Refrigeration method and apparatus
AssigneeHans Foerster
InventorsHans Foerster, Wolfgang Leser
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Abstract
The invention relates to a novel refrigeration method and apparatus in which air is used as coolant and primary refrigerant. The air is subjected to substantially isothermal compression in a water-injected screw-type compressor, cooling in first and second scrubber columns operated by separate refrigerant circuits, and subsequent adiabatic substantially isentropic expansion in a high-speed turbine. Heat exchangers may be provided for the removal of residual coldness from the expanded air and for preheating the air fed to the compressor.
Claims20
A method of refrigeration, comprising the steps of:
- providing air as coolant and as primary refrigerant;
- feeding said air to compressor means for substantially isothermal compression;
- feeding said compressed air for cooling by direct heat exchange with primary and secondary refrigerants to first and second scrubber column means operated, respectively, by first and second refrigerant circuit means;
- feeding said compressed cooled air to turbine means for adiabatic substantially isentropic expansion;
- recovering residual coldness from said expanded air by heat exchange means;
- and
- preheating the air fed to said compressor means in said heat exchange means.
A refrigeration apparatus, comprising:
- compressor means for providing isothermally compressed air;
- first refrigerant circuit means:
- first cooling means connected to said compressor means and said first refrigerant circuit means for cooling of said compressed air;
- second refrigerant circuit means:
- second cooling means connected to said first cooling means and said second refrigerant circuit means for further cooling said compressed air;
- turbine means connected to said second cooling means for adiabatically and substantially isentropically providing expanded air from said further cooled compressed air;
- and
- heat exchange means associated with at least one of said first and second cooling means for removing residual coldness from said expanded air and connected to said compressor means for feeding preheated air to said compressor means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.