JP6655063B2 - Absorption refrigerator and dehumidifier - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an absorption refrigerator and a dehumidifier.

2. Description of the Related Art An absorption refrigerator that cools water using an absorption cycle including water as a refrigerant and at least one ionic liquid as an absorbent is known. (For example, see Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1 Special Table 2009-520073

  In the regenerator in the absorption refrigerator, the mixture of water and the ionic liquid is heated to convert the water into steam, thereby separating the ionic liquid and water. Compared with sensible heat heating, such latent heat heating requires a temperature higher than the boiling point of the absorbing solution and a large amount of heat, so that there is a problem that the energy efficiency is low.

  The absorption refrigerator according to the first aspect of the present invention is a mixer that mixes a refrigerant with an ionic liquid whose compatibility with the refrigerant changes with temperature, and that the refrigerant and the ionic liquid are mixed by the mixer. A regenerator that heats the mixture and separates the ionic liquid and the refrigerant in a liquid state by a specific gravity difference between the ionic liquid and the refrigerant, and cools the refrigerant by vaporizing the refrigerant separated by the regenerator. An absorption refrigerator including an evaporator for generating the evaporator.

  A dehumidifier according to a second aspect of the present invention includes: an absorber that absorbs water contained in air with an ionic liquid whose compatibility with water changes with temperature to output dehumidified air; And a regenerator that heats the ionic liquid and separates the ionic liquid and the water as a liquid by a specific gravity difference between the ionic liquid and the water.

  The above summary of the present invention is not an exhaustive listing of all features of the present invention. Further, a sub-combination of these feature groups can also be an invention.

It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the absorption refrigerator 10. 3 shows a mixed state and a separated state of an ionic liquid and water. It is a table | surface which showed the kind of ionic liquid and the transition temperature Tc. The specific example of the cation of an ionic liquid is shown. The specific example of the anion of an ionic liquid is shown. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a separator 44. It is a schematic diagram which shows the absorption refrigerator 150. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a first state of the separator 200. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a second state of the separator 200. 3 shows a mixed state and a phase separated state of water and another ionic liquid having a specific gravity smaller than that of water. It is a table | surface which showed the kind of other ionic liquid whose specific gravity is smaller than water, and transition temperature Tc. Specific examples of cations of other ionic liquids will be shown. Specific examples of anions of other ionic liquids will be shown. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a separator 300. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the dehumidifier 400. It is a schematic diagram which shows the absorption refrigerator 500. It is a schematic diagram which shows the absorption refrigerator 550.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described through embodiments of the invention, but the following embodiments do not limit the invention according to the claims. In addition, not all combinations of the features described in the embodiments are necessarily essential to the solution of the invention.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of the absorption refrigerator 10. The absorption refrigerator 10 includes an evaporator 20, an absorber 30 as an example of a mixer, a regenerator 40, and a cooler 50. In the absorption refrigerator 10, first, the refrigerant is vaporized in the evaporator 20 to generate cold heat. The vaporized refrigerant is absorbed by the absorbent in the absorber 30. The absorbent that has absorbed the refrigerant is separated into the refrigerant and the absorbent in the regenerator 40. The absorbent from which the refrigerant has been separated is cooled by the cooler 50 and then conveyed to the absorber 30 to absorb the vaporized refrigerant again. The refrigerant separated from the absorbent is also conveyed to the evaporator 20 after being cooled by the cooler 50. Then, again, the refrigerant is vaporized in the evaporator 20 to generate cold heat.

  As described above, the absorption refrigerator 10 continuously generates cold heat by repeating the above cycle. In the present embodiment, water is used as a refrigerant used in the absorption refrigerator 10. In addition, an ionic liquid is used as an absorbent. Here, the ionic liquid is a salt in a liquid state at a temperature of 100 ° C. or less, and in the present embodiment, an ionic liquid whose compatibility with water as a refrigerant changes depending on the temperature is used. In the following description, the ionic liquid may be referred to as IL.

  FIG. 2 shows a mixed state and a separated state of IL and water. Assuming that the temperature at which the compatibility between IL and water changes is the transition temperature Tc, at a temperature lower than the transition temperature Tc, as shown in FIG. Becomes When the mixture 100 is heated to increase the temperature to the transition temperature Tc or higher, the compatibility between IL and water decreases, and the mixture is separated into a lower layer composed of the IL layer 104 and an upper layer composed of the aqueous layer 102 in a liquid state. It will be in the state of having done. Note that the separation between the IL layer 104 and the water layer 102 may not be complete separation, and the IL layer 104 may contain a small amount of water, or the water layer 102 may contain a small amount of IL.

  FIG. 3 is a table showing types of ILs and transition temperatures Tc. As shown in FIG. 3, the transition temperature Tc of each of these ILs is lower than the boiling point of water.

FIG. 4 shows a specific example of the cation of IL, and FIG. 5 shows a specific example of the anion of IL. In this way, the IL can adjust the transition temperature Tc at which the compatibility with water changes as shown in FIG. 3 by rearranging the cation shown in FIG. 4 and the anion shown in FIG. In the present embodiment, [P ₄₄₄₄ ] [TsO] having a transition temperature Tc of 50 ° C. was used as the IL.

  Referring to FIG. 1 again, evaporator 20 generates cold heat by vaporizing water. The evaporator 20 includes a vaporizing section 22 for vaporizing water and a collecting section 24 for collecting IL contained in the water. The evaporator 20 is connected to the regenerator 40 via the expansion valve 60, whereby the evaporator 20 is adjusted to a predetermined internal pressure lower than the internal pressure of the regenerator 40.

  Due to the internal pressure difference between the regenerator 40 and the evaporator 20, water as a refrigerant is conveyed from the regenerator 40 to the evaporator 20 through the expansion valve 60. In the evaporator 20, water is jetted toward the vaporizing section 22. The spouted water vaporizes by removing heat from the vaporizing section 22. Further, the vaporization unit 22 cools the target object 80 by removing heat from the target object 80 passing through the vaporization unit 22. Thus, the evaporator 20 outputs the cooled target object 80. The object 80 may be air, water, antifreeze (brine), or the like.

  The input temperature of the object 80 is detected by the thermometer 26, and the output temperature is detected by the thermometer 28. Then, the supply amount of water to the evaporator 20 is controlled based on the detected temperature. For example, when the object 80 is cooled and the input temperature of the object 80 is higher than a preset temperature, the supply amount of water to the evaporator 20 is increased. On the other hand, when the input temperature of the object 80 is lower than the preset temperature, the supply amount of water to the evaporator 20 is reduced. Note that the supply amount of water to the evaporator 20 may be similarly controlled depending on the output temperature.

  The recovery unit 24 recovers the water containing IL transported to the evaporator 20. When the water containing IL is recovered, the recovery unit 24 sends a predetermined amount of the water containing IL to the absorber 30 to form an equilibrium state. By providing the recovery unit 24 in the evaporator 20 as described above, it is possible to prevent the IL from staying in the evaporator 20. Thereby, the absorption refrigerator 10 can be operated without adding IL during the operation of the absorption refrigerator 10. In addition, the recovery unit 24 may transport the recovered water containing IL to the absorber 30 using a liquid pump.

  The absorber 30 makes the IL absorb the vaporized water. The absorber 30 is provided to be connected to the evaporator 20. Since the evaporator 20 and the absorber 30 are connected, the internal pressures of the evaporator 20 and the absorber 30 are substantially equal. By cooling the IL that has absorbed the water with the cooling water 82, the internal pressure of the absorber 30 decreases. Due to this decrease in internal pressure, an internal pressure difference is generated between the evaporator 20 and the absorber 30. Due to this internal pressure difference, vaporized water is transported from the evaporator 20 to the absorber 30.

  The absorber 30 is connected to the regenerator 40 via an expansion valve 62. Since the internal pressure of the absorber 30 is lower than the internal pressure of the regenerator 40, the absorbent IL is conveyed from the regenerator 40 to the absorber 30 through the expansion valve 62.

  When the IL absorbs the vaporized water in the absorber 30, the temperature of the IL increases due to the heat of absorption of the water. The absorber 30 cools the IL using the cooling water 82. This cools the IL and promotes water absorption. The IL that has absorbed water in this way is transported to the regenerator 40 by the liquid pump 70.

The regenerator 40 includes a heater 42 and a separator 44. The heater 42 heats the IL that has absorbed the water using the external fluid 84, and separates the IL and the water in a liquid state according to the specific gravity difference between the IL and the water. IL [P ₄₄₄₄ ] [TsO] used in the present embodiment has a transition temperature Tc of 50 ° C. Since the heater 42 only needs to be capable of heating to a temperature higher than 50 ° C., which is the transition temperature Tc, in the present embodiment, for example, the external fluid 84 is heated using a heat source having a temperature higher than 50 ° C. but not higher than 60 ° C. Heating. By using an IL having a low transition temperature Tc, the heater 42 can use a heat source of a lower temperature. Thus, the absorption refrigerator 10 can output cold heat by using low-temperature exhaust heat or the like that has been discarded because it cannot be used until now.

  FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of the separator 44. The separator 44 separately takes out the IL and water separated by the heater 42. The separator 44 includes a container 110, a sensor 112, one supply valve 114, and two discharge valves 116, 118.

  The container 110 is a hollow container and stores a liquid mixture separated into IL and water. The supply pipe 120 connected to the heater 42 is connected to the upper surface of the container 110 via the supply valve 114. The discharge pipe 122 is connected to a predetermined height on the side surface of the container 110 via a discharge valve 116. The discharge pipe 124 is connected to the lower surface of the container 110 via a discharge valve 118. The predetermined height of the side surface of the container 110 is, for example, 6/10 of the height of the container 110 when the interface between IL and water is located at the center of the container 110. That's it. By connecting the discharge valve 116 to a height that is 6/10 of the height of the container 110, even after the discharge valve 116 is opened and water is taken out, 1 / Ten levels of water remain in the container 110.

  In the absorption refrigerator 10, when the water that is the refrigerant contains IL, the amount of water containing IL that is transported from the recovery unit 24 to the absorber 30 increases. By providing a discharge valve 116 at a position higher than the interface between water and IL and leaving water in the container 110 even after water is taken out, the amount of IL conveyed to the evaporator 20 can be reduced. it can. Thereby, the amount of water containing IL transferred from the recovery unit 24 to the absorber 30 can be reduced.

  When the supply valve 114 is opened while the container 110 is empty, a mixed liquid separated into IL and water is supplied from the upper surface of the container 110. The mixed liquid of IL and water is supplied until the sensor 112 detects the liquid level. When detecting the liquid level, the sensor 112 closes the supply valve 114 to stop supplying the mixed liquid of IL and water.

  After a predetermined time has passed since the closing of the supply valve 114, the discharge valve 116 is opened, and the upper layer of water is taken out. Note that the predetermined time is, for example, 5 minutes. The predetermined time may be a time required for separating a previously measured mixture of IL and water, and may be a time obtained by multiplying the time by a predetermined safety factor. . The removed water is cooled by the cooler 50 and transported to the evaporator 20.

  The discharge valve 116 is closed, for example, after a predetermined time has elapsed. Note that the predetermined time may be a time required for the water in the container 110 measured in advance to be discharged through the discharge valve 116, and further, a predetermined safety factor may be set at the time. The multiplied time may be used. Thereafter, the discharge valve 118 is opened, and IL and water are taken out. The extracted IL and water are cooled by the cooler 50 and transported to the absorber 30.

  The cooler 50 cools the IL and water taken out by the separator 44. The cooler 50 cools the IL and water passing through the cooler 50 by circulating the cooling water 86. The water cooled by the cooler 50 is supplied to the evaporator 20 through the expansion valve 60. Then, the evaporator 20 vaporizes the supplied water again to generate cold heat. On the other hand, the IL cooled by the cooler 50 is supplied to the absorber 30 through the expansion valve 62. Then, the absorber 30 again absorbs the vaporized water using the supplied IL. As described above, the absorption refrigerator 10 in the present embodiment continuously generates cold heat by repeatedly performing the above-described processing in the evaporator 20, the absorber 30, the regenerator 40, and the cooler 50.

  The absorption refrigerator 10 of the present embodiment uses IL whose compatibility with water as a refrigerant changes at 50 ° C. as an absorbent. Therefore, only by heating the mixture of IL and water to 50 ° C. or more by sensible heat, it is possible to separate IL and water by the difference in specific gravity between IL and water. As described above, in the absorption refrigerator 10 of the present embodiment, since the latent heat for vaporizing the refrigerant is not used to separate the refrigerant and the absorbent, the energy efficiency of the absorption refrigerator 10 can be greatly improved.

  The COP (coefficient of performance) of the absorption refrigerator 10 in the present embodiment will be described. In the absorption refrigerator 10, the transition temperature Tc of IL, which is an absorbent, is 55 ° C., and the temperature is increased from 35 ° C. to 60 ° C. in the heater 42 to obtain 1% from the mixture of IL and water containing 60% by weight of water. COP was calculated assuming that / 10 of the water was separated, and the COP was 1.5. Considering that the COP of a conventional absorption refrigerator that separates water and an absorbent by performing latent heating at 90 ° C. is 0.7, the energy efficiency of the absorption refrigerator 10 in the present embodiment is This is a significant improvement over absorption chillers.

  Further, in the present embodiment, an example has been described in which after a predetermined time has elapsed since the supply valve 114 was closed, the discharge valve 116 is opened, and the upper layer of water is taken out. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a light emitting element and a light receiving element are provided at a height of 6/10 with respect to the container 110, and it is detected whether or not IL and water are separated based on the amount of light received by the light receiving element. Is also good. The transparency of the water layer 102 is higher than the transparency of a state in which IL and water are compatible. Therefore, a threshold may be provided for the amount of light received by the light receiving element, and the discharge valve 116 may be opened on condition that the amount of light received by the light receiving element exceeds the threshold.

  Further, in the present embodiment, an example has been described in which the heater 42 heats the IL that has absorbed water using the external fluid 84 to separate the IL from the water, but the heater 42 further includes an external fluid 84. The container 110 of the separator 44 may be heated using the fluid 84. By heating the container 110, the separation state of IL and water in the container 110 can be maintained, so that the ability of the separator 44 to separate IL and water is improved.

  Next, another example of the absorption refrigerator 10 will be described. FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the absorption refrigerator 150. 7, elements common to those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted. The absorption refrigerator 150 shown in FIG. 7 further includes a heat exchanger 152.

  The heat exchanger 152 exchanges heat between the IL including water transported from the absorber 30 which is an example of the mixer and the IL transported from the separator 44. The temperature of the IL containing water transferred from the absorber 30 is lower than the temperature of the IL transferred from the separator 44. The heat exchanger 152 recovers the heat of the IL transported from the separator 44 having a relatively high temperature, and heats the IL containing water transported from the absorber 30. Thereby, the heating in the heater 42 can be reduced.

  Next, another example of the separator 44 will be described. FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing a first state of the separator 200. 8, the same elements as those in FIG. 6 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and a duplicate description will be omitted. In the following drawings, a black valve indicates a closed valve, and a white valve indicates an open valve. The separator 200 includes a plurality of separators 44 connected in parallel. Then, a mixed liquid of IL and water is supplied in order while switching the plurality of separators 44, and after a predetermined time elapses from the supply and the IL and water are separated, the IL and water are separated. Are taken out separately.

  The separator 200 includes four containers 202, 204, 206, 208, four supply valves 210, 212, 214, 216, four sensors 112, and eight discharge valves 220, 222, 224, 226, 230, 232, 234, 236, one supply pipe 240, and two discharge pipes 242, 244. The supply pipe 240 connected to the heater 42 is branched into four for the purpose of connecting to the four containers 202, 204, 206, 208. One of the branched supply pipes 240 is connected to the upper surface of the container 202 via a supply valve 210. Similarly, one of the other branched supply pipes is connected to the top surface of the container 204 via a supply valve 212. One of the other branched supply pipes is connected to the top surface of the container 206 via a supply valve 214, and one of the other branched supply pipes is connected to the container 208 via a supply valve 216. It is connected to the top.

  The discharge pipe 242 is branched into four for the purpose of connecting to the four containers 202, 204, 206, 208. One of the branched discharge pipes 242 is connected via a discharge valve 220 to a predetermined height on the side surface of the container 202. Similarly, one of the other branched discharge pipes 242 is connected via a discharge valve 222 to a predetermined height on the side surface of the container 204. One of the other branched discharge pipes 242 is connected to a predetermined height on the side surface of the container 206 via a discharge valve 224, and one of the other branched discharge pipes 242 is It is connected to a predetermined height on the side surface of the container 208 via a discharge valve 226. Note that the predetermined height is the same as the predetermined height of the separator 44, and thus the duplicate description will be omitted.

  The discharge pipe 244 is branched into four for the purpose of connecting to the four containers 202, 204, 206, 208. One of the branched discharge pipes 244 is connected to the lower surface of the container 202 via a discharge valve 230. Similarly, one of the other branched discharge pipes 242 is connected to the lower surface of the container 204 via a discharge valve 232. One of the other branched discharge pipes 242 is connected to a predetermined height on the side surface of the container 206 via a discharge valve 234, and one of the other branched supply pipes is connected to a discharge pipe. It is connected to the lower surface of the container 208 via the valve 236.

  In the first state, in the container 202, the discharge valve 220 is opened, and water is taken out of the container 202. In the container 204, the discharge valve 232 is opened, and IL and a small amount of water are taken out of the container 204. In the container 206, the supply valve 214 is opened, and the mixed liquid separated into IL and water is supplied to the container 206. Further, in the container 208, the container is left in a state of being filled with the mixed solution separated into water and IL, and the IL and water are separated.

  FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating a second state of the separator 200. 9, the same elements as those in FIG. 8 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and a duplicate description will be omitted. In the second state, in the container 202, the discharge valve 220 is closed and the discharge valve 230 is opened, and IL and a small amount of water are taken out of the container 202. In the container 204, the discharge valve 232 is closed and the supply valve 212 is opened, and the mixed liquid separated into IL and water is supplied to the container 204. In the container 206, the container is left in a state of being filled with the mixed liquid separated into IL and water, and the IL and water are separated. In the container 208, the discharge valve 226 is opened, and water is taken out of the container 208.

  As described above, in the separator 200, a step of supplying the mixed liquid separated into IL and water, a step of leaving the mixed liquid filled with the mixed solution of IL and water to separate, a step of extracting water, The process of removing the IL and a small amount of water is sequentially performed in each of the four containers 202, 204, 206, 208. Then, one shifted process is executed in each container at the same time so that each process is simultaneously executed in the four containers 202, 204, 206, and 208. Thereby, the mixed liquid separated into IL and water can be continuously supplied from the heater 42 to the separator 200. Further, water can be continuously supplied from the separator 200 to the evaporator 20, and IL can be continuously supplied from the separator 200 to the absorber 30.

  8 and 9 show an example of the separator 200 in which the number of containers is four, the number of containers is not limited to four and may be any number. Further, the number of containers may be determined based on the time of the above-described four steps.

  FIG. 10 shows a mixed state and a phase-separated state of water and another IL whose specific gravity is smaller than that of water. At a temperature lower than the transition temperature Tc, the IL shown in FIG. 10 is in a state of a mixed liquid 100 in which IL and water are compatible. When the liquid mixture 100 is heated to raise the temperature to the transition temperature Tc or higher, the compatibility between IL and water decreases, and a state in which the upper layer composed of the IL layer 104 and the lower layer composed of the aqueous layer 102 are separated. Become. Thus, in the IL having a specific gravity smaller than that of water, unlike the example shown in FIG. 2, the IL layer 104 is the upper layer and the water layer 102 is the lower layer.

FIG. 11 is a table showing other types of IL whose specific gravity is smaller than that of water and the transition temperature Tc. FIG. 12 shows a specific example of another IL cation, and FIG. 13 shows a specific example of another IL anion. As described above, the IL includes the cation illustrated in FIG. 12 and the anion illustrated in FIG. 13, and the IL has a lower specific gravity than water as the refrigerant. As such an IL, for example, [P ₆₆₆₈ ] [EtOHPO ₂ ] can be used.

  FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram showing the separator 300. 14, the same elements as those in FIG. 8 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted. The separator 300 corresponds to IL having a specific gravity smaller than that of water as a refrigerant as an absorbent.

  The separator 300 includes four containers 302, 304, 306, 308, four supply valves 210, 212, 214, 216, four sensors 112, four sensors 310, and eight discharge valves 220, 222, 224, 226, 230, 232, 234, 236, one supply pipe 240, and two discharge pipes 244, 320.

  The discharge pipe 320 is branched into four for the purpose of connecting to the four containers 302, 304, 306, 308. One of the branched discharge pipes 320 is connected to the lower surface of the container 302 via the discharge valve 220. Similarly, one of the other branched discharge pipes 320 is connected to the lower surface of the container 304 via a discharge valve 222. One of the other branched discharge pipes 320 is connected to the lower surface of the container 306 via a discharge valve 224, and one of the other branched discharge pipes 320 is connected to the container via a discharge valve 226. 308 is connected to the lower surface.

  In the state shown in FIG. 14, in the container 302, the discharge valve 220 is opened, and water is taken out of the container 302. Water is taken out until the sensor 310 detects the liquid level. When the sensor 310 detects the liquid level, the sensor 310 closes the discharge valve 220 to stop taking out water. The height of the sensor 310 is set so that, for example, after stopping the removal of water, water having a height of 1/10 of the height of the container 302 remains at the bottom of the container.

  In the container 304, the discharge valve 232 is opened, and IL and a small amount of water are taken out of the container 304. In the container 306, the supply valve 214 is opened, and the mixed liquid separated into IL and water is supplied to the container 306. Further, in the container 308, the container is left in a state of being filled with the mixed liquid separated into IL and water, and the IL and water are separated.

  As described above, by using the IL whose specific gravity is smaller than that of water, water can be taken out from the lower surface of the container 302. In the container 302, the pressure applied to the discharge pipe 320 is a pressure based on the sum of the weight of water and the weight of IL. For this reason, the pressure applied to the discharge pipe 320 becomes higher than the pressure in the separator 200 when IL having a specific gravity larger than that of water is used. By increasing the pressure, the speed of taking out water from the discharge pipe 320 can be increased.

  FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of the dehumidifier 400. In FIG. 15, elements common to those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted. The dehumidifier 400 includes an absorber 410, a regenerator 40, and a cooler 50.

  In the dehumidifier 400, first, the water 414 contained in the air 412 is absorbed by the IL by the absorber 410, and the dehumidified air 412 is output. The absorber 410 is common to the absorber 30 shown in FIG. 1 in the configuration in which the water 414 is absorbed by the IL, but includes the water 414 by taking in the air 412 including the water 414 and absorbing the water 414 in the IL. This is different in that it outputs no air 412.

The IL that has absorbed the water 414 is separated into water 414 and IL in the regenerator 40. The IL from which the water 414 has been separated is cooled by the cooler 50 and then conveyed to the absorber 30 to absorb the water 414 from the air 412 again. The regenerator 40 discharges the water 414 separated from the IL. Thus, the dehumidifier 400 continuously outputs the air 412 that does not include the water 414 by repeating the above cycle. In the dehumidifier 400 shown in FIG. 15, [P ₄₄₄₄ ] [TsO] having a transition temperature Tc of 50 ° C. was used as IL.

  The dehumidifier 400 shown in FIG. 15 also uses IL whose compatibility with water 414 changes at 50 ° C. as a refrigerant absorbent. Therefore, only by heating the mixture of IL and water 414 to sensible heat at 50 ° C. or higher, IL and water 414 can be separated by the difference in specific gravity between IL and water 414. Therefore, even in the dehumidifier 400 shown in FIG. 15, since the latent heat is not used to separate the IL and the water 414, the energy efficiency of the dehumidifier 400 can be greatly improved.

In the present embodiment, for example, an example in which an IL made of [P ₄₄₄₄ ] [TsO] is used as the refrigerant absorbent has been described, but the refrigerant absorbent may include a plurality of types of IL. Further, an additive other than IL may be included in IL, for example, a surfactant may be included in IL. Further, the refrigerant absorbent may be other than IL, and examples of such embodiments are shown in FIGS.

  FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram showing the absorption refrigerator 500. In FIG. 16, elements common to FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and duplicate description will be omitted. The mixer 520 of the absorption refrigerator 500 shown in FIG. 16 further includes a separator 510 in addition to the absorber 30 and the liquid pump 70. In the present embodiment, it is the aqueous solution of lithium bromide that absorbs the vaporized water in the absorber 30. As another example of the refrigerant absorbent, an aqueous solution of a highly deliquescent substance such as calcium bromide or calcium chloride may be used.

  The aqueous lithium bromide solution that has absorbed water in the absorber 30 is transported to the separation unit 510 by the liquid pump 70. The separation unit 510 includes a semi-permeable membrane 516, and a first chamber 512 and a second chamber 514 separated by the semi-permeable membrane 516. The aqueous lithium bromide solution is stored in the second chamber 514. The water contained in the aqueous lithium bromide solution penetrates the semipermeable membrane and moves to the first chamber 512 containing the IL. The osmosis method of the semipermeable membrane may be reverse osmosis or forward osmosis. The IL that has absorbed water in this way is sent to the regenerator 40.

  The IL separated from the water in the regenerator 40 is conveyed to the first chamber 512 of the separation unit 510 by the liquid pump 72 after being cooled by the cooler 50. The water containing IL recovered by the recovery unit 24 of the evaporator 20 is also sent to the first chamber 512 of the separation unit 510. In this way, the IL is reused for absorbing water passing through the semipermeable membrane. On the other hand, the aqueous lithium bromide solution in the second chamber is returned to the absorber 30, and is used again for absorbing vaporized water. Thus, water can be efficiently absorbed by using a lithium bromide aqueous solution having high compatibility with water as a refrigerant absorbent. Further, it is possible to efficiently separate IL and water based on a change in compatibility.

  Next, another example of the absorption refrigerator 500 will be described. FIG. 17 is a schematic diagram showing the absorption refrigerator 550. 17, elements common to FIG. 16 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted. The absorption refrigerator 550 shown in FIG. 17 further includes a concentration controller 560. As the concentration controller 560, for example, a capacitive deionization (CDI) device for performing electrochemical deionization may be used.

  The aqueous lithium bromide solution sent from the separation unit 510 to the concentration controller 560 is separated into an aqueous solution containing lithium bromide at a high concentration and an aqueous solution containing lithium bromide at a low concentration. The low-concentration aqueous solution of lithium bromide is mixed with the aqueous solution of lithium bromide transported from the absorber 30 to the separation section 510. On the other hand, the high-concentration aqueous solution of lithium bromide is sent to the absorber 30. Thereby, the concentration of the aqueous lithium bromide solution flowing into the absorber after water separation by the semipermeable membrane can be further increased.

  In the present embodiment, the absorption refrigerator 10 including one evaporator 20 and one absorber 30, an example of the mixer, the regenerator 40, and the cooler 50 is shown. However, the present invention is not limited to this configuration, and a plurality of evaporators 20, absorbers 30, regenerators 40, and coolers 50 may be provided. Similarly, also in the dehumidifier 400, a plurality of absorbers 410, regenerators 40, and coolers 50 may be provided.

  As described above, the present invention has been described using the embodiments, but the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the scope described in the above embodiments. It is apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes or improvements can be made to the above embodiment. It is apparent from the description of the appended claims that embodiments with such changes or improvements can be included in the technical scope of the present invention.

10, 150, 500, 550 Absorption refrigerator, 20 evaporator, 22 vaporizer, 24 recovery unit, 26, 28 thermometer, 30, 410 absorber, 40 regenerator, 42 heater, 44, 200, 300 separator , 50 cooler, 60, 62 expansion valve, 70, 72 liquid pump, 80 object, 84 external fluid, 82, 86 cooling water, 100 mixture, 102 aqueous layer, 104 IL layer, 110, 202, 204, 206 , 208, 302, 304, 306, 308 container, 112, 310 sensor, 114, 210, 212, 214, 216 supply valve, 116, 118, 220, 222, 224, 226, 230, 232, 234, 236 discharge valve , 120, 240 supply pipe, 122, 124, 242, 244, 320 discharge pipe, 152 heat exchanger, 400 Wet machine, 412 air, 414 water, 510 separation unit, 512 first chamber, 514 second chamber, 516 semi-permeable membrane, 520 mixer, 560 concentration controller

Claims (14)

A mixer for mixing the refrigerant with an ionic liquid whose compatibility with the refrigerant changes with temperature,
By heating the mixture of the refrigerant and the ionic liquid mixed in the mixer to lower the compatibility, the specific gravity difference between the ionic liquid and the refrigerant remains as the ionic liquid and the refrigerant remain liquid. A regenerator to separate,
An evaporator that generates cold heat by vaporizing the refrigerant separated by the regenerator,
Absorption refrigerator equipped with.   The absorption refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the mixer has an absorber that absorbs the refrigerant vaporized by the evaporator into the ionic liquid. The mixer is
An absorber that absorbs the refrigerant vaporized by the evaporator in a refrigerant absorbent different from the ionic liquid,
The separation refrigerator transported from the absorber and separating the refrigerant from the refrigerant absorbent that has absorbed the refrigerant.   The absorption refrigerator according to claim 3, wherein the separation unit separates the refrigerant from the refrigerant absorbent using osmotic pressure.   5. The absorption refrigerator according to claim 3, wherein the refrigerant absorbent includes lithium bromide, calcium bromide, or calcium chloride. The evaporator, a vaporization unit that vaporizes the refrigerant, a recovery unit that recovers the ionic liquid contained in the refrigerant,
With
The absorption refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the recovery unit recovers the ionic liquid contained in the refrigerant, and transports the recovered ionic liquid to the mixer. The regenerator includes a heater and a separator,
The heater heats the ionic liquid that has absorbed the refrigerant, and separates the refrigerant from the ionic liquid while keeping the liquid,
The absorption refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the separator separately takes out the separated refrigerant and the ionic liquid.   The regenerator includes a plurality of the separators in parallel, the heater sequentially supplies the refrigerant and the ionic liquid while switching the plurality of separators, and supplies the separated refrigerant and the ionic liquid. The absorption refrigerator according to claim 7, wherein the refrigerant and the ionic liquid are separately taken out after a lapse of a predetermined time from being performed.   The absorption refrigerator according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the separator takes out the refrigerant and the ionic liquid separately while leaving the refrigerant in the separator.   The absorption refrigerator according to claim 9, wherein the separator takes out the ionic liquid after taking out the refrigerant while leaving the refrigerant in the separator. The regenerator further includes a cooler,
The absorption refrigerator according to any one of claims 7 to 10, wherein the cooler cools the ionic liquid taken out by the separator. The refrigerant is water;
The temperature at which the compatibility of the ionic liquid and the water changes when an equal amount of the ionic liquid and the water is mixed in the ionic liquid is in a range of 5 ° C or more and 70 ° C or less. The absorption refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 11.   The absorption refrigerator according to claim 12, wherein the heater is heated using a heat source of 60 ° C or lower, and a temperature at which the compatibility between the ionic liquid and the water changes is equal to or lower than a temperature of the heat source. Absorber that absorbs the water contained in the air to an ionic liquid whose compatibility with water changes with temperature, and outputs dehumidified air,
A regenerator that heats the ionic liquid that has absorbed the water to lower the compatibility, thereby separating the ionic liquid and the water as a liquid by a specific gravity difference between the ionic liquid and the water,
Dehumidifier equipped with.

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