Method and apparatus for recovering the refrigerant from an air conditioning system

Abstract

An apparatus for recovering refrigerant (230) from an air conditioning system includes a collector for connecting hydraulically a high pressure branch and a low pressure branch, provided in the air conditioning system, with a fluid feeding duct of the fluid into the apparatus. The apparatus also has an evaporator arranged to separate the refrigerant from impurities, through an evaporation of residual liquid fractions of the refrigerant obtaining a purified refrigerant that rises towards an upper part of the evaporator, from impurities that are concentrated in a lower part of the evaporator.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to a method for recovering a refrigerant from an air conditioning system, for example an A / C system of cars.[0002]Furthermore, the invention relates to an apparatus for recovering, depurating and refilling a refrigerant into said air conditioning system.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]As known, the refrigerant present in conditioning systems, in particular A / C systems on board of vehicles such as cars, is periodically recovered and recycled for eliminating impurities accumulated during the operation. A type of recovering and regenerating machine is disclosed in EP1367343A1.[0004]Furthermore, for opposing the greenhouse effect due to the dispersion of the refrigerant gas used in the conditioning systems, laws and regulations define more and more restrictive limits on the waste gas recovering processes, like for refrigerant R-134a currently known in most of the air conditioning systems of cars. In particular, the presently kno...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides an apparatus for efficiently recovering refrigerant from an air conditioning system without leaving a significant amount of refrigerant in the storage container. Additionally, the apparatus improves the speed of fluid through the system and reduces the time required for regeneration. The technical effects involve improved cost-effectiveness and improved efficiency in the recovery process.

Problems solved by technology

A further drawback concerned with the safety of the recovering and regenerating steps is concerned with the fact that refrigerant HFO 1234yf is inflammable.

The discharge of small amounts of refrigerant, which then would make a mix with the oxygen present in the air, can generate a gaseous mixture capable of exploding or catching fire, with consequent danger for objects and people.

The above described standards cannot be easily accomplished by the existing recovering machines.

A particularly disadvantageous situation, cannot fulfill such standards, occurs when the temperature around the air conditioning system is very low, at which is even difficult to recover 90% of the refrigerant.

In fact, at such a low external temperature, the refrigerant present in the system is mainly in liquid form, and then difficult to recover.

However, these circuits make the air conditioning system less safe and more expensive.

Operations of heating the system are also risky and complex, since the storage reservoir of the refrigerant of the car A / C systems are normally located in not easily accessible zones, behind the motor.

For reaching these conditions, however, a high increase of the time for recovering and treating the refrigerant is necessary.

It must be noted that the less is the refrigerant that remains after the step of recovering, the more is refrigerant that is discharged in atmosphere, with the above described drawbacks of polluting, risk of catching fire, and waste of expensive refrigerant.

An expensive solution would be to use a high power compressor for creating a maximum suction of the refrigerant in a short time.

However, this solution would increase too much the costs of the machine, owing not only to the higher cost of the compressor, but also to an overall a more robust sizing of suction system to bear the more powerful action of the compressor.

Such solution, furthermore, would not solve completely the above described problems, and would complicate the regeneration process.

Images