JP3214989B2 - Refrigerant recovery device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the recovery of refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment from refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment and equipment that are used for inspection and repair of refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment that uses chlorofluorocarbon refrigerant, or disposed of.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to recover a refrigerant liquid from a refrigerant liquid stagnant portion such as a receiver of a refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment, a high-pressure refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment is used to reduce the pressure by a vacuum pump or the like or to reduce the pressure in proportion to the temperature. A differential pressure method that uses a pressure difference to recover a low-pressure refrigerant storage cylinder cooled by a coolant or the like so that the refrigerant liquid is once vaporized in a heat exchanger and sucked into a refrigerant recovery device as refrigerant gas A heat exchanger system is used in which the refrigerant is compressed, condensed and liquefied, and then collected in a refrigerant storage cylinder. Comparing these two methods, the differential pressure method is superior in terms of efficiency such as recovery speed and economic effect, and the closest known examples are a method of transferring and collecting a recovered refrigerant and a refrigerant recovery apparatus disclosed in JP-A-3-263565. There is a method of cooling the refrigerant storage container.

[0003]

This known example has a problem that the decompression by the vacuum pump of the refrigerant storage cylinder and the cooling and decompression by the cooling agent, which are conventionally generally performed, increase the equipment cost and are troublesome. There is a method devised as a method to solve this, in which the refrigerant liquid condensed and liquefied and collected in the built-in receiver is depressurized in the refrigerant storage container by the built-in compressor, and the refrigerant is utilized by utilizing the differential pressure. In this method, liquid is transferred from a built-in liquid receiver to a refrigerant storage container.

[0004] At present, how to recover Freon refrigerant from a refrigeration / air-conditioning facility without releasing it to the atmosphere is a global concern from the viewpoint of environmental conservation. In Japan, the refrigerant recovery used for this refrigerant recovery is considered. Only the devices that have passed the inspection conducted by the inspection bureau of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry are excluded from the application of the High Pressure Gas Control Law.

[0005] The refrigerant recovery device to be inspected by the Trade and Industry Inspection Office combines a unit for liquefying the refrigerant gas and the separated refrigerant storage container in a pair, and the maximum of the storage container specified by the High Pressure Gas Control Law is the maximum. When the refrigerant corresponding to 90% of the internal volume of the storage container, which is the storage amount, is stored, the refrigerant is filled and replaced with another storage container, so that the transfer as in the known example is not required. Further, in this known example, since a closed cycle is formed by the refrigerant recovery unit and the storage container, the refrigerant liquid is originally collected for the refrigerant liquid from the refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment and the refrigerant gas remaining after the refrigerant liquid is collected is collected. There is a problem that cannot be dealt with. The method of cooling the refrigerant storage container by the refrigerant recovery device has a disadvantage that a special refrigerant storage container (four entrances and valves) is required.

As a conventional example suitable for recovering a refrigerant in a gaseous state, there is a refrigerant recovery unit shown in FIG. The refrigerant recovery unit includes a gas inlet valve 1, a check valve 34 (or a solenoid valve), a strainer 2, a suction pressure adjusting valve 3, a compressor 4, an oil separator 5, a condenser 6, a sight glass 7, a check valve. 8, a refrigerant outlet unit 9 constituting a refrigeration cycle by a liquid outlet valve 9, a liquid valve 11 into which a refrigerant liquid flows, and a two-port valve having both a gas valve 12 used for discharging non-condensable gas are provided on the inlet side. And a refrigerant storage container 13.

[0007] Refrigeration and air conditioning equipment 1 using a refrigerant such as chlorofluorocarbon
Refrigeration and air conditioning equipment 1
5, the refrigerant gas section 16 and the gas inlet valve 1 of the refrigerant recovery device in the low-pressure refrigerant gas section 16 and the refrigerant liquid retaining section 17 such as a high-pressure receiver are connected by an appropriate connecting pipe 18 such as a rubber hose. Do it.

When the gas inlet valve 1, the liquid outlet valve 9, and the liquid valve 11 provided on the refrigerant storage container 13 are all opened and the refrigerant recovery device is operated with the gas valve 12 closed,
The refrigerant gas sucked from the refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment 15 flows as indicated by the dashed arrow to remove impurities such as dust by the strainer 2,
The pressure is adjusted by the suction pressure adjusting valve 3 so as not to exceed a certain pressure, and is sucked and compressed by the compressor 4. The refrigerant gas compressed by the compressor 4 is condensed and liquefied by the condenser 6 and collected in the refrigerant storage container 13 through the sight glass 7, the check valve 8, the liquid outlet valve 9, and the connection pipe 14 for checking the state of the refrigerant.・ It is stored.

The internal oil separator 5 of the equipment constituting the refrigeration cycle is provided for the purpose of preventing a failure due to a shortage of lubricating oil due to continuous discharge of a very small amount of lubricating oil in the compressor 4 together with refrigerant gas. It functions to separate the refrigerant and the lubricating oil and return the separated lubricating oil to the compressor 4. The check valve 8 is provided for preventing the refrigerant from flowing backward from the refrigerant storage container 13 to the refrigerant recovery unit 10 when the operation of the refrigerant recovery device is stopped.

According to the present invention, the use of a refrigerant recovery apparatus as shown in FIG. 5 requires the equipment costs, complicated work, and a special refrigerant storage container, which are disadvantages of the conventional system as described above. It is an object of the present invention to provide a refrigerant recovery apparatus which can compensate for the drawbacks and can recover the refrigerant liquid and the refrigerant gas without using complicated equipment from the refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment which is the original purpose.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is to be able to recover the refrigerant in both the form of liquid and gas from the refrigeration air conditioning purposes, to achieve this purpose, refrigerant recovery instrumentation according to the invention
Location is the refrigerant in the refrigerating and air-conditioning equipment using refrigerant Freon, compressors, oil separator, the refrigerant recovery apparatus you collected by refrigerant recovery unit having a refrigeration cycle in which a condenser is sequentially connected, inlet set the liquid valve and gas valve on the side
A refrigerant storage vessel digits, or refrigerant gas portion of the refrigerating and air-conditioning equipment
A gas inlet valve to which the connecting pipes are connected;
A gas delivery bar connected to the gas valve in parallel with the valve;
And a refrigerant liquid storage section of the refrigeration and air conditioning equipment.
A liquid introduction valve and connected to the liquid introduction valve via a check valve
And through the check valve to the condenser through another check valve.
A stop valve connected thereto and a decompression connected in parallel with the stop valve
A device, between the check valve and the stop valve, and the liquid valve;
A liquid outlet valve connected to the refrigeration and air conditioning system.
When recovering refrigerant from equipment, the liquid valve, gas valve
Valve, gas inlet valve, gas delivery valve, liquid inlet valve and
Open the liquid outlet valve and operate the refrigerant recovery unit
Characterized in that it.

[0012]

When recovering the refrigerant liquid from the refrigerant liquid storage section of the refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment, one gas inlet valve to which a connecting pipe from the refrigerant gas part of the refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment on the inlet side of the refrigerant recovery unit is connected is closed. The other gas delivery valve to which the connection pipe from the gas valve of the refrigerant storage container is connected is opened, and a liquid introduction valve to which the connection pipe from the refrigerant liquid storage section of the refrigeration and air conditioning equipment is connected; all of the liquid valve and gas valve provided in the liquid outlet valve and a refrigerant storage vessel to be refrigerant liquid outlet of the vessel is opened, to operate the refrigerant recovery apparatus. Refrigerant storage container refrigerant gas is sucked by the compressor of the refrigerant recovery unit Turkey
As a result , the pressure in the refrigerant storage container is reduced, and the refrigerant liquid in the refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment flows from the high-pressure refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment to the low-pressure refrigerant storage container to be collected and stored.

The gas sucked from the refrigerant storage container is compressed by a compressor to become a high-pressure refrigerant gas, oil is separated by an oil separator, and condensed and liquefied by a condenser. However, since this condensate has a high pressure, if the condensate is returned to the refrigerant storage container as it is, the pressure of the refrigerant storage container which has been decompressed will increase. Therefore, the stop valve provided on the condenser outlet side is closed, and the condensed liquid is returned through the pressure reducing device provided in parallel with the stop valve. Thereby, the junction of the refrigerant liquid from the refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment upstream of the sight glass and the condensed liquid from the condenser is kept at a low pressure. When the internal pressure of the refrigerant storage container is not continuously reduced, the internal pressure of the refrigerant liquid gradually increases as the refrigerant liquid is stored. The low pressure is maintained by the cooling effect by the effect of removing the heat of vaporization at the time of evaporation. Thus, the flow of the refrigerant liquid is not hindered by securing the differential pressure between the refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment and the refrigerant storage container.

[0014] When recovering the refrigerant gas from the refrigerating and air-conditioning equipment, the liquid valve of the gas inlet valve and the refrigerant storage container connection pipe is connected from the refrigerant gas of the refrigerating and air-conditioning equipment together opened, other of the coolant In the case of recovering the liquid, the valve that has been opened is closed and the refrigerant recovery device is operated. The refrigerant gas is condensed in the condenser of the refrigerant recovery unit, and a stop valve provided in parallel with the pressure reducing device is opened at the outlet of the condenser, and the condensed liquid is pumped , collected and stored in the refrigerant storage container.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[0016] Figure 1 is a refrigeration cycle system diagram showing an embodiment of a refrigerant recovery apparatus according to the present invention, refrigerant recovery unit 10a in the recovery device, Oh the same structure as the refrigerant recovery unit 10 shown in FIG. 5 You. The refrigerant recovery device according to the present invention includes a gas delivery valve 19 connected in parallel with the gas inlet valve 1 on the gas inlet side of the refrigerant recovery unit 10a , a liquid introduction valve 20 connected to the refrigerant liquid retention part 17 of the refrigeration and air conditioning equipment 15 , Check valve 2 provided downstream of the valve 20
1. A stop valve 22 is provided downstream of the condenser of the recovery unit 10a.
And a decompression device 23. The sight glass 7 can observe both the refrigerant liquid from the refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment 15 and the refrigerant liquid condensed and liquefied in the condenser 6 as a part of the refrigerant liquid recovery function unit 26.
It is provided on the inlet side of the refrigerant storage container 13.

The gas delivery valve 19 is connected to the gas valve 12 of the refrigerant storage container 13 by a connecting pipe 24, and the refrigerant liquid retaining portion 17 of the refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment 15 is connected to the refrigerant storage container 13.
A liquid inlet valve 20 are connected by a connection pipe 2 5.

When recovering the refrigerant liquid from the refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment 15, the gas inlet valve 1 and the stop valve 22 downstream of the condenser are closed, and the gas delivery valve 19, the liquid introduction valve 20, the liquid outlet valve 9, the liquid valve 11, The refrigerant recovery device is operated by opening all the gas valves 12.

The refrigerant gas in the refrigerant storage container 13 is supplied to the gas valve 12 to the connecting pipe 24 to the gas delivery valve 19 to the check valve 34 in accordance with the operation of the compressor 4 of the refrigerant recovery unit 10 a.
(Or electromagnetic valve) internal gas is sucked as shown by the solid line arrows in the order of ~ strainer 2 pressure regulating valve 3 compressor 4, cold
The pressure in the medium storage container 13 decreases. High refrigerant gas-pressure separated an oil by oil separator 5 compressed by the compressor 4,
Although is condensed and liquefied by the condenser 6, in order to condensate the pressure of the refrigerant storage container 13 the pressure was reduced much trouble and back to the left refrigerant reservoir 13 and maintaining the state higher pressure rises, the valve 22 The pressure is reduced by the pressure reducing device 23 while being closed ,
The refrigerant storage container 13 is returned to the refrigerant storage container 13 so as to maintain the refrigerant storage container 13 at a low pressure.

[0020] Frozen refrigerant liquid of refrigerant liquid retention portion 17 of the air conditioning equipment 15, refrigeration and air conditioning equipment 15 refrigerant liquid retention portion 17 to connecting pipe 25 to liquid inlet valve 2 by a pressure difference of the refrigerant storage vessel 13
0 to check valve 21 to sight glass 7 to liquid outlet valve 9 to connecting pipe 14 to liquid valve 11 to refrigerant storage container 13 in the order indicated by solid arrows, and are collected and stored in refrigerant storage container 13. The check valves 8 and 21 control the refrigerant liquid in the refrigerant storage container 13 not to flow back to the refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment 15 and the condenser 6.

When recovering the refrigerant gas from the refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment 15, the gas valve 12, the gas delivery valve 19, and the liquid introduction valve 20 of the refrigerant storage container 13 are closed, and the gas inlet valve 1, the stop valve 22, the liquid outlet valve 9, The liquid valve 11 is opened to operate the refrigerant recovery device.

The refrigerant gas of the refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment 15 passes through the refrigerant gas section 16 and the connecting pipe 18, is drawn into the refrigerant recovery unit 10a, condensed and liquefied in the condenser 6, and passes through the connecting pipe 14, as in the description of FIG. The refrigerant is collected and stored in the refrigerant storage container 13.

When the refrigerant gas and the refrigerant liquid are simultaneously recovered, the stop valve 22 is closed, and the degree of opening and closing of the gas inlet valve 1 is determined as follows.
Simultaneous recovery of gas and liquid can be performed by performing feedback control based on the result of the pressure detection in the refrigerant storage container 13 so as to always maintain the pressure in the refrigerant storage container 13 at a low pressure.

FIG. 2 is a refrigeration cycle system diagram showing an embodiment in which the refrigerant liquid recovery function section 26a is formed as a separate unit as a liquid recovery unit and the refrigerant can be recovered by the conventional gas recovery type refrigerant recovery unit 10 of FIG. .

The refrigerant recovery unit 10 has the same equipment configuration and function as the contents described in FIG.

The refrigerant liquid recovery function part 26a includes a gas inlet valve 1a and a gas delivery valve 19a provided on the gas inlet side of the refrigerant recovery unit 10, a liquid introduction valve 20, a check valve 21, provided on the outlet side of the refrigerant recovery unit 10, It is composed of a parallel circuit of a stop valve 22 and a pressure reducing device 23, a sight glass 28, a refrigerant gas section 16 of the refrigeration / air-conditioning equipment 15 and a gas inlet valve 1a connected to a connecting pipe 18a, a junction of outlets of the valves 1a and 19a and a gas inlet. Connect the valve 1 to the connecting pipe 18b and the gas valve 1
2, a connecting pipe 24 connecting the gas delivery valve 19a, a connecting pipe 25 connecting the liquid introduction valve 20 of the refrigerant liquid retaining section 17 and the refrigerant liquid collecting function section 26a, a connecting pipe 14 connecting the outlet of the sight glass 28 and the liquid valve 11, and collecting the refrigerant liquid. The stop valve 22 of the functional unit 26a, the inlet of the pressure reducing device 23, and the liquid outlet valve 9 of the refrigerant recovery unit 10 are connected by a connecting pipe 29, respectively.

The function and operation of recovering the refrigerant liquid and gas are the same as those described with reference to FIG. In the case of exclusively recovering the refrigerant gas, the refrigerant liquid recovery function unit 26a which is a liquid recovery unit is removed, and FIG.
The same function can be achieved by making the same connection and configuration.

FIG. 3 is a refrigeration cycle system diagram showing an embodiment in which FIG. 1 is simplified.

The refrigerant recovery unit 10b shown in FIG. 3 does not include the gas delivery valve 19 of the refrigerant recovery unit 10a shown in FIG.
b of the gas inlet valve 1 and the connecting pipe 18b to the gas valve 12 provided in the refrigerant storage container 13, the refrigerating and air-conditioning equipment 15 of the refrigerant liquid accumulating section 17 and the refrigerant recovery unit 10b liquid inlet valve 2
0 is connected to the connection pipe 25, and the liquid outlet valve 9 and the liquid valve 11 of the refrigerant recovery unit 10b are connected to each other by the connection pipe 14, and the refrigerant liquid recovery operation is performed. When recovering the refrigerant gas, all of the gas inlet valve 1, the gas valve 12, and the liquid introduction valve 20 are closed, the connecting pipe 18b is disconnected from the gas valve 12, and the thick dashed line 18b '
Then, the gas inlet valve 1 is opened again and the refrigerant gas recovery operation is performed. The function and operation of the refrigerant recovery unit 10b during refrigerant recovery are the same as those in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a refrigeration cycle system diagram showing an embodiment in which a refrigerant cleaning device is incorporated in the refrigerant recovery device of FIG.

In this embodiment, an oil separator 30, an oil recovery valve 31, and an oil recovery container 32 are provided downstream of the liquid introduction valve 20 to remove oil in the recovered refrigerant.
A refrigerant purifying device 33 having a function of removing water, acid, and dust in the refrigerant is provided upstream of the refrigeration system to perform not only the refrigerant recovery but also the refrigerant regeneration.

Except for the oil recovery and refrigerant cleaning functions, the functions and operations are the same as those described with reference to FIG. Each of the oil separator and the refrigerant cleaning device may be incorporated alone or as a set. Except for the liquid valve 11, the gas valve 12, and the oil recovery valve 31 of the oil separator provided in the refrigerant storage container, any of a manual type and an electromagnetic valve type may be used, and automatic switching by an electromagnetic valve is also possible.

As described above, in any of the embodiments of the present invention, a refrigerant recovery unit suitable for recovering refrigerant gas is provided.
By adding a refrigerant liquid recovery function unit, refrigerant can be converted to gas,
It can be recovered or regenerated in three forms: liquid, gas and liquid. Further, the refrigerant liquid recovery function unit in the above embodiment,
It is composed of mechanical elements without using electrical elements, and can be used easily without requiring connection of control signal lines or complicated control.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention,
An inexpensive refrigerant recovery device can be provided by utilizing the function of the refrigerant gas recovery unit, and the refrigerant can be recovered in the form of refrigerant liquid, refrigerant gas, refrigerant liquid and gas quickly and economically. is there. In addition, by forming the refrigerant recovery function unit separately from the refrigerant recovery unit, the conventional gas recovery unit has an effect that the refrigerant liquid can be recovered by equipping the liquid recovery unit of the present invention. In addition, there is also an effect that the refrigerant can be regenerated by setting the refrigerant cleaning device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a refrigerant recovery device according to the present invention.
It is.

FIG. 2 is a view showing another embodiment of the refrigerant recovery device according to the present invention .

FIG. 3 is a view showing still another embodiment of the refrigerant recovery device according to the present invention .

FIG. 4 is a view showing another embodiment of the refrigerant recovery device according to the present invention .

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional refrigerant recovery device .

[Description of Signs] 7 Sight glass 9 Liquid outlet valve 10, 10a, 10b, 10c Refrigerant recovery unit 11 Liquid valve 12 Gas valve 13 Refrigerant storage container 15 Refrigeration and air conditioning equipment 16 Refrigerant gas unit 17 Refrigerant Liquid stagnation section 19 Gas delivery valve 20 Liquid introduction valve 22 Stop valve 23 Pressure reducing device 26, 26a, 26b, 26c Refrigerant liquid recovery function section 28 Sight glass

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A compressor, an oil separator, and a condenser are sequentially connected to a refrigerant in a refrigeration / air-conditioning system using a refrigerant such as Freon.
Collected by a refrigerant recovery unit with a frozen refrigeration cycle
In refrigerant recovery apparatus, a refrigerant storage vessel provided with a liquid valve and gas valve on the inlet side, connecting pipe from the refrigerant gas of the refrigerating and air-conditioning equipment connected that
Gas inlet valve and a gas inlet valve in parallel
A gas delivery valve connected to the gas valve;
A liquid introduction valve connected to the refrigerant liquid storage section of the air conditioning equipment,
Connected to the liquid introduction valve via a check valve and
Stop valve connected to the condenser via another check valve
A pressure reducing device connected in parallel with the stop valve;
A liquid outlet connected between the valve and the stop valve and to the liquid valve
Port valve, and recovers refrigerant from the refrigeration and air conditioning equipment
The liquid valve, gas valve, gas inlet valve
Valve, gas delivery valve, liquid introduction valve and liquid outlet valve
The refrigerant recovery unit is operated by opening the refrigerant recovery unit. 2. The refrigerant recovery device according to claim 1,
A refrigerant recovery apparatus, wherein the refrigerant can be recovered in three forms, that is, gaseous, gas and liquid, and liquid, when recovering the refrigerant in the refrigeration and air conditioning equipment. 3. The refrigerant recovery device according to claim 1,
An oil for separating the oil in the refrigerant to be recovered is located between the liquid introduction valve for recovering the refrigerant liquid from the refrigerant liquid retaining portion of the refrigeration and air conditioning equipment and a check valve provided downstream of the valve. A refrigerant recovery device provided with a separator. 4. The refrigerant recovery device according to claim 1,
The path between the check valve and the stop valve and the liquid valve
A sight glass for observing the refrigerant liquid is provided in the road, and a refrigerant purifying device for removing moisture, acid content, dust and the like is incorporated in the path on the upstream side of the site glass, and the refrigerant regeneration function is combined. A refrigerant recovery device, characterized in that it is provided. 5. The refrigerant recovery device according to claim 4,
An oil for separating the oil in the refrigerant to be recovered is located between the liquid introduction valve for recovering the refrigerant liquid from the refrigerant liquid retaining portion of the refrigeration and air conditioning equipment and a check valve provided downstream of the valve. A refrigerant recovery device provided with a separator.