Enhanced refrigeration purge system
AssigneeCarrier Corporation
InventorsRajiv Ranjan, Yinshan Feng, Parmesh Verma, Michael A. Stark
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of purging contaminants from a refrigerant of a heat pump via a purge system includes generating a driving force across a separator, providing refrigerant including contaminants to the separator, separating the contaminants from the refrigerant within the separator, monitoring one or more parameters of the purge system and the heat pump, and actively controlling an operational parameter of the purge system in response to monitoring one or more parameters of the purge system and the heat pump.
Claims15
A method of purging contaminants from a refrigerant of a heat pump via a purge system comprising:
- generating a driving force across a separator;
- providing refrigerant including contaminants to the separator;
- separating the contaminants from the refrigerant within the separator;
- monitoring one or more parameters of the purge system and the heat pump;
- and
- actively controlling an operational parameter of the purge system in response to monitoring one or more parameters of the purge system and the heat pump;
- wherein monitoring one or more parameters of the purge system and the heat pump includes at least one monitoring a rate of change of difference in pressure across the separator, monitoring an amount of contaminants within the refrigerant, and monitoring a difference in pressure across the separator
- wherein if the difference in pressure across the separator is below a threshold, actively controlling an operational parameter of the purge system in response to monitoring the difference in pressure across the separator includes maintaining constant operation of the purge system.
A heat pump comprising:
- a vapor compression loop;
- a purge system in communication with the vapor compression loop, the purge system including a separator operable to separate contaminants from a refrigerant purge gas provided from the vapor compression loop;
- a sensor for monitoring one or more parameters of the purge system and the vapor compression loop;
- and
- a controller connected to the sensor, the controller being operable to actively control at least one operational parameter of the purge system in response to data provided by the sensor;
- wherein the sensor is operable to monitor at least one a rate of change of difference in pressure across the separator, an amount of contaminants within the refrigerant, a difference in pressure across the separator;
- wherein if the difference in pressure across the separator is below a threshold, an operational parameter is controlled to maintain a constant operation of the purge system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.