Refrigeration heat reclaim

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12281830-B2
Application number	US-202418666150-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 16, 2024
Priority date	Feb 24, 2015
Publication date	Apr 22, 2025
Grant date	Apr 22, 2025

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 system for controlling a flow of refrigerant at a refrigeration system, comprising:
a condenser for exchanging heat;
a heat reclaim unit that recovers at least a portion of heat exchanged at the condenser;
a first sensor that measures a temperature and pressure of a first flow of refrigerant at an inlet of the heat reclaim unit;
a second sensor that measures a temperature and pressure of a second flow of refrigerant at an outlet of the heat reclaim unit;
a controller that compares the measured temperature and pressure at the outlet to a reference pressure-temperature setpoint; and
a refrigerant flow control device coupled to both the condenser and the heat reclaim unit, and modulated by the controller for outputting proportions of the refrigerant to the condenser and the heat reclaim unit, respectively, until the measured pressure changes to equal a reference pressure of the pressure-temperature setpoint or until the measured temperature changes to equal a reference temperature of the pressure-temperature setpoint.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the refrigerant flow control device is modulated by the controller controlling the flow of refrigerant to at least one of the inlet of the heat reclaim unit and the condenser for maintaining a predetermined flow quality value at the outlet.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the refrigerant flow control device controls the flow of refrigerant simultaneously to the inlet of the heat reclaim unit and the condenser for maintaining a predetermined flow quality value at the outlet of the heat reclaim unit.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the refrigerant flow control device receives at the refrigerant flow control device the flow of refrigerant from a refrigerant compressor, outputs from a first output port a first proportion of the flow of refrigerant to the heat reclaim unit, and outputs from a second output port a second proportion of the flow of refrigerant to the condenser.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the inlet of the heat reclaim unit receives the first flow of refrigerant having a vapor state; and outputs at the outlet of the heat reclaim unit the second flow of refrigerant having a liquid state.

6. The system of claim 1 , further comprising coupling a bypass device between the inlet and the outlet that outputs a proportion of refrigerant to the condenser in response to a high refrigerant temperature or high refrigerant pressure.

7. A method for controlling a flow of refrigerant at a refrigeration system, comprising:
receiving, by a controller from a first sensor, a first measurement of temperature and pressure of a first flow of refrigerant at an inlet of a heat reclaim unit;
receiving, by a controller from a second sensor, a second measurement of temperature and pressure of a second flow of refrigerant at an outlet of the heat reclaim unit;
comparing, by the controller, the first measurement and the second measurement to a reference pressure-temperature setpoint; and
modulating, by the controller, a refrigerant flow control device coupled to a condenser and the heat reclaim unit in response to the comparison, the refrigerant flow control device outputting proportions of refrigerant to the condenser and the heat reclaim unit, respectively, until updated measurements equal the reference pressure-temperature setpoint.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein modulating the refrigerant flow control device comprises controlling the first flow of the refrigerant to at least one of the inlet of the heat reclaim unit and the condenser for maintaining a predetermined flow quality value at the outlet of the heat reclaim unit.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the condenser is an air-cooled condenser.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein modulating the refrigerant flow control device comprises:
receiving at the refrigerant flow control device the first flow of refrigerant from a refrigerant compressor;
outputting from a first output port a first proportion of the first flow of refrigerant to the heat reclaim unit; and
outputting from a second output port a second proportion of the first flow of refrigerant to an air cooled condenser.

11. The method of claim 7 , further comprising monitoring refrigerant pressure and temperature at each of the inlet and the outlet for controlling refrigerant flows.

12. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
receiving at a refrigerant inlet of a heat exchanger a flow of refrigerant having a first state; and
outputting at a refrigerant outlet of the heat exchanger the flow of refrigerant having a second state.

13. The method of claim 7 , further comprising coupling a bypass device between the refrigerant inlet and the refrigerant outlet that outputs a proportion of refrigerant to an air-cooled condenser in response to a high refrigerant temperature or a high refrigerant pressure, wherein the method further comprises controlling the bypass device to bypass the refrigerant flow control device with respect to the proportion of the flow of refrigerant and to output the proportion of the flow of refrigerant directly to the condenser when a determination is made that a measured pressure is greater than a predetermined refrigerant high pressure limit, or a measured fluid temperature is greater than a predetermined high temperature limit.

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