Patent ID: 8857207

Claim:
A refrigerant dryer, in particular a compressed air refrigerant dryer, for drying a gaseous fluid while cooling the gaseous fluid using a refrigerant, the dryer comprising: a pressure fluid-refrigerant agent-heat exchanger ( 30 ) in which a cooling of the gaseous fluid takes place directly or indirectly by a refrigerant conveyed in a primary loop ( 16 ), one or more refrigerant compressor/compressors ( 24 ) for operating the primary loop, a cold accumulator ( 13 ) having an accumulator-side heat exchanger ( 20 ) which couples an accumulator discharge fluid to a cold accumulator medium ( 14 ), an entirety of the cold accumulator ( 13 ) being arranged, with respect to a direction of gravity, above the pressure fluid-refrigerant agent-heat exchanger ( 30 ); and a discharge loop driven only by gravity-induced convection of an accumulator discharge fluid in a discharge state wherein the one or more refrigerant compressor/compressors ( 24 ) is not operating, wherein the pressure fluid-refrigerant agent-heat exchanger ( 30 ) and the cold accumulator ( 13 ) are fluidically connected or may be brought into fluidic connection via the discharge loop ( 15 ) such that the accumulator discharge fluid having an increased heat content is conveyed through the discharge loop ( 15 ) for heat emission to the cold accumulator ( 13 ), emits heat there, and subsequently, having a reduced heat content, is again conveyed to the pressure fluid-refrigerant agent-heat exchanger ( 30 ), and wherein the accumulator discharge fluid condenses in the discharge loop while emitting heat to the cold accumulator ( 13 ) and evaporates in the pressure fluid-refrigerant agent-heat exchanger ( 30 ) while absorbing heat.