patent PCT000033, designated Other Heating Unit, need not be so many and large, and without having many chambers, as is requested in This Heating Unit. In the embodiment to be described, you can still connect the heated chamber to a large amount of destinations without having many chambers, within Other Heating Unit. It is to be noted that in the following description, only one embodiment of the above patent is described, even though basically any embodiment could be used. The pump used in the patent PCT000033, comes from yet another patent PCT000031. Said patents also can be read for a fuller understanding. Some minor modifications of said pump has been made though.

The extra features in the pump compared to patent PCT000031 comprises an alternative solution for connecting the output chamber of a container to an array of openings is illustrated in FIG. 23, wherein the output chamber has a hole (601) in the top element immediately to the right of the piston wall (251) in the figure plane. The top element is sealingly and slidingly covered by a, static non moving, lid comprising an array openings (603). Said hole (601) is sealingly connected to a subset of said array openings (603). The array openings (603) having a suitable shape so that it follows the movement of the hole (601), which in this case means a circular shape, thereby periodically connecting output chamber to a subset, possibly one opening (604), of said array openings, being further connected to other destinations or sources, possibly via rectifiers. In the drawing it is assumed that the hole is connected to sources in the lower half of the array circle and therefore the connections have rectifiers preventing ejections, and the upper half of the array circle have rectifiers preventing injections since it is assumed to be coupled to destinations. The preferred embodiment for patent PCT000033 can be described referencing FIG. 22, where in the extra lid is transparent only showing the array openings (603) and the top elements lid only showing the hole (601) and piston walls (251). More important, observe that the input container, comprises several sub chambers, with separate inputs but with their outputs connected to the same input of the heat exchanger. The benefits of that will be apparent when the recycling process is described below.

The recycling process is described referencing FIG. 22; by connecting said array of openings (603) to a coupling device (439), dynamically connecting inputs to defined outputs. Following the description above, with the unheated gas pressure coming into the system, having half the pressure compared to the gas exciting the heat exchanger, one can assume it's preferable that the openings (603), being passed until the piston wall has moved about half the way to the right of the chamber, are connected to external destinations (410) of decreasing pressure down to said unheated gas pressure. The following arrays passed by the piston on its way to the right hand wall, should preferably be connected to a large chamber (440), large in a sense that the pressure changed by a containers (262) amount of gas being added or deducted is negligible. The reason for this is that gas is injected asynchronously but ejected synchronously to this chamber (440). This chamber (440) is then connected to a cooling device (420). There is not much reason to make the cooling device as advanced as the heating device (200), even though it can be, so it's shown as regular counter flow heat exchanger in the drawing. The heat emitted by the gas in the cooling device is preferably used to heat up gas in the heating device (200). After the gas is cooled down it's once again directed to a coupling device, from which its again coupled into the heating device (200), since there is less gas coming back to the heating device than exiting, with gas having about the same pressure and temperature as the input gas to the whole system, the returning gas should be directed to a smaller volume, than the summed volume of the output container, in this case somewhere around half the volume. This can be achieved with several smaller containers but in the drawing an input container with six sub volumes is used whereby the returning volume can be adjusted dynamically. Six sub volumes is actually quite a small amount but it's only for descriptive purposes. In the case of half the amount being recycled, three out of six sub volumes should be used. The other three sub volumes should be fed by new external gas of about the same pressure and temperature as the cooled returning gas.

This cycle then gives a pump effect without any valves that must be opened or closed. The connections are automatically exposed/blocked by the frame-bottoms and the piston walls' own movements. By placing the array of outlets of the output chamber of the output container, in certain positions, in such a way they get exposed in certain positions of the scrolling pistons movement, and by connecting these positions to a destination volume (with a certain pressure and temperature), you can control the output of the apparatus so that the pressure of the output chamber of the output container decrease gradually in steps to suitably adjust to the increasing pressure in the output chamber of the input container.

The connections shown in the coupling devices (439) are simply exemplary coupling since the coupling devices in this embodiment are dynamic. Furthermore in 439 only the connections for the uppermost chamber are displayed in the drawing for explanatory reasons. In this example, the rest of the output-chambers of the output-container should be coupled the same way, even though not shown in the drawing. For the described embodiment, it is thought that the external outputs (410) should be as many as the number of outlets in the array of outlets for every output chamber. Furthermore, the number of internal outputs (441) should similarly be the same, so that for every input coming from an output chamber, it can be decided whether to connect it to one the external outputs, or one of the internal inputs.

Referring to FIG. 22, as with This Heating Unit, the Other Heating Unit, recycles the energy from the non-ejected portion of the gas in each cycle. The Other Heating Unit, can be used to both cool and heat up gas, in an infinite number of steps since it uses a special kind of counterflow heating for gas, in this embodiment. It is very dynamic in that it has a coupling device 439 at the output of the heating part 200, adjustable for different temperature spans and choice of output pressures. The coupling device can be configured to, recycle a larger amount of the outputs by using the coupling device 439, to return gas on higher pressure via return connections 432. Due to an asynchronous discharge from the heating part 200, there is a large chamber 440 after the coupling device, not to get pressure dips. The cooling device 420 cools the non-ejected portion, under pressure, so the output of the cooling device 420, is compressed and therefore, the gas returning into the input part 430, which is also a coupling device, will have shrunk and is therefore led into a separate flow, parallel to the external input 612. From the input part 430, the external inflow as well as the recycled inflow are led back into the heating part. As can be seen from FIG. 22, the left pump 205, and the right pump 206, has several horizontally placed chambers, ex 437. This can be valuable in some circumstances of compression where destination volumes are smaller than source volumes, but in the following example it is omitted for simplicity reasons. The pumps move the gas forward through the heat exchanger 400, and this is performed by a scrolling movement by a number of pistons connected to move synchronously. In the top of every chamber, in the output container, can also be placed in the input container, there is a hole 601, connecting the chamber with a subset of channel of a large array of channels (520,521,522), depending on the holes 601 position during the scrolling movement. The array of channels being connectable or disconnectable with other destinations, via the coupling device.

This process of using this embodiment, as well as some profits with the invention, is described here as a process in six steps with reference to the figures shown in FIG. 24 to FIG. 29. It is assumed for the purpose of this example, that the temperature increase is very large, meaning an output absolute temperature of about twice the absolute temperature of the input temperature of the heat exchanger. The maximum output pressure of the heat exchanger is therefore also assumed to be about twice the pressure of the heat exchanger's input. The drawings describe two units according to the third preferred embodiment. They both have their main gas input (612) from a common source, meaning that their input pressure is the same, but the second units input container is filled with the surplus compressed gas from the first unit, in steps via the array of cooling compressors (599) from the first unit, meaning that said input container hypothetically, after this, has a maximal start pressure of twice the input pressure. Ideally at a temperature close to the saturation temperature of this pressure.

To explain the profit of the invention, a compressor is added at the end of the flow. This example tries to explain the value of coupling said apparatus in series. In this example, for explanatory reasons, only two devices are coupled in series, but a lot more can be used. It also gives an example of how to enhance the start pressure in a compressor. The compressors are included in a heatpump and shows the benefit of doing this.

The numbers used in the process description are taken from another patent. To separate the units the prefix 1 is added infront of the component when referring to the first unit (1000), the units the prefix 2 is added infront of the component when referring to the second unit (2000) and the prefix 3 is added infront of the component when referring to the compressor (3000) at the end of the flow, while no prefix is added when the description applies for both of them.

FIG. 21 shows a first process step of the preferred embodiment where the piston 570 (576 in the output container) are in their leftmost position beside the left sidewall 537 (557 in the output container). Which applies to both units.

At this point, assuming the ratio of each compressor (1000,2000) is 2, the estimated relative start pressure, compared to the apparatus input (612), of the output chamber (1434) of the first input container (1205) could be 1, the relative start pressure of the output chamber (1434) of the second input container (1205) could be 2 and the relative start pressure of the output chamber (3434) of the destination compressor (3000) could be 4. This is due to the fact that, when the piston (2570) of the input container of the second unit (2000) and the compressor piston (3570) back strokes, they get filled with gas by the cooling compressor array (599) of the preceding unit in an incremental order by each cooling compressors pressure.

In the input container, of both units, the opening 533 is now between the connections 502 and 510, and 534 is between the connections 503 and 509; thus, there is no connection in or out of the cavity. Thus, the frame-bottom blocks the connections 502, 510, 503 and 509. Furthermore, the piston 570 blocks the left-hand outlet openings 502 and 510. Which applies to both units.

In the output container, the opening 543 is now between 515 and 514, and 544 is not connected to 517 or 519; i.e. the frame-bottom blocks the connections 515, 514, 517 or 519. Furthermore, the piston 576 blocks the left-hand outlet openings 515 and 514.

In this position, the hole 601 will not connect the output chamber of the input container with an array of openings (520, 521, 522). But immediately it starts moving right of this position, the hole 601 will be connected, to an array of cooling compressors, via said array of openings, sequentially coupling the output chamber of the output container (206) to a subset of said array of cooling compressors (599), in descending order by the pressure of the cooling compressors. I.e. it will start connecting to cooling compressors with high pressures, only slightly less than the input chamber of the output container (206). Thereby decreasing the pressure in said output chamber from a the units maximum pressure gradually down to a minimum pressure which in this example represents the input (612) pressure. The cooling compressors (599) having means for maintaining steady pressure even if the injections and ejections to said cooling compressors are slightly asynchronous. This applies to both units.

FIG. 25 shows a second process step of the preferred embodiment where the piston 590 traveled to the right from its leftmost position (beside the left sidewall 580) as well as moved slightly up from the previous position. Which applies to both units, and the compressor.

In the input container, the frame-bottom blocks the two lower connections, while the two upper connections are located in contact with the frame-bottom's openings and thus are not blocked. The piston wall motion to the right then sucks the fluid through the inlet 501 into the cavity's left half and the piston wall tries to move the fluid from the cavities right half into the heat exchanger, but since there is a rectifier connected into the heat exchanger it won't be possible until the output chamber reaches the same pressure as the heat exchanger. Thereby the output chamber of the input container's increasing in pressure.

If we assume the piston has moved three fourth of the distance to the right hand side, the estimated relative pressure, compared to the apparatus input (612), of the output chamber (1434) of the first input container (1205) could be 1.33, the relative start pressure of the output chamber (1434) of the second input container (1205) could be 2.66 and the relative start pressure of the output chamber (3434) of the destination compressor (3000) could be 5.3.

In this configuration and in this position, the hole 601, connects the input container with an array of openings (520, 521, 522), leading, to an array of cooling compressors, sequentially coupling the output chamber of the output container (206) to a subset of said array of cooling compressors (599), in descending order by the pressure of the cooling compressors. Thereby decreasing the pressure in said output chamber from a the units maximum pressure gradually down to a minimum pressure which in this example represents the input pressure. The cooling compressors having the means for maintaining steady pressure even if the injections and ejections to said cooling compressors are slightly asynchronous. This applies to both units.

It is recommended to configure the connections so that said hole 601 and said array of openings (520,521,522) will connect the output chamber of the output container to destination cooling compressors of only slightly lower pressure.

All output-arrays (520,521 and 522) of this embodiment are connected via rectifiers (524), so the passage (577) and said opening array (548) can be so wide as to cover several outlets at the time without risking a destination volume of high pressure ejecting gas into a destination volume of low pressure. This improves the speed in which the pressure can be lowered in the output chamber.

FIG. 26 shows a third process step of the preferred embodiment where the piston 570 (576 in the output container) have moved further to the right and up to its top position. This applies to both units.

In the input-container, the lower connections are still blocked and the upper connections are connected to the frame-bottoms openings in the same manner as in the previous figure, so fluid is drawn in through the upper inlet. Thus, since in the beginning of this example the output pressure of the heat exchanger was assumed to be twice the initial input pressure of the input container, and since the volume of the output chamber of the input container by now should be about the same as the heat exchanger, gas can be moved through the upper outlet into the heat exchanger. This applies to both units (1000,2000) and the compressor (3000).

Estimated pressures at this point, assuming the piston has moved half the way to the right side, neglecting the pressure increase due to temperature increase, the relative pressure, compared to the apparatus input (612), of the output chamber (1434) of the first input container(1205) would be 2, the relative start pressure of the output chamber (1434) of the second input container (1205) would be 4 and the relative start pressure of the output chamber (3434) of the destination compressor (3000) would be 8.

In this configuration and in this position, which applies to both units, the hole 601, is still connecting the output chamber of the output container with an array of openings (520,521 and 522), leading to the coupling device (439). But since it is assumed that the pressure of the heated gas is twice the pressure of the unit input (612), and due to the position of the piston, the pressure of the output chamber of the input container and input chamber of the output container should be approximately the same. Therefore the pressure of the output chamber of the output container should be approximately the same as the unit input (612). Meaning that the subsequent coupling device (439) should direct the input gas to be recycled (432) instead of directing it to the array of cooling compressors (599).

FIG. 27 shows a forth process step of the preferred embodiment where the pistons 570 (576 in the output container) have moved further to the right and slightly down from its top position. This applies to both units.

Since the last process step, the pressure of the output chamber of the input container should be about the same as the heat exchanger, and since gas can be moved into the heat exchanger, the pressure will stay the same in all of said output chambers (434) of the input container (205), as it was in the last process step.

In the input container, the lower connections are still blocked and the upper connections are connected to the frame-bottoms openings in the same manner as in the previous figure, so fluid is drawn in through the upper inlet, and gas is moved through the upper outlet into the heat exchanger.

In this configuration and in this position, which applies to both units, the hole 601, is still connecting the output chamber of the output container with an array of openings (520,521 and 522). The subsequent coupling device (439) should direct the input gas to be recycled (432) instead of directing it to the array of cooling compressors (599).

When the units piston walls (1576,2576) moves further to the right and down to its middle position it is only ejecting gas to be circulated within the apparatus, not to external flows or volumes.

In FIG. 28 the pistons 570 (576 in the output container) are in their rightmost position beside the right-side wall 538 (or 558 in the output container), and in its middle vertical position.

In the input container, in this position the piston blocks the right-hand openings (509,503) and the frame-bottom blocks all connections (510,509,502,503).

[In the output container, the frame-bottom blocks all connections (514,515,519,544).

FIG. 29 shows a sixth process step of the preferred embodiment where the pistons 570 (and 576 in the output container) are in a central location between the right-hand and left-hand side walls, but here in its lowest position.

In this configuration and in this position, which applies only to the second unit and the compressor (3000), while bellow the scroll cycles middle vertical position, i.e. when the piston moves from right to left, the hole 601, is connecting the output chamber of the input container (205) with an array of openings (580), further connecting it to the preceding units array of cooling compressors, sequentially coupling the output chamber of the input container (205) to a subset of said array of cooling compressors (599), in ascending order by the pressure of the cooling compressors. Thereby increasing the pressure in said output chamber from a minimum pressure gradually up to preceding units maximum pressure. The minimum pressure in this example represents the input (612) pressure of the devise. The preceding coupling device (439) should have directed the output gas, with surplus pressure, to its cooling compressors (599), while being above the scroll cycles middle vertical position. This applies to subsequent units and the compressor.

In the input container, the frame-bottom is still blocking the upper connections (502, 503) while the two lower connections (510,509) are exposed by the openings 533 and 534 respectively. This will allow the fluid to pass from the piston wall left side to the right-hand via the internal cross-connection 506. Therefore any pressure increase will be available to the whole container.

In the output container, the frame-bottom is still blocking the upper connections (517,515) while the two lower connections (514,519) are exposed by the openings 543 and 544 respectively. This will allow the fluid to pass from the piston wall left side to the right-hand via the internal cross-connection 523.

In the next process step the stage illustrated in FIG. 24 is reached and one cycle is accomplished.

The benefits of this invention, should be obvious. The compressor at the end of the flow only had to compress the gas from a relative pressure of 4 to 8, instead of 1 to 8. It should be noted that, this example used pretty extreme temperatures, to get a pressure increase of 2 times. On the other hand only two steps were used. With this invention it's easy to do this compression in many steps, having a max temperature that when recycled has lesser temperature. This lesser temperature can then be used in another step and so on.

In this example we used this solution in a heatpump as you could see from the drawings FIG. 24-FIG. 29. The apparatus ended with a a compressor, followed by a rectifier (3001), a condenser (3002), an expansion valve (3004) and an evaporator (3004), meaning a heat pump or an AC-system. All three compressors (1000,2000,3000) got their gas from the evaporator and then the second compressor and the regular compressor got their internal gas compressed by its preceding step. It isn't described but we could have used the internal waste heat from the heat pump, or external. If you are able to decrease the compressor work by half, then you would increase the COP of the heatpump two times.

Although the invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that many other possible modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.

APPARATUS FOR COMPRESSING GAS USING HEAT AS ENERGY SOURCE

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