KR101668268B1

KR101668268B1 - Used Refrigerant Purification System

Info

Publication number: KR101668268B1
Application number: KR1020160022815A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 황병봉; 신기열; 박자영
Original assignee: (주)오운알투텍; 영남대학교 산학협력단; 경상북도(보건환경연구원장)
Priority date: 2016-02-25
Filing date: 2016-02-25
Publication date: 2016-10-21

Abstract

The present invention relates to a waste coolant refining system including: a supplier separately discharging liquid waste coolant and gas waste coolant among waste coolants recovered and stored; an evaporator discharging the waste coolants with high volatility to the outside and refining impurities with low volatility by enabling the impurities to remain inside while discharging the refined coolants by evaporating the liquid waste coolants discharged from the supplier; a compressor cleaning the waste coolants remaining before the supplier recovers the waste coolants in a vacuum condition and accelerating the evaporation of the waste coolants by lowering an internal pressure of the evaporator while discharging the coolants in a steam state by compressing the gaseous coolants discharged from the supplier and the evaporator; a heat exchanger cooling the waste coolants discharged from the compressor into wet steam and heating the waste coolants discharged from the evaporator to be evaporated while discharging the coolants discharged from the compressor in a wet steam state by circulating the coolants inside the evaporator; a cooling device cooling the coolants discharged from the heat exchanger and discharging the coolants in a liquid state; and a storing device storing the pure coolants from which moisture is removed by passing the coolants discharged from the cooling device through a filter. The supplier, the evaporator, and the compressor are connected to a branch valve with four ports. The first port is connected to the supplier, and the waste coolants flow therein. The second port is connected to the evaporator, and only the liquid coolants among the waste coolants flow therein. The third port is connected to the compressor, and only the gaseous coolants among the waste coolant flow therein. The fourth port is connected to the evaporator, thereby being connected to the third port. Accordingly, the waste refining system is capable of refining the waste coolant by using volatility difference between the pure coolants and the impurities contained in the waste coolant without using a separate medium required for refining.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a refrigerant purifying system,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a system for recovering aged waste refrigerant used as a refrigerant of an air conditioner and purifying the waste refrigerant into pure refrigerant.

Recently, small size refrigerators such as air conditioners, refrigerators, and water purifiers have become widespread in automotive air conditioners and households, and the disposal of refrigerants contained in these refrigerators has become an important environmental problem at the time of disposal.

In particular, refrigerants based on chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) such as R-11 and R-12 and chlorofluoro-hydrocarbons (HCFC) such as R-123 and R-22 are responsible for ozone layer destruction and global warming. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) -based refrigerants are defined as substances that cause global warming, and they must be fully managed to prevent them from leaking into the atmosphere by properly recovering them.

For example, when a vehicle is to be scrapped, it is necessary to first recover the air-conditioner refrigerant. However, until now, a junkyard having a facility capable of recovering the air-conditioner refrigerant of a vehicle is very rare. Even if there is a facility capable of recovering the refrigerant, the recovery efficiency is very low in the external environmental factors such as seasonal factors such as the summer season and the high temperature working environment, so that the refrigerant flows out to the atmosphere frequently during the scrapping process. This problem also applies to the disposal of other small refrigerators such as refrigerators, domestic air conditioners and the like.

Accordingly, Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1500394 entitled " Waste Refrigerant Recycling Method and Apparatus "and Korean Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-2015-0119711 entitled " Waste Refrigerant Reuse Purification System" have. The proposed literature proposes efficient refinement of each recovered waste refrigerant, using the filter as the former, and removing the oil or foreign matter contained in the waste refrigerant by using the separation membrane.

However, the use of a third medium such as a filter or a separation membrane as a technology for purifying waste refrigerant has a problem in that the purification rate is influenced by the quality of the medium and periodically needs to be changed according to the lifetime of the medium .

Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1500394 "Waste Refrigerant Recycling Method and Apparatus" Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2015-0119711 entitled "Waste Refrigerant Reuse Purification System"

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system for purifying a pure refrigerant constituting a waste refrigerant and a purifier using the difference in volatility of impurities without using a separate medium required for purification, It has its purpose.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a system for purifying waste refrigerant, comprising: a feeder for separately discharging recovered and stored waste refrigerant for each of a liquid and a gas; An evaporator which evaporates the liquid waste refrigerant discharged from the feeder to discharge the purified refrigerant, discharges waste refrigerant having a high volatility to the outside, and purifies impurities having low volatility to remain therein; The gas refrigerant discharged from the feeder and the evaporator is compressed and discharged into the refrigerant in a vapor state. The supply of the waste refrigerant is performed by vacuuming the residual waste refrigerant before recovering the waste refrigerant, and the internal pressure of the evaporator is reduced to accelerate the evaporation A compressor; A heat exchanger for circulating the refrigerant discharged from the compressor into the evaporator and discharging the refrigerant into the evaporator, the refrigerant discharged from the compressor being cooled in a wet state and the waste refrigerant in the evaporator being evaporated; A cooler for cooling the refrigerant discharged from the heat exchanger and discharging the refrigerant into the liquid refrigerant; And a regulator for passing the coolant discharged from the cooler through the filter to store the pure refrigerant whose moisture has been removed, wherein the feeder, the evaporator, and the compressor are connected to the four port branch valve, Port 2 is connected to the evaporator so that only liquid in the waste refrigerant is supplied. The three ports are connected to the compressor to supply only the gas in the waste refrigerant. The four ports are connected to the evaporator, do.

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It should be understood, however, that the terminology or words of the present specification and claims should not be construed in an ordinary sense or in a dictionary, and that the inventors shall not be limited to the concept of a term It should be construed in accordance with the meaning and concept consistent with the technical idea of the present invention based on the principle that it can be properly defined. Therefore, the embodiments described in the present specification and the configurations shown in the drawings are merely the most preferred embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the technical ideas of the present invention are described. Therefore, It is to be understood that equivalents and modifications are possible.

As described in the above construction and operation, the present invention does not use a separate medium required for purification, but refines the pure refrigerant constituting the waste refrigerant and the distillation method using the difference in the volatility of the impurities, It is possible to maintain the excellent refining rate constantly at all times without receiving the refrigerant, and it is also possible to reduce the energy consumed in the overall purification by using the vapor of the evaporated refrigerant compressed by the heat source necessary for the distillation.

1 is a block diagram generally showing a system according to the present invention;

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The present invention relates to a system for purifying a waste refrigerant and comprises a feeder (10), an evaporator (20), a compressor (30), a heat exchanger (40), a cooler (50) In a refrigeration system.

The feeder 10 according to the present invention separates waste refrigerant recovered and stored from the air conditioner into liquid and gas separately. This feeder 10 is connected to the four-port branch valve 15 and is connected to the evaporator 20 and the compressor 30, respectively.

The first port 15a is connected to the feeder 10 and the second port 15b is connected to the evaporator 20 so that only the liquid in the waste refrigerant is supplied and the three port 15c is connected to the compressor 30 Only the gas in the waste refrigerant is supplied. And the remaining four ports 15d are connected to the evaporator 20 to communicate with the three ports 15c.

In addition, the evaporator 20 according to the present invention evaporates the waste liquid refrigerant discharged from the feeder 10 to discharge the purified refrigerant. Here, a compressor 30 and a heat exchanger 40 connected to the condenser 50 are installed inside the evaporator 20.

That is, the high-temperature / high-pressure refrigerant passing through the heat exchanger 40 warms the waste refrigerant of the evaporator 20. Accordingly, pure refrigerant (including water) having a high degree of volatility among liquid refrigerants containing impurities is discharged through the four ports 15d to the compressor 30, impurities having low volatility are left in the inside thereof, And is discharged and removed.

The compressor (30) according to the present invention compresses the gaseous refrigerant discharged from the feeder (10) and the evaporator (20) and discharges the refrigerant in the vapor state to the refrigerant. The compressor 30 varies the pressure from the feeder 10 to the reservoir 60 to transfer the refrigerant. That is, the feeder 10 and the evaporator 20 are in a low-pressure state from the compressor 30, and the heat exchanger 40, the cooler 50, and the reservoir 60 are in a high-pressure state.

The characteristic of the compressor 30 may be utilized to clean the waste refrigerant remaining in the vacuum before the recovering of the waste refrigerant by the feeder 10 and to reduce the internal pressure of the evaporator 20, The purification rate can be improved.

In addition, the heat exchanger 40 according to the present invention indirectly circulates the refrigerant discharged from the compressor 30 into the evaporator 20, and discharges the refrigerant to the refrigerant in a wet state. The refrigerant passing through the compressor 30 is in a state of high temperature / high pressure steam, and since the impurities other than moisture are all purified, it is necessary to cool the refrigerant to the original liquid state. The evaporator 20 requires a predetermined heat source to purify the waste refrigerant by evaporation.

That is, the refrigerant passing through the heat exchanger (40) is built in the evaporator (20), and the waste refrigerant is heated to evaporate and cooled to a wet state. Therefore, the energy required for the overall purification can be reduced by not using a separate heat source necessary for the distillation.

In addition, the cooler 50 according to the present invention cools the refrigerant discharged from the heat exchanger 40 and discharges the refrigerant into the liquid refrigerant. Finally, the reservoir (60) passes the refrigerant discharged from the cooler (50) to the filter (65) to store the pure refrigerant from which moisture has been removed.

The dehumidifying agent used in the filter 65 may be used in a silica gel, a zeolite, or a molricular sieve which can be easily used. Here, molricular sieve is a sodium salt having a crystal structure similar to that of natural zeolites, and its chemical formula is generally represented by Nam (AlO ₂ ) m (SiO ₂ ) n xH ₂ O (m? N). The SiO ₄ tetrahedron and the AlO ₄ tetrahedron form a three-dimensional net structure, which forms a cavity, in which sodium ions are present.

It is recommended to install a Dewpoint meter to continuously measure the moisture of the refrigerant being purified. It is desirable that the Dewpoint Meter be able to maintain the measurement accuracy using the Aluminum Oxide Sensor technology.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. It is therefore intended that such variations and modifications fall within the scope of the appended claims.

10: Feeder 15: Branch valve
20: evaporator 30: compressor
40: heat exchanger 50: cooler
60: reservoir

Claims

A system for purifying waste refrigerant comprising:
A feeder for separating the recovered and stored waste refrigerant separately for the liquid and the gas;
An evaporator for evaporating the liquid waste refrigerant discharged from the feeder to discharge the purified refrigerant, discharging the waste refrigerant having a high volatility to the outside, and refining the impurities with low volatility to the inside;
The refrigerant discharged from the feeder and the evaporator is discharged to the refrigerant in the vapor state, and the residual refrigerant remaining before the recovering of the waste refrigerant is vacuum cleaned, and the internal pressure of the evaporator is lowered to evaporate An accelerating compressor;
A heat exchanger for circulating the refrigerant discharged from the compressor into the evaporator and discharging the refrigerant into the evaporator in a wet state, the refrigerant discharged from the compressor being cooled in a wet state and the waste refrigerant in the evaporator being evaporated;
A cooler for cooling the refrigerant discharged from the heat exchanger and discharging the refrigerant to liquid refrigerant; And
And a cooler for passing the coolant discharged from the cooler through a filter to store pure water refrigerant,
The first, second, and third ports are connected to the four-port branch valve, respectively. The first port is connected to the feeder to supply the waste refrigerant, the second port is connected to the evaporator to supply only the liquid in the waste refrigerant, And the fourth port is connected to the evaporator so as to communicate with the third port.

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