Thermal compressive device
AssigneeUniversity of Warwick
InventorsRobert Edward Critoph, Roger Thorpe
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A thermal compressor (10) comprises two adsorbent beds (11, 12) each with an associated thermal management system (14). The thermal management systems (14) are identical and consist of a circulating supply of a control fluid which passes through the adsorbent bed, a pump (15), a heat exchanger (16) and an inert bed (17, 18). Heat removed from the adsorbent beds (11, 12) by the control fluid is supplied to the inert beds (17, 18) and is store to be subsequently regenerated to heat the adsorbent beds (11, 12) in a later half of the operating cycle of the thermal compressor (10). The thermal compressor (10) is energy efficient by virtue of the heat recycling which is performed.
Claims12
A thermal compressive device comprising one or more adsorbent devices having means for connecting the one or more adsorbent devices to a supply of adsorbate, each adsorbent device being arranged to enable a circulating fluid to flow therethrough, and a temperature control system for sequentially raising and lowering the temperature of the circulating fluid supplied to each of the adsorbent devices, wherein (each adsorbent device has a respective thermal storage device containing a thermally capacitive material and arranged to enable the circulating fluid to flow therethrough, and wherein each thermal storage device is coupled to its respective adsorbent device by the circulating fluid such that, in a cyclical manner, heat drawn from each adsorbent device by the circulating fluid is separately supplied to and stored in the respective thermal storage device by the circulating fluid and returned to the adsorbent device.
A thermal compressive device comprising:
- at least two adsorbent devices having means for connecting the at least two adsorbent devices to a supply of adsorbate, each adsorbent device being arranged to enable a circulating fluid to flow therethrough, and a temperature control system for sequentially raising and lowering the temperature of the circulating fluid supplied to each of the adsorbent devices characterized by each adsorbent device having a respective thermal storage device containing a thermally capacitive material and being arranged to enable the circulating fluid to flow therethrough whereby each thermal storage device is coupled to its respective adsorbent device by the circulating fluid such that, in a cyclical manner, heat drawn from each adsorbent device by the circulating fluid is separately supplied to and stored in the respective thermal storage device by the circulating fluid and returned to the adsorbent device to form separate thermal waves in each of the adsorbent devices.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.