Fluid cooling plant and refrigerant module thereof
AssigneeNuovo Pignone Tecnologie Srl
InventorALessandra GIANNASI
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fluid cooling plant to cool and liquefy a fluid, like a hydrogen, is disclosed. The fluid cooling plant comprises a first cooling stage, and a second cooling stage, connected to the first cooling source. The first cooling stage has a cold source and a heat exchanger, to cool the ambient temperature hydrogen gas. The cold source is liquid natural gas but not only, which is gasified by ambient temperature hydrogen so that the hydrogen is cooled down. The second cooling stage is made of one or more refrigerant modules, whose operation is based on a magnetocaloric material. Also disclosed is an operating method of the refrigerant modules.
Claims23
A fluid cooling plant to cool a fluid, comprising:
- a first cooling stage having
- a cold source,
- a heat exchanger connected to the cold source,
- a fluid transporting pipe through which the fluid to be cooled is delivered,
- a second cooling stage connected to the first cooling source, to cool the fluid to be cooled by the first cooling stage to a target temperature,
- wherein the fluid transporting pipe is connected to the heat exchanger,
- wherein the fluid to be cooled is put in thermal contact with the cold source by means of the heat exchanger so that the temperature of the fluid is cooled, and
- wherein the cold source is a re-gasification plant, for gasifying liquid gas, so that the liquid gas operates as the cold source, which cools the fluid when in thermal contact with it and re-gasifies at the same time.
3-4. (canceled)
The fluid cooling plant of claim comprising a pipeline connected to the heat exchanger, wherein the gasified fluid is expelled from the first cooling stage for its usage.
(canceled)
A refrigerant module for refrigerating a fluid, comprising:
- a magnetic field source;
- a magnetocaloric material (MCM), arranged so as to be subject to the magnetic field generated by the magnetic field source;
- an inlet pipe, for transporting a fluid to be put in thermal contact with the magnetocaloric material (MCM);
- and
- an outlet pipe for transporting a fluid after being in thermal contact with the magnetocaloric material (MCM).
23-24. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.