Dual phase condenser system

Abstract

The present invention relates to a dual phase condenser system, including an air-cooled portion, a water-air-cooled portion and a fan. The air-cooled portion can be further divided into two sectors, wherein the external air, drawn by the fan, passing through the second sector of the air-cooled portion first then to the water-air-cooled portion. The ability of air absorbing water vapor can be increased significantly in the water-air-cooled portion due to the increase of vapor pressure deficit (VPD) of the air passing through the air-cooled portion of the condenser. The dual phase condenser system of this invention is a 3-stage air-cooled condenser when shortage of water occurred. By separating gaseous and liquid refrigerants, the ability of removing thermal energy of the refrigerants can be increased. This invention required no extra fans, thus the EER can be increased when compared with the traditional one stage or patented two-stage air-cooled condenser. The dual phase condenser system of this invention is a 2-stage air-cooled plus 1-stage water-air-cooled condenser when water supply is not a constraint. This design retains the advantage of the water-air-cooled condenser when water is available and avoids its inherit disadvantage when no water is available or under humid condition, thus making it more functional than the patented water-air-cooled condenser.

Description

[0001] Condenser is one of the devices in an air conditioning and refrigerating system. It is a chamber for refrigerant to change state from superheated gas to saturated liquid and / or sub-cooled liquid by dissipating heat. This invention relates to dual phase condenser system, which consists of an air-cooled portion, a water-air-cooled portion and a fan. The air-cooled portion can be further divided into two sectors. Through the convergence of higher number of refrigerant pipes to a less number of pipes, the gaseous and liquid refrigerants can be separated based on different compressibility. The amount of thermal energy removed of the refrigerants can be increased without using extra fans, thus the EER can be increased when compared with the traditional one stage or patented two-stage air-cooled condenser. The water vapor absorbing ability of air can be increased significantly in the water-air-cooled portion due to the increase of vapor pressure deficit (VPD) of the air passing thro...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

In addition, during the course of persistently dissipating heat of the air-cooled condenser, the temperature gradient, between air and refrigerants, becomes smaller and the efficiency of dissipating heat begins deteriorating, causing the liquid-vapor-ratio of the saturated refrigerants leaving the condenser cannot be raised to a higher extent.

This is the reason why the EER of traditional air-cooled air conditioning and refrigerating system cannot be considerably raised.

Therefore, both states cannot be efficiently dissipating heat; moreover, a pressure loss caused from the friction between liquid refrigerants and inner surface of pipe is often neglected, and this pressure loss results in great pressure drop before entering the expansion valve.

This is another drawback of such a traditional air conditioning and refrigerating system.

The capability of heat dissipating of the 2nd stage condenser is not as good as the 1st stage, thus requiring high-speed fans to remove necessary amount of thermal energy with less pressure drop within the system.

However, compared to the conventional air conditioning and refrigerating system, due to the fact that this design requires extra condenser and extra high-speed fans, it increases power consumption; thus, there is no great improvement of EER.

It can even arise potential danger if the pressure on the high-pressure side greatly increases due to poor heat dissipation.

The humid air has little space for water absorption, thus the capability of removing thermal energy of the refrigerants inside the condenser thru the evaporative cooling process is greatly limited for the conventional water-air-cooled condensers.

Due to the above drawbacks, i.e. for the conventional air-cooled air conditioner, its energy efficiency EER cannot be greatly raised and for water-air-cooled type, it cannot be normally operated during the shortage of water or in high humidity conditions.

The dry bulb temperature of the Air passing through the air-cooled portion of the dual phase condenser will be increased and the relative humidity will be decreased, thus leading to the increase of the vapor pressure deficit (VPD) of the air.

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