Refrigeration heat reclaim

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12025357-B2
Application number	US-202017007304-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 31, 2020
Priority date	Feb 24, 2015
Publication date	Jul 2, 2024
Grant date	Jul 2, 2024

Abstract

Provided are a refrigeration heat reclaim unit and method, comprising a heat exchanger, comprising a refrigerant inlet that receives a flow of refrigerant having a first state; a refrigerant outlet that outputs the flow of refrigerant having a second state; a water loop inlet that receives a flow of liquid at a first temperature; a water loop outlet that outputs the flow of liquid from the reclaim heat exchanger at a second temperature that is greater than the first temperature in response to the flow of refrigerant. The refrigeration reclaim unit also comprises a refrigerant flow control device having outputs to the refrigerant inlet and an air-cooled condenser, respectively for controlling the flow of refrigerant to at least one of the refrigerant inlet and the air-cooled condenser for maintaining a predetermined flow quality value at the refrigerant outlet.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A refrigerant heat reclaim unit, comprising:
a heat exchanger that transitions a refrigerant from a vapor state to a liquid state;
a flow control device for controlling a first flow of the refrigerant to the heat exchanger and a second flow of the refrigerant to an air-cooled condenser to provide at least one of a heat or a pressure balance between the heat exchanger and the air-cooled condenser, the flow control device comprising:
an input port for receiving the refrigerant from a refrigerant compressor;
a first output port for directing the first flow of the refrigerant to an inlet of the heat exchanger;
a second output port for directing the second flow of the refrigerant to the air-cooled condenser; and
a bypass device between the input port and the second output port that, upon activation in response to a high refrigerant temperature or a high refrigerant pressure, outputs a proportion of the refrigerant to the air-cooled condenser and bypasses the heat exchanger; and

a controller connected to both the flow control device and the heat exchanger for determining a ratio value of mass flow rates at the inlet and an outlet of the heat exchanger, respectively, to maintain a predetermined flow quality value at the outlet, wherein the controller further controls the flow control device to provide a heat balance between the air-cooled condenser and the heat exchanger, wherein the heat balance includes a temperature condition at the heat exchanger corresponding with a target saturated temperature and a pressure condition corresponding with a target pressure condition at the outlet of the heat exchanger.

2. The refrigeration heat reclaim unit of claim 1 , wherein the flow control device is a modulating, linear valve that performs an analog modulation operation.

3. The refrigeration heat reclaim unit of claim 1 , wherein the controller monitors refrigerant pressure and temperature at the inlet of the heat exchanger and the outlet of the heat exchanger for controlling the first flow and the second flow of the refrigerant.

4. The refrigeration heat reclaim unit of claim 1 , wherein the flow control device controls the first flow and the second flow of the refrigerant simultaneously to the inlet of the heat exchanger and the air-cooled condenser for maintaining a predetermined flow quality value at the outlet of the heat exchanger.

5. The refrigeration heat reclaim unit of claim 1 , wherein the flow control device is modulated by the controller for outputting proportions of the refrigerant to the condenser and the heat exchanger, respectively, until a measured temperature and/or pressure at the outlet changes to equal a reference pressure-temperature (PT) setpoint.

6. The refrigeration heat reclaim unit of claim 1 , wherein the controller determines the ratio value of a mass flow rate at the inlet of the heat exchanger to a mass flow rate at the outlet of the heat exchanger and outputs the ratio value to the flow control device to provide an integral heat balance.

7. The refrigeration heat reclaim unit of claim 1 , wherein the heat exchanger is oriented in a vertical or horizontal configuration.

Assignees

• Walmart Apollo Llc

Inventors

• Mcclendon James Patrick

Classifications

• F25B2700/21

  Temperatures · CPC title

• F25B2700/19

  Pressures · CPC title

• F25B2700/133

  through the condenser · CPC title

• F25B45/00

  Arrangements for charging or discharging refrigerant · CPC title

• F25B6/02

  arranged in parallel · CPC title