Flooded compressor with improved oil reclamation
AssigneeUop LLC
InventorsFrank S. Rosser, Jr., Patrick M. Sugg
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Oil reclamation for a flooded screw type compressor is improved by replacing the normal distillation still with a refrigerant vaporizer made from a small diameter pipe conduit and a low temperature heat source such as heat tracing. The system purifies lubricating oil of refrigerant by boiling small batches of collected lubricating oil from the bottom of the chiller. Using a small volume for vaporization of the refrigerant allows a low temperature heat source to effectively vaporize the refrigerant from the circulating lubricating oil without complicated systems for control or pumping. A particular form of the vaporizer is simply a small diameter pipe surrounded by heat tracing tape.
Claims19
A system for recovering trace amounts of lubricating oil from the refrigerant in a refrigerant system that uses a flooded screw compressor, said system comprising:
- a) a flooded screw compressor for receiving a vaporized refrigerant and compressing the refrigerant to produce a compressed refrigerant having a liquid phase and containing lubricating oil;
- b) passing the compressed refrigerant to an oil separator and separating a lubricant oil stream and separated refrigerant stream from said compressed refrigerant and returning said lubricant oil stream to said compressor;
- c) passing said compressed refrigerant to a chiller and vaporizing said refrigerant in said chiller to produce said vaporized refrigerant for return to said compressor;
- d) collecting a mixture of liquid refrigerant and oil from said chiller and retaining said mixture in a refrigerant vaporizer having a restricted volume and a low temperature indirect heat input that cannot exceed the vaporization temperature of the lubricating oil;
- e) heating said mixture in said refrigerant vaporizer until substantially all of the refrigerant has vaporized to produce a reclaimed oil stream;
- and
- f) returning the reclaimed oil stream from the vaporizer to the compressor.
A system for recovering trace amounts of lubricating from the refrigerant in a refrigerant system that uses a flooded screw compressor, said system comprising:
- a) a flooded screw compressor for receiving a vaporized refrigerant and compressing the refrigerant to produce a compressed refrigerant having a liquid phase and containing lubricating oil;
- b) passing the compressed refrigerant to an oil separator and separating a lubricant oil stream and separated refrigerant stream from said compressed refrigerant and returning said lubricant oil stream to said compressor;
- c) passing said compressed refrigerant to a chiller and vaporizing said refrigerant in said chiller to produce said vaporized refrigerant for return to said compressor;
- d) collecting a mixture of liquid refrigerant and oil from said chiller and retaining said mixture in a refrigerant vaporizer comprising at least one vertical conduit having a diameter of less than three inches and length of less than 18 inches to produce a restricted volume and heating the restricted volume with heat tracing around the conduit;
- e) heating said mixture in said refrigerant vaporizer until substantially all of the refrigerant has vaporized to produce a reclaimed oil stream;
- and
- f) returning the reclaimed oil stream from the vaporizer to the compressor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.