Patent Application
20250034772
This disclosure relates generally to dry cleaning devices and processes. More specifically, this disclosure relates to a liquid carbon dioxide spray dry cleaning system and method.
An air garment steamer or “air dresser” uses a combination of air and water steam to clean, sanitize, deodorize, freshen, and dry garments in a closed cabinet. This can provide consumers with a more convenient and more efficient solution to take care of their garments.
This disclosure relates to a liquid carbon dioxide spray dry cleaning system and method.
In a first embodiment, an apparatus includes a storage tank configured to store liquid carbon dioxide. The apparatus also includes a cabinet configured to seal an interior space. The apparatus further includes a nozzle configured to spray the liquid carbon dioxide from the storage tank into the sealed interior space of the cabinet such that the liquid carbon dioxide leaving the nozzle changes into a two-state flow.
In a second embodiment, a method includes storing liquid carbon dioxide in a storage tank. The method also includes sealing an interior space of a cabinet. The method further includes spraying the liquid carbon dioxide from the storage tank through a nozzle into the sealed interior space of the cabinet, where the liquid carbon dioxide leaving the nozzle changes into a two-state flow.
Other technical features may be readily apparent to one skilled in the art from the following figures, descriptions, and claims.
Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION below, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document. The terms “include” and “comprise,” as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation. The term “or” is inclusive, meaning and/or. The phrase “associated with,” as well as derivatives thereof, means to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, have a relationship to or with, or the like.
As used here, terms and phrases such as “have,” “may have,” “include,” or “may include” a feature (like a number, function, operation, or component such as a part) indicate the existence of the feature and do not exclude the existence of other features. Also, as used here, the phrases “A or B,” “at least one of A and/or B,” or “one or more of A and/or B” may include all possible combinations of A and B. For example, “A or B,” “at least one of A and B,” and “at least one of A or B” may indicate all of (1) including at least one A, (2) including at least one B, or (3) including at least one A and at least one B. Further, as used here, the terms “first” and “second” may modify various components regardless of importance and do not limit the components. These terms are only used to distinguish one component from another. For example, a first user device and a second user device may indicate different user devices from each other, regardless of the order or importance of the devices. A first component may be denoted a second component and vice versa without departing from the scope of this disclosure.
It will be understood that, when an element (such as a first element) is referred to as being (operatively or communicatively) “coupled with/to” or “connected with/to” another element (such as a second element), it can be coupled or connected with/to the other element directly or via a third element. In contrast, it will be understood that, when an element (such as a first element) is referred to as being “directly coupled with/to” or “directly connected with/to” another element (such as a second element), no other element (such as a third element) intervenes between the element and the other element.
As used here, the phrase “configured (or set) to” may be interchangeably used with the phrases “suitable for,” “having the capacity to,” “designed to,” “adapted to,” “made to,” or “capable of” depending on the circumstances. The phrase “configured (or set) to” does not essentially mean “specifically designed in hardware to.” Rather, the phrase “configured to” may mean that a device can perform an operation together with another device or parts.
The terms and phrases as used here are provided merely to describe some embodiments of this disclosure but not to limit the scope of other embodiments of this disclosure. It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. All terms and phrases, including technical and scientific terms and phrases, used here have the same meanings as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the embodiments of this disclosure belong. It will be further understood that terms and phrases, such as those defined in commonly-used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined here. In some cases, the terms and phrases defined here may be interpreted to exclude embodiments of this disclosure.
Definitions for other certain words and phrases may be provided throughout this patent document. Those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many if not most instances, such definitions apply to prior as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.
None of the description in this application should be read as implying that any particular element, step, or function is an essential element that must be included in the claim scope. The scope of patented subject matter is defined only by the claims. Moreover, none of the claims is intended to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112 (f) unless the exact words “means for” are followed by a participle. Use of any other term, including without limitation “mechanism,” “module,” “device,” “unit,” “component,” “element,” “member,” “apparatus,” “machine,” “system,” “processor,” or “controller,” within a claim is understood by the Applicant to refer to structures known to those skilled in the relevant art and is not intended to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112 (f).
For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure and its advantages, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals represent like parts:
As described above, an air garment steamer or “air dresser” uses a combination of air and water steam to clean, sanitize, deodorize, freshen, and dry garments in a closed cabinet. This can provide consumers with a more convenient and more efficient solution to take care of their garments. Unfortunately, air dressers typically use air and water steam as working fluids, which have many shortcomings. For example, the use of water can lead to potential shrinkage of garments, such as those made of wool and cotton. Also, water is a poor solvent for oil, fats, and other odor-causing materials, which can lead to inefficient cleaning performance. Further, the use of water typically necessitates a drying process, which may be performed using a compressor-based dehumidification system, after steaming. In addition, an air filtration system is often needed to remove air-borne odors.
This disclosure provides a carbon dioxide cleaning system and method. As described in more detail below, liquid carbon dioxide can be stored in a storage tank, and a cabinet can be used to seal an interior space (such as an interior space containing one or more garments). A nozzle can be used to spray the liquid carbon dioxide from the storage tank into the sealed interior space of the cabinet so that the liquid carbon dioxide leaving the nozzle changes into a two-state flow, such as gaseous carbon dioxide and liquid carbon dioxide. A carbon dioxide recovery system may be used to convert the gaseous carbon dioxide into a liquid state and return the carbon dioxide in the liquid state to the storage tank, and the carbon dioxide recovery system may utilize condensing heat to heat the cabinet.
Unlike water, liquid carbon dioxide is capable of dissolving a wide range of organic compounds, including oils and fats. This makes carbon dioxide a better solvent than water for a variety of cleaning applications, including laundry cleaning. Moreover, liquid carbon dioxide has low surface tension, which can enhance penetration into fabrics to dissolve oils, fats, volatile organic compounds, and other materials in garments.
Among other things, the system and method disclosed here may spray liquid carbon dioxide onto garments at high speeds within a low-pressure chamber, which overcomes various shortcomings of an air and water steam-based air dresser. For example, the carbon dioxide can exit the nozzle in a two-phase flow state that includes gaseous carbon dioxide and liquid carbon dioxide. A jet flow of the gaseous carbon dioxide can remove particulates from garments via agitation, while liquid carbon dioxide landing on garments can act as a solvent in order to remove contaminants and can evaporate from the garments while carrying the removed contaminates. The liquid carbon dioxide can evaporate and become gaseous, which is recovered. Because carbon dioxide is a good solvent and no water is added in the process, there is generally no need for drying, air filtering to remove odors, or using detergents to remove oils and fats. Garments can also undergo large temperature changes during the cleaning process, which helps to break loose particulates trapped in fabric of the garments without damaging the fabric.
The carbon dioxide storage tank 104 is configured to hold pressurized carbon dioxide, such as in a liquified state. Pressurized carbon dioxide from the storage tank 104 can be provided to the nozzle 106 for release into the air dresser cabinet 102. In some embodiments, the storage tank 104 can be removably coupled to the air dresser cabinet 102. Also, in some embodiments, the storage tank 104 may include an air separator for removing air that is introduced into the storage tank 104 during a gas recovery process. In other embodiments, an air separator may not be needed, such as when the air dresser cabinet 102 can be vacuum-sealed prior to a cleaning process using the stored carbon dioxide. Note that while one storage tank 104 is shown here, multiple storage tanks 104 may be used in the air dresser 100. In some cases, the storage tank 104 can store carbon dioxide at ambient temperature. Each storage tank 104 may be formed from any suitable materials and may have any suitable form.
The nozzle 106 is used to release stored carbon dioxide from the storage tank(s) 104 into the air dresser cabinet 102. The nozzle 106 can be positioned at any suitable location within the air dresser cabinet 102, such as on a wall or ceiling of the air dresser cabinet 102. The nozzle 106 can focus liquid carbon dioxide from the storage tank 104 at the garment(s) 10 inside the air dresser cabinet 102. Upon exiting the nozzle 106, the liquid carbon dioxide changes to two-phase carbon dioxide, which includes both gaseous carbon dioxide 112 and liquid carbon dioxide 114. For instance, the nozzle 106 may represent a nebulizer that transforms liquid carbon dioxide into a two-phase state, such as a fine mist or aerosol and gas. As noted above, the gaseous carbon dioxide 112 can forcefully detach particulates attached to the garment(s) 10 (such as via agitation), and the liquid carbon dioxide 114 can dissolve oils, fats, or other materials on the garment(s) 10 before evaporating and can remove odors from the garment(s) 10. Note that while one nozzle 106 is shown here, multiple nozzles 106 may be used in the air dresser 100, such as when multiple nozzles 106 are arranged around the air dresser cabinet 102 to target different parts of the garment(s) 10. Nozzles 106 can also be incorporated in garment hangars and garment holding structures inside the cabinet, which enhances cleaning performance inside the garment. In some cases, each nozzle 106 can be sized according to a distance from the garment(s) 10 in the air dresser cabinet 102 or an area of coverage for the nozzle 206. Each nozzle 106 may be formed from any suitable materials and may have any suitable form.
Although carbon dioxide is a good solvent, one or more specialized detergents may be added to the carbon dioxide through the detergent adder 108. For example, the detergent adder 108 may be configured to introduce the one or more specialized detergents between an outlet of the storage tank 104 and an inlet of the nozzle 106. This allows the detergent adder 108 to add detergent(s) to the liquid carbon dioxide before the liquid carbon dioxide passes through the nozzle 106 into the air dresser cabinet 102. The detergent adder 108 can be used to store any suitable detergent(s) supplied by a user of the air dresser 100. Note, however, that the use of the detergent adder 108 is optional.
The gas recovery system 110 is used to recover the carbon dioxide that is released into the air dresser cabinet 102. For example, the gas recovery system 110 can obtain gaseous carbon dioxide from the air dresser cabinet 102 (which includes both the gaseous carbon dioxide 112 and the evaporated form of the liquid carbon dioxide 114) and convert the gaseous carbon dioxide into a liquid state for storage back in the storage tank 104. Depending on the implementation, the recapture of the carbon dioxide can occur continuously as a cleaning process is occurring or upon completion of the cleaning process. In this example, two-stage compression is used to return the gaseous carbon dioxide from the air dresser cabinet 102 to the storage tank 104.
As shown in
The compressors 120a-120b are configured to compress the gaseous carbon dioxide back to a liquid state for storage in the storage tank 104. A temperature of the carbon dioxide can increase as the gaseous carbon dioxide is compressed by the compressors 120a-120b. In some cases, the heat generated from compressing the carbon dioxide by a single compressor may be too high for storage in the storage tank 104, or the temperature of the carbon dioxide coming out of the single compressor may be high enough to damage a garment 10 (such as when multiple cycles of cleaning are performed before the temperature drops to an ambient level in the storage tank 104). Here, two compressors 120a-120b may be used instead of one. Another primary advantage of a two-compressor configuration, in addition to reducing discharge temperature, is reducing a compression ratio of each individual compressor. For example, since the pressure ratio between the storage tank and the cabinet may be approximately 60, each compressor in the two-compressor configuration only needs to achieve a compression ratio of √{square root over (60)}, which is around 7.7. In contrast, a single compressor system would require the compressor to deliver a compression ratio of 60. Also, the condensers 122a-122b can be used to cool the compressed carbon dioxide. In some cases, the condensers 122a-122b may be positioned in or proximate to the interior space 103 of the air dresser cabinet 102 in order to use heat that is removed from the compressed carbon dioxide to heat the air dresser cabinet 102.
As shown in
A cleaning action takes place based on liquid and gaseous carbon dioxide contacting one or more garments 10. For example, the gaseous carbon dioxide can cause agitation of the one or more garments 10. Also, the liquid carbon dioxide can dissolve materials on one or more garments 10. The liquid carbon dioxide also absorbs heat from the garment(s) 10 and evaporates to form additional gaseous carbon dioxide. This process is represented by the line between thermodynamic states #2 and #3.
The gas recovery system 110 draws the gaseous carbon dioxide 112 through the desiccant dryer 116 to remove water and through the filter 118 to remove contaminants before entering a compressor inlet. The first compressor 120a performs a first-stage compression by compressing the gaseous carbon dioxide to an intermediate pressure at thermodynamic state #4 (such as at approximately 7-8 bars). The gaseous carbon dioxide at the intermediate pressure is discharged to a heat exchanger, such as the first condenser 122a, where heat from the gaseous carbon dioxide is removed and optionally introduced into the air dresser cabinet 102. This is represented by the line between thermodynamic states #4 and #5.
The gaseous carbon dioxide 112 leaves the first condenser 122a and enters the second compressor 120b, where the carbon dioxide is further compressed to a final pressure level at thermodynamic state #6 (such as approximately 60 bars). The second compressor 120bdischarges high-pressure and high-temperature carbon dioxide to the second condenser 122b, which returns the carbon dioxide in a liquid state (possibly at ambient temperature) to the storage tank 104. In some cases, the second condenser 122b may exchange heat with the gaseous carbon dioxide 112 in the air dresser cabinet 102. This is represented by the line between thermodynamic states #6 and #1.
At the beginning of the cleaning process, there can be ambient air in the air dresser cabinet 102. In some cases, the ambient air might enter the carbon dioxide sealed system and eventually end up in the storage tank 104 as non-condensable, which can accumulate over time. In some embodiments, an air separator may optionally be included in the air dresser 100 to periodically purge air from the storage tank 104. In other embodiments, the air dresser cabinet 102 may be vacuum-sealed prior the cleaning process, which can help to remove non-condensable air.
Although
Here, the pressurized air dresser cabinet 202 can be pre-charged with carbon dioxide to an operating pressure for the cleaning process. Pressurizing the air dresser cabinet 202 allows for less pressure loss during the cleaning process, and the reduction in pressure loss may help to reduce the amount of compression that is need for the carbon dioxide to be recycled back into the storage tank 104. As a result, the reduction in the amount of compression may allow use of a single compressor 120 without the side effect of an extreme amount of heat output from the compression cycle. This reduction in heat from the compression cycle also reduces the amount of condensing required for recycling the carbon dioxide into the storage tank 104, which may be performed by a single condenser 122a. Note, however, that an air dresser may use a pressurized air dresser cabinet and a two-stage compression system. Another possible advantage of a pressurized air dresser cabinet is improved cleaning performance. For instance, a higher pressure within the cabinet may help to reduce or minimize the temperature difference between liquid droplets and the surrounding environment, resulting in a reduced evaporation rate. Consequently, the liquid droplets can have a longer time to effectively penetrate garments. Despite these advantages, a pressure within the cabinet is limited by maximum pressure restrictions imposed on household pressure vessels, including compressed air tanks, water tanks, refrigerators, and other similar devices. Based on current regulations, a recommended pressure range can be from about 1 bar to about 10 bars. However, as technology advances or regulations change, it is conceivable that the range could be expanded in the future.
As shown in
Although
As shown in
Although
Although
While the dual condenser concept is initially explained in the context of a single-stage compression carbon dioxide air dresser, dual condensers can be directly applied to a two-stage compression system, as well. For instance, each of the two condensers 120a-120b in
As shown in
Carbon dioxide is sprayed into the interior space of the air dresser cabinet in a two-state flow at step 506. This may include, for example, using at least one nozzle 106 to spray liquid carbon dioxide from the storage tank 104 into the sealed interior space 103 of the air dresser cabinet 102, where the liquid carbon dioxide leaving the nozzle 106 changes into a two-state flow. The two-state flow includes liquid carbon dioxide and gaseous carbon dioxide. The gaseous carbon dioxide can forcibly separate debris from the garment(s) 10, and the liquid carbon dioxide can dissolve materials on the garment(s) 10 and absorb odors. The liquid carbon dioxide also absorbs heat and evaporates into a gaseous form. In some embodiments, detergent can optionally be added to the liquid carbon dioxide before reaching the nozzle 106.
Gaseous carbon dioxide is drawn from the sealed interior space of the cabinet at step 508. This may include, for example, removing the gaseous carbon dioxide from the sealed interior space 103 using a gas recovery system. The gaseous carbon dioxide can pass through the desiccant dryer 116 to remove water from the gaseous carbon dioxide and pass through the filter 118 to remove contaminants from the gaseous carbon dioxide. The gaseous carbon dioxide is compressed at step 510 and cooled at step 512. This may include, for example, using one or more compressors 120a-120b and one or more condensers 122a-122b to compress and cool the gaseous carbon dioxide in order to return the carbon dioxide to a liquid state. In some cases, at least some of the heat removed from the gaseous carbon dioxide may be returned to the interior space 103 of the air dresser cabinet 102 in order to release the heat from the carbon dioxide into the interior space 103 of the air dresser cabinet 102. The cooled carbon dioxide is returned to the storage tank at step 514. This may include, for example, storing liquid carbon dioxide back in the storage tank 104.
Although
Although this disclosure has been described with example embodiments, various changes and modifications may be suggested to one skilled in the art. It is intended that this disclosure encompass such changes and modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims.
