Absorption type heat exchanging apparatus

This invention relates to an absorption type heat exchanging apparatus having an evaporation unit, an absorption unit, a condensation unit and a regeneration unit. A diluted absorption liquid transfer pipe and a concentrated absorption liquid transfer pipe are installed between the absorption and regeneration units. A pump placed in one of these pipes is connected to a power take-off device which is placed in the other pipe and which is adapted to have rotative driving power imparted thereto by the absorption liquid in the pipe. Rotative driving power is imparted to the power take-off device by the energy based on the difference between the pressures in the regeneration and absorption units. This rotative driving power is transmitted to the pump. Thereby, the power to be provided to the pump from the outside is reduced.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to an absorption type heat exchanging 
apparatus such as an absorption type heat pump or an absorption type 
refrigerator. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Absorption type heat exchanging apparatus which is now in practical use, 
such as absorption type heat pumps and absorption type refrigerators 
comprise an evaporation unit, an absorption unit, a condensation unit and 
a regeneration unit. The refrigerant/absorption liquid combination used in 
this apparatus is generally a water/LiBr or NH.sub.3 /water combination. 
Water and NH.sub.3, which are refrigerants, have high values of the latent 
heat of evaporation, being preferable in that the circulating amount of 
liquid required for the same refrigerating power is relatively small. 
Since the absorption liquid is circulated between the regeneration and 
absorption units which have pressures approximately equal to the 
saturation pressures respectively corresponding to the evaporation 
temperature and condensation temperature of the refrigerant, it is 
transferred to the higher pressure side after having its pressure 
increased by a pump, while it is transferred to the lower pressure side 
through a throttle valve. The power required for circulation is rather 
low. 
Recently, freon type refrigerant (for example, "Freon 22", and "Freon" is 
trade name of polyhalogenated hydrocarbons containing fluorine and 
chlorine) has been considered to be useful because of such advantages as 
safety and a reduction in the size of the apparatus. However, since freon 
is generally low in the latent heat of evaporation, the circulating amount 
is greater than in the case of water or NH.sub.3. Another difficulty is 
that if predetermined temperature difference is to be obtained, there is 
involved a greater difference between pressures at the evaporation and 
condensation temperatures than in the case of water being used. Thus, the 
power of the pump for transferring the absorption liquid (for example, a 
solution of Freon 22 in diethylene glycol dimethyl ether) from the lower 
pressure side to the higher pressure side increases, raising a problem 
that the advantage of the required power being lower than that of the 
compression type heat pump or refrigerator is lost. 
The required theroetical pump power of the refrigerator with respect to the 
refrigerant/absorption liquid combinations mentioned above is shown in 
Table 1. 
TABLE 1 
______________________________________ 
Refrigerant/ Freon 22/ 
absorption liquid 
Water/LiBr NH.sub.3 /water 
DEGDME 
______________________________________ 
Evaporation pressure 
1.0 550 590 
(k Pa) 
Condensation pressure 
7.33 1600 1570 
(k Pa) 
Circulating amount of 
71 117 974 
solution per Rt 
(kg/Rt) 
Theoretical pump power 
1 .times. 10.sup.-4 
0.046 0.36 
(kW/Rt) 
______________________________________ 
(Note) 
1 Rt: 1 refregeration ton 
DEGDME: diethylene glycol dimethyl ether 
The calculations in Table 1 are made on the assumption that the 
condensation temperature of the refrigerant is 40.degree. C. and its 
evaporation temperature is 7.degree. C. Further, it is assumed that the 
regeneration unit outlet temperature of the refrigerant is 90.degree. C. 
and the absorption unit outlet temperature is 40.degree. C. 
It is seen from Table 1 that the freon type refrigerant requires 3600 times 
and 8 times as much pump power as that required by water and NH.sub.3, 
respectively. 
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention, which solves the problems described above, has for 
its object the provision of an absorption type heat exchanger apparatus 
which does not require high pump power even if a freon type refrigerant is 
used. 
According to the invention, an absorption type heat exchanger apparatus 
having an evaporation unit, an absorption unit, a regeneration unit and a 
condensation unit comprises: 
diluted absorption liquid transfer pipe means whereby a diluted liquid 
which has absorbed a refrigerant in the absorption unit is transferred to 
the regeneration unit, 
concentrated absorption liquid transfer pipe means whereby a concentrated 
absorption liquid having its refrigerant evaporated in the regeneration 
unit is transferred to the absorption unit, 
pump means placed in one of said diluted and concentrated absorption liquid 
transfer pipe means and having a rotary shaft, 
a rotatively driving means for driving the pump means, 
power take-off means placed in the other of said diluted and concentrated 
liquid transfer pipe means, having a rotary shaft and adapted to receive 
rotative driving power from the absorption liquid flowing through said 
other pipe means, 
wherein the rotary shaft of said power take-off means being connected to 
the rotary shaft of said pump means. 
In the arrangement described above, in the case where the pressure in the 
regeneration unit is higher than that in the absorption unit, the pump 
means is installed in the diluted liquid transfer pipe means and the power 
take-off means is installed in the concentrated absorption liquid transfer 
pipe means. The diluted absorption liquid has its pressure increased by 
the pump means and is then transferred to the regeneration unit. The 
concentrated absorption liquid in the regeneration unit is transferred to 
the absorption unit by said pressure difference via the concentrated 
absorption liquid transfer pipe means. At this time, rotative driving 
power is imparted to the power take-off means by the energy based on the 
difference between the pressures in the regeneration and absorption units, 
and this rotative power is transmitted to the pump means. Thereby, the 
reduction of the pump power is attained, a fact which is economical. 
The circulating amounts of the refrigerant/absorption liquid should always 
be substantially balanced; such balance can be maintained at all times by 
making the pump means and power take-off means the volumetric type, 
independently of variations in the external conditions and variations in 
the rotation speed of the pump means. In the case where the present heat 
exchanging apparatus is mounted on a vehicle or the like and the pump 
means is driven by an enging, the rotation speed will vary to a great 
extent, but the necessary discharge pressure can always be maintained and 
at the same time the power can be efficiently recovered regardless of the 
rotation speed. 
The arrangement of the invention is especially effective for use in 
absorption heat pump using freon as a refrigerant, from the standpoint of 
pumping power saving, though there is almost no pumping power problem with 
the conventional refrigerant/absorbent solution combinations.

EMBODIMENT 
FIG. 1 schematically shows the setup of a first-kind absorption heat pump. 
The first-kind absorption heat pump is a system in which waste heat is 
used as a heat source in an evaporation unit which represents heat 
absorbing process, and in which a heat source in the form of vapor or the 
like whose temperature is higher than that of said waste heat is used in a 
regeneration unit; it is similar to the refrigeration cycle. 
This absorption heat pump comprises an evaporation unit 1 for evaporating a 
freon type refrigerant such as Freon 22, an absorption unit 2 in which the 
refrigerant vapor produced by said evaporation unit 1 is absorbed in an 
absorption liquid (diethylene glycol dimethyl ether), a regeneration unit 
3 in which the diluted absorption liquid which has been diluted by 
absorbing the refrigerant vapor in said absorption unit 2 is overheated to 
evaporate the refrigerant contained therein so as to provide a 
concentrated absorption liquid, a condensation unit 4 in which the 
refrigerant vapor produced in said regeneration unit 3 is condensed to 
provide a refrigerant liquid, a diluted liquid transfer pipe 5 for 
transferring the diluted absorption liquid in the absorption unit 2 to the 
regeneration unit 3, a concentrated liquid transfer pipe 6 for 
transferring the concentrated absorption liquid in the regeneration unit 3 
to the absorption unit 2, a heat exchanger 7 interposed between said two 
transfer pipes 5 and 6 to effect heat recovery by imparting the heat of 
the condensed absorption liquid to the diluted absorption liquid, a 
volumetric type pump (vane pump, gear pump or the like) placed in said 
diluted absorption transfer pipe 5 and driven by a driving device 8 
(electric motor or internal combustion engine), a volumetric type 
hydraulic turbine 11 placed in said condensed absorption liquid transfer 
pipe 6 and having a rotary shaft 11a connected to the rotary shaft 9a of 
said pump 9 through a connecting shaft 10, a refrigerant vapor transfer 
pipe 12 for transferring the refrigerant vapor from said regeneration unit 
3 to the condensation unit 4, and a refrigerant liquid transfer pipe 13 
for transferring the refrigerant liquid from the condensation unit 4 to 
the evaporation unit 1. The numerals 14 and 15 denote pipes for heating 
fluid disposed in the evaporation unit 1. The numerals 16 and 17 denote 
pipes for fluid to be heated, disposed in the absorption and condensation 
units 2 and 4, respectively. 
The operation will now be described. 
The freon vapor produced in the evaporation unit 1 is absorbed in the 
absorption liquid in the absorption unit 2, and the heat generated by this 
absorption is used to heat the fluid to be heated flowing through the pipe 
16. The diluted absorption liquid which contains absorbed freon vapor is 
fed to the regeneration unit 3 by the pump 9 via the diluted absorption 
liquid transfer pipe 5. In the regeneration unit 3, the diluted absorption 
liquid is heated to produce freon vapor. This freon vapor is condensed in 
the condensation unit 4, whereupon it is fed to the evaporation unit 1, 
where it is evaporated again. On the other hand, the concentrated 
absorption liquid produced in the regeneration unit 3 is returned to the 
absorption unit 2 via the concentrated absorption liquid transfer pipe 6 
by the difference between the pressures in the regeneration and absorption 
units 3 and 2, while the hydraulic turbine 11 placed in the concentrated 
absorption liquid transfer pipe 6 is rotated by said pressure difference, 
so as to auxiliarily rotate the pump 9. This means that the energy based 
on the difference between pressures in the regeneration and absorption 
units 3 and 2 is effectively recovered and utilized as the power for 
transferring the diluted absorption liquid. 
FIG. 2 shows examples of cycle curves (Duhring curves) for Freon 22 (R22) 
and diethylene glycol dimethyl ether (DEGDME). It is seen from these 
curves that the pressure difference of Freon 22 with respect to diethylene 
glycol dimethyl ether in a predetermined temperature range is 1 MPa, a 
high value. 
A concrete example of the magnitude of the power to be recovered will now 
be described. The calculations are made on the conditions described with 
reference to Table 1 showing conventional examples. 
The theoretical required power for transferring the diluted absorption 
liquid from the absorption unit 2 to the regeneration unit 3 is 0.36 
kW/Rt; thus, if the pump efficiency is assumed to be 75%, then the 
required pump power is 0.36/.075=0.48 kW. 
On the other hand, if it is assumed that the flow rate of the concentrated 
absorption liquid is 90% of that of the diluted absorption liquid and that 
the efficiency of the hydraulic turbine 11 is 70%, then the power 
recovered by the hydraulic turbine 11 is (0.36 
kW/Rt).times.0.9.times.0.7=0.23 kW. 
Thus, as a result of the use of the hydraulic turbine 11, the power 
required of the electric motor 8 is 0.48-0.23=0.25 kW/Rt, a value which is 
about 52% of the power required to drive the pump 9. This means that the 
pump power has been saved by 48%. 
In the case where the absorption type heat exchanger apparatus of the 
present invention is mounted on an automobile, the pump is driven by the 
engine of the automobile, and the engine jacket cooling heat, exhaust gas 
heat and the like are used as a heat source for the regeneration unit. 
Therefore, the pressures in the regeneration and evaporation units are 
dependent on the prevailing temperature conditions associated therewith. 
On the other hand, the rotation speed of the pump is dependent on that of 
the engine, while the delivery pressure of the pump is dependent on said 
conditions regardless of the rotation speed; therefore, the apparatus of 
the invention is more effective in the volumetric type in which the 
delivery pressure is determined without being influenced by the rotation 
speed. 
In some cases, the pump and turbine can be installed close to each other or 
integrated together while replacing the two rotary shafts by a single 
shaft. 
In the above embodiment, the invention has been applied to a first-kind 
absorption heat pump; it is equally applicable to a second-kind absorption 
heat pump. The second-kind absorption heat pump is a system which uses 
waste heat as a heat source for the evaporation and regeneration units 
representing endothermic process, intended to utilize the heat produced in 
the absorption unit which heats up to a higher temperature. In this case, 
since the pressure in the absorption unit is higher, the concentrated 
absorption liquid transfer pipe is provided with the pump and the diluted 
absorption liquid transfer pipe with the turbine.