Refrigerant recovery system and recovery cart thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12523401-B2
Application number	US-202318332501-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 9, 2023
Priority date	Jun 9, 2023
Publication date	Jan 13, 2026
Grant date	Jan 13, 2026

Abstract

A refrigerant recovery system includes a refrigerant circuit with a vacuum pump, a first connection port, a second connection port, an exhaust port, and multiple-way valves that selectively fluidly connect said ports to the vacuum pump. The multiple-way valves have a first configuration, a second configuration, and a third configuration for fluidly connecting the ports to a suction inlet and a discharge outlet of the vacuum pump. A method is for recovering refrigerant from a refrigerant circuit using a refrigerant recovery system. The method includes operating the refrigerant recovery system in a liquid recovery configuration to transfer liquid refrigerant in an refrigerant circuit into one or more recovery cylinders and operating the refrigerant recovery system in a gas recovery configuration to transfer gaseous refrigerant in the refrigerant circuit into the one or more recovery cylinders. A recovery cart includes a transfer circuit of a refrigerant recovery system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A refrigerant recovery system, comprising:
a transfer circuit including:
a vacuum pump including a suction inlet and a discharge outlet,
a plurality of ports including a first connection port, a second connection port, and an exhaust port, and
a plurality of multiple-way valves selectively connecting the first connection port, the second connection port, and the exhaust port to the vacuum pump and having:
a first configuration that fluidly connects the first connection port to the suction inlet of the vacuum pump, and fluidly connects the second connection port to the discharge outlet of the vacuum pump,
a second configuration that fluidly connects the first connection port to the discharge outlet of the vacuum pump, and fluidly connects the second connection port to the suction inlet of the vacuum pump, and
a third configuration that fluidly connects the suction inlet of the vacuum pump to each of the first connection port and the second connection port, and fluidly connects the discharge outlet to the exhaust port.

2 . The refrigerant recovery system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a refrigerant recovery cart including the transfer circuit.

3 . The refrigerant recovery system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a heating tank configured to evaporate liquid refrigerant prior to flowing into the transfer circuit.

4 . The refrigerant recovery system of claim 1 , wherein the second configuration is a liquid recovery configuration for recovering liquid refrigerant from a refrigerant circuit.

5 . The refrigerant recovery system of claim 1 , wherein the transfer circuit includes a bypass valve configured to selectively connect the first connection port and the second connection port.

6 . The refrigerant recovery system of claim 1 , wherein
the transfer circuit includes a condenser, and in the second configuration, the discharge outlet of the vacuum pump is fluidly connected to the first connection port via the condenser, the second configuration being a gaseous refrigerant recovery configuration.

7 . The refrigerant recovery system of claim 1 , wherein in the first configuration, the vacuum pump is configured to suction gaseous refrigerant into the transfer circuit through the second connection port and to discharge liquid refrigerant from the transfer circuit through the first connection port, the gaseous refrigerant flowing from the vacuum pump to the first connection port being condensed, by a condenser, into the liquid refrigerant.

8 . The refrigerant recovery system of claim 1 , wherein in the third configuration, the vacuum pump is configured to discharge remaining refrigerant in the transfer circuit through the exhaust port.

9 . The refrigerant recovery system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of multiple-way valves includes three or more of the multiple-way valves.

10 . The refrigerant recovery system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of multiple-way valves includes two or more three-way valves.

11 . A method of recovering refrigerant from a refrigerant circuit using a refrigerant recovery system, the refrigerant recovery system including a transfer circuit with a vacuum pump, a first connection port, a second connection port, an exhaust port, and a plurality of multiple-way valves, the method comprising:
operating the refrigerant recovery system in a liquid recovery configuration to transfer liquid refrigerant in the refrigerant circuit into one or more recovery cylinders, which includes:
adjusting the plurality of multiple-way valves such that a discharge outlet of the vacuum pump is fluidly connected to the refrigerant circuit via the second connection port, and a suction inlet of the vacuum pump is fluidly connected to the one or more recovery cylinders via the first connection port, and
the vacuum pump suctioning from the one or more recovery cylinders and discharging into the refrigerant circuit; and
operating the refrigerant recovery system in a gas recovery configuration to transfer gaseous refrigerant in the refrigerant circuit into the one or more recovery cylinders, which includes:
adjusting the plurality of multiple-way valves such that the discharge outlet of the vacuum pump is fluidly connected to the one or more recovery cylinders via the first connection port, and the suction inlet of the vacuum pump is fluidly connected to the refrigerant circuit via the second connection port, and
the vacuum pump suctioning from the refrigerant circuit and discharging into the one or more recovery cylinders.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein
the operating of the refrigerant recovery system in the liquid recovery configuration includes fluidly connecting the one or more recovery cylinders to the refrigerant circuit with a hose, and the vacuum pump suctioning from the one or more recovery cylinders and discharging into the refrigerant circuit causes the liquid refrigerant to flow through the hose from the refrigerant circuit to the one or more recovery cylinders.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein
the transfer circuit includes a condenser, in the gas recovery configuration, the discharge outlet of the vacuum pump is fluidly connected to the first connection port via the condenser, and the transferring of the gaseous refrigerant in the refrigerant circuit from the refrigerant circuit into the one or more recovery cylinders includes condensing, with the condenser, the gaseous refrigerant into liquid refrigerant as the gaseous refrigerant flows through the transfer circuit.

14 . The method of claim 11 wherein
the refrigerant recovery system includes a heating tank,
in the gas recovery configuration, the second connection port is fluidly connected to the refrigerant circuit via the heating tank, and
the operating of the refrigerant recovery system in the gas recovery configuration includes evaporating, with the heating tank, liquid refrigerant mixed with the gaseous refrigerant suctioned from the refrigerant circuit.

15 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
operating the refrigerant recovery system in a gas charging configuration to transfer the gaseous refrigerant in the one or more recovery cylinders into the refrigerant circuit; and operating the refrigerant recovery system in a liquid charging configuration to transfer the liquid refrigerant in the one or more recovery cylinders into the refrigerant circuit.

16 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the refrigerant recovery system includes a refrigerant recovery cart with the transfer circuit.

17 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the transfer circuit includes a bypass valve configured to selectively connect the first connection port and the second connection port, the bypass valve being closed in the liquid recovery configuration and in the gas recovery configuration.

18 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the transfer circuit includes a bypass valve, and the method further comprises:
operating the refrigerant recovery system in a gas self-evacuation configuration, which includes:
adjusting the plurality of multiple-way valves and the bypass valve such that the suction inlet of the vacuum pump is fluidly connected to both the first connection port and the second connection port, and the discharge outlet of the vacuum pump is fluidly connected to the exhaust port, within the transfer circuit,
discharging the gaseous refrigerant remaining in the transfer circuit into the one or more recovery cylinders via the exhaust port.

19 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the plu

Assignees

• Trane Int Inc

Inventors

• King Matt

Classifications

• F25B41/20

  Disposition of valves, e.g. of on-off valves or flow control valves (expansion valves F25B41/31) · CPC title

• F25B2345/002

  Collecting refrigerant from a cycle · CPC title

• F25B2345/003

  Control issues for charging or collecting refrigerant to or from a cycle · CPC title

• F25B45/00 Primary

  Arrangements for charging or discharging refrigerant · CPC title