JPH07167526A - Heater/cooler for liquid - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a relatively compact heater/cooler for liquid by omitting an installation of a heat storage tank of one cause of an increase in the heater/ cooler of the liquid of this type using a heat pump. CONSTITUTION:A heating sterilizer 1 has heater 14 and a cooler 16 sequentially installed from an upstream side of a processing conduit 11, a condenser 24 and an evaporator 23 of a heat pump apparatus 21 used as heat sources of the heater 14 and the cooler 16, wherein culture liquid L is heated to a predetermined high temperature by heat generated from the condenser 24, and the liquid L is cooled by cooling heat of the conduit 11. A second cooler 15 having a cooling tower 28 is installed between the heater 14 and the cooler 16 of the conduit 11. This tower 28 generates cooling heat quantity corresponding to a difference between a cooling heat quantity by the cooler 16 and a cooling heat quantity for heating the liquid L heated to a predetermined temperature.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid heating / cooling device for heating and cooling a fluid flowing in a pipe, and to a device using a heat pump device for heating and cooling the liquid.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in a culturing liquid used for hydroponic culture and other process liquids for the food industry, after sterilizing the liquid, after heating the liquid to a constant temperature while flowing the liquid in a pipeline. , Cooling to a required temperature is performed.

Since the heat pump device has both a heating device and a cooling device, it has been proposed to use the heat pump device for the above purpose (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-184331). .

By the way, in the heat pump device, the amount of heat for heating and the amount of heat for cooling are interlocked, and the temperature of the liquid flowing in the pipe varies depending on load conditions such as air temperature.

In addition, since the cooling capacity of a heat pump device is generally smaller than the heating capacity, if the liquid is cooled only by the heat pump device, the liquid can be cooled only to a temperature higher than the initial liquid temperature. It is not possible (hereinafter referred to as the cooling limit temperature in this specification).

Therefore, as described above, the heat pump device is used for the one in which the temperature of the target liquid fluctuates and which is heated to a predetermined temperature and then cooled to a temperature lower than the cooling limit temperature. In this case, generally, the amount of heat generated by the heat pump device is temporarily stored in a heat storage tank, and if necessary, the required amount of heat is taken out to bring the object to a predetermined heating temperature or cooling temperature. .

[0007]

That is, in the conventional liquid heating / cooling device of this type using the heat pump device, it is necessary to install a heat storage tank composed of a relatively large tank according to the capacity of the heat pump device. And
This has been one of the causes of increasing the size of the liquid heating and cooling device.

The present invention has been made under the above circumstances, and is a heating and cooling device for a liquid of this type using a heat pump device, the liquid exceeding the cooling limit temperature depending on the evaporator of the heat pump device. It is an object of the present invention to provide a relatively compact liquid heating / cooling device by omitting the installation of a heat storage tank, which was one of the causes of increasing the size of the device.

[0009]

In order to achieve this object, the invention according to claim 1 is to install a heater and a cooler in that order from the upstream side in a pipeline through which a liquid flows, Using a condenser and an evaporator of a heat pump device as a heat source of each of the cooler, after heating the liquid to a predetermined high temperature by the heat generated by the condenser, the liquid using the cooling heat of the evaporator In a liquid heating / cooling device for cooling, a second cooler having a heat source independent of the heat pump device is installed between the heater and the cooler of the pipeline, and the second cooler is provided. The heat source of (1) generates a cooling heat amount corresponding to a difference between a cooling heat amount for bringing the heated liquid to a required temperature and a cooling heat amount by the cooler.

[0010]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the second cooler having a heat source independent of the heat pump device is installed between the heater and the cooler of the pipeline, and the second cooler is provided. The heat source of the cooler generates a cooling heat quantity corresponding to the difference between the cooling heat quantity for bringing the heated liquid to a required temperature and the cooling heat quantity by the cooler, so that the heat pump according to the initial temperature of the liquid By operating the device, the liquid can be brought to a predetermined high temperature.

When the liquid is then cooled to a required temperature lower than the cooling limit temperature, the second cooler performs the cooling corresponding to the difference independently of the heat pump device. The liquid can be efficiently cooled to a required temperature with a small operation of the heat source of the cooler.

In addition, since the cooling by the second cooler is performed first, the cooling is efficiently performed, and a relatively simple device can be used as a heat source of the second cooler.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the lack of cooling in the liquid heating / cooling device using the heat pump device is adjusted by the operation of the second cooler, and the conventional installation of the heat storage tank becomes unnecessary. Therefore, the liquid heating / cooling device can be made compact.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. First, a first embodiment constituted as a heating and sterilizing apparatus for a culture solution for hydroponic cultivation will be described with reference to FIGS.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a heat sterilizer,
2 is a bed for hydroponic culture, and 3 is a culture solution tank.

The hydroponic bed 2 includes a culture solution tank 3
The culture solution L is circulated and supplied by the pump 5 via the circulation line 4.

The following heat sterilizer 1 is installed to appropriately perform heat sterilization treatment on the culture solution L stored in the culture solution tank 3.

That is, the heat sterilization apparatus 1 of this embodiment
Has a processing pipe 11 for circulating the culture solution L from the culture solution tank 3 to perform the heat sterilization process.

The processing line 11 has a circulation pump 12 for taking out the culture solution L from the culture solution tank 3 and circulating it.
The culture solution L sent from the circulation pump 12 first fills the inside of the second heater 13 through the first electric control valve 6, and preliminary heating is performed.

Then, the culture solution L sent out from the second heater 13 is then passed through the heater 14, the second heater 13, the second cooler 15, and the cooler 16 in that order in the processing line 1.
1, and then returns to the culture medium tank 3.

In addition, in order to finely adjust the temperature of the culture solution L flowing through the processing pipeline 11, a bypass pipeline 17 bypassing the cooler 16 is installed via a second electric control valve 18. ing.

The heater 14 and the cooler 16 utilize a heat source provided by a single heat pump device 21, as described below. Note that the term “single” here is not limited to a single heat pump circuit, and may be a single heat pump circuit such as a multi-stage heat pump device in which a plurality of heat pump circuits are associated with each other and are thermally single. It is a concept that includes.

The heat pump device 21 of this embodiment is provided with a heat pump circuit 25 having therein a compressor 22 for compressing a refrigerant, an evaporator 23 and a condenser 24.

In this heat pump circuit 25, the evaporator 23 and the condenser 24 are respectively the cooler 16
And the heater 14 are heat sources.

The evaporator 23 and the condenser 24 have a heat exchanger 2 for transferring cold heat or warm heat to water.
3a and 24a are installed, and the thermal output from the heat pump circuit 25 is performed as cold water or hot water using water as a medium.

In the case of carrying out the present invention, it is possible to directly exchange heat between the refrigerant constituting the heat pump circuit 25 and the culture solution L, unlike the above, but the refrigerant leaks from the pipe line and the refrigerant is discharged. In order to avoid the possibility that the water is mixed in the culture solution L, indirect heat exchange is performed by interposing cold water or warm water as described above.

A hot water circulation pipe 26 is formed between the heat exchanger 24a of the condenser 24 and the inside of the heater 14, and the heat exchanger 23a of the evaporator 23 and the cooler 16 are formed.
A cold water circulation pipe line 27 is formed between the inside and the inside. In addition, in these hot and cold water circulation pipelines 26 and 27,
26a and 27a are respective circulation pumps.

Therefore, the warm heat generated in the condenser 24 heats the culture solution L in the treatment conduit 11 by filling the inside of the heater 14 with warm water through the warm water circulation conduit 26.

In this case, the operation of the heat pump device 21 is performed in a state necessary for heating the culture solution L to a required temperature, and the culture solution L is heated to a required temperature regardless of the initial temperature. Then, the culture solution L is sterilized by heating.

After that, the culture solution L in the processing conduit 11 flows through the processing conduit 11 in the second heater 13. In this second heater 13, this processing line 1
The culture solution L in 1 serves as a heating source, and the culture solution L is introduced from the culture solution tank 3 into the second heater 13 as described above.
To preheat. Along with the preliminary heating of the culture solution L introduced from the culture solution tank 3, the heat of the culture solution L flowing through the processing conduit 11 is radiated, and the cooling load in the subsequent cooling process is reduced.

The culture solution L that has passed through the processing line 11 in the second heater 13 is then passed through the second cooling unit 15 before the cooling unit 16 touched above. Pass through.

The second cooler 15 is a cooler constructed independently of the heat pump device 21 and is constructed by the cooling tower device 28 in this embodiment, but the present invention is not limited to this. A cooling device may be used.

In the second cooler 15, the cooling water W radiated to the atmosphere by the cooling tower device 28 is the second
The culture solution L that circulates while filling the inside of the cooler 15 and that flows through the processing pipe line 11 is preliminarily cooled.

The cooling tower device 28 is a heat source of the second cooler 15 according to the present invention, and the cooling tower device 28 is provided with a third electric control valve 29. The valve 29 can adjust the amount of heat exchanged in the circulating cooling water W by supplying heat to the shower device 34 and actively exchanging heat with the atmosphere to an appropriate ratio.

The culture solution L by the second cooler 15
The preliminary cooling of the culture solution L is controlled as described later in detail, and as a result of further cooling of the culture solution L in the processing pipeline 11 by the cooler 16 installed on the downstream side, The temperature is cooled to the same temperature as the liquid temperature in the culture liquid tank L, which is lower than the cooling limit temperature by the heat pump device 21.

The culture solution L cooled to an appropriate temperature in the second cooler 15 is then left in the processing line 11 and is in the cooler 16.
Is cooled by.

The cooler 16 transfers the cold heat generated in the evaporator 23 to the culture solution L in the treatment pipeline 11 via the cold water circulation pipeline 27, and the cooler 16 must be filled with cold water. Is used to cool the culture solution L in the processing conduit 11.

The amount of cold heat generated in the evaporator 23 is
The heat pump circuit 25 depends on the operating condition of the heat pump circuit 25. Since the heat pump circuit 25 is operated in a condition corresponding to the amount of heating heat to be supplied to the culture solution L in the heater 14, the condenser 24 It is insufficient to cool the liquid temperature of the culture liquid L heated by the generated heat to the liquid temperature in the culture liquid tank 3.

However, in the present application, as described above, since the culture solution L in the processing line 11 is preliminarily cooled by the second cooler 15, the culture liquid L in the processing line 11 is By passing through the cooler 16, heat is exchanged, and the liquid temperature of the culture solution L in the processing pipeline 11 can be cooled to the initial temperature in the culture solution tank 3.

When the culture solution L is cooled to a temperature lower than the initial temperature, the amount of cold heat by the second cooler 15 may be set to be large.

In the heat sterilizer 1 having such a pipe line structure, as described below, the first electric control valve 6, the second electric control valve 18 and the cooling tower device 28 are electrically controlled. Has been.

That is, the first electric control valve 6 is for appropriately adjusting the flow rate of the culture solution L flowing through the processing pipe line 11, and the first temperature sensor 31 installed on the downstream side of the heater 14 is used. Is used to adjust the aperture amount.

For example, when the first temperature sensor 31 detects a low temperature, the first electric control valve 6 reduces its valve opening to decrease the flow rate of the culture solution L, and conversely when the temperature is high. The flow rate of the culture solution L is increased.

The second electric control valve 18 appropriately adjusts the ratio of the culture liquid L flowing through the processing pipe 11 to that passing through the cooler 16 and that passing through the bypass pipe 17. is there.

The second electric control valve 18 is a second temperature sensor 3 for detecting the liquid temperature of the culture liquid L in the culture liquid tank 3.
2 is performed based on the signal from 2, and when the liquid temperature in the culture solution tank 3 is high, the throttle on the side of the bypass line 17 is reduced and the throttle on the side of the process line 11 extending from the cooler 16 is reduced accordingly. The ratio of the culture liquid L that opens and passes through the cooler 16 in the culture liquid L flowing through the processing pipe line 11 is increased. As a result, most of the culture solution L flowing through the processing conduit 11 is cooled by the cooler 16.
Since it is cooled by, the liquid temperature decreases. At the same time, since the flow rate of the culture solution L in the cooler 16 increases, the cooler 1
The heat transfer coefficient at No. 6 is increased, and the liquid temperature can be efficiently lowered.

When the liquid temperature in the culture liquid tank 3 is low, the second electric control valve 18 operates in the opposite manner.

Since the adjustment of the flow rate by the second electric control valve 18 can be performed steplessly, the temperature of the culture solution L refluxed to the culture solution tank 3 can be finely adjusted.

Next, the control of the cooling tower device 28 as the heat source of the second cooler 15 will be described.

In the cooling tower device 28, the drive motor for the fan 33 and the shower device 3 for the cooling water W are provided.
The third motor-operated control valve 29 that determines the supply ratio to No. 4 is the control target.

These controlled objects are controlled by the output signal from the second controller 36, and the second controller 36 has a third temperature sensor 37 (corresponding to the liquid temperature sensor of the present invention). And the signal from the first controller 38 are input to the first controller 38.
A signal from 1 (corresponding to the temperature sensor for liquid medium of the present invention) is input.

The fourth temperature sensor 41 is used in the evaporator 23.
The temperature of cold water cooled by is detected.

Since the first adjuster 38 and the second adjuster 36 are similar to each other, the first adjuster 38 will be mainly described below, and the first adjuster 38 will be described first. Only the differences from the adjuster 38 of FIG.

The first controller 38 has a CPU 44 composed of a microcomputer, and the CPU 44 has an input circuit 4
5, A / D conversion circuit 46, control circuit 47, D / A conversion circuit 4
8, a key input device 52, a display unit 53, and a second input circuit 54 are connected, and each of these units is supplied with power by a power supply unit 55 composed of an autotransformer, and the CPU 44 follows certain rules. Management is done.

In the first controller 38, the analog signal from the fourth temperature sensor 41 is input to the input circuit 45, the input signal is converted into a digital signal by the A / D conversion circuit 46, and then the control is performed. It is transmitted to the circuit 47.

The control circuit 47 performs a certain arithmetic processing on the input signal while referring to the data of the internal memory device 51, but the control circuit 47 of this embodiment performs the PID theoretical operation.

The internal memory device 51 is composed of an EEPROM, and a part of the data contents can be appropriately changed by operating the key input device 52.

Then, the calculation result by the control circuit 47 is converted into an analog signal by the D / A conversion circuit 48 and output.

In the case of the second controller 36, the output signal from the first controller 38 is input to the control circuit 47 via the second input circuit 54 and the third temperature sensor 37.
The input signal from is input to the control circuit 47 via the input circuit 45 as in the case described above.

Similar to the above, these input signals are subjected to a required operation while referring to the data in the internal memory device 51, and the control output is performed via the D / A conversion circuit 48. The control signal from the second controller 36 is the same as that of the controller 38, and the drive motor of the fan 33 of the cooling tower device 28 and the third electric control valve 29.
And be transmitted to.

The cooling tower device 28 controlled by such a control device includes the third temperature sensor for the cold water temperature by the fourth temperature sensor 41 and the culture liquid L cooled by the second cooler 15. The amount of cooling heat is generated with reference to the temperature detected by 37.

That is, the cooling capacity of the second cooler 15 is adjusted so that the value detected by the third temperature sensor 37 approaches the target value set by the second adjuster 15. The target value of the adjuster 15 of FIG. 2 fluctuates up and down depending on the detection value of the fourth temperature sensor 41 passing through the first adjuster 38.

The amount of cooling heat generated by the cooling tower device 28 is the result of the culture solution L being cooled by the cooler 16 installed on the downstream side, so that the temperature of the culture solution L is equal to the temperature of the culture solution tank 3. The cooling heat amount and the cooler 16 are set so that they become the same, that is, the heated culture liquid L is brought to the liquid temperature in the culture liquid tank 3 as a required temperature.
This is equivalent to the difference with the cooling heat amount due to.

For example, when the temperature detected by the third temperature sensor 37 is higher than the target value, the signal is the second controller 3
6 is transmitted to the fourth temperature sensor 41.
Is calculated higher by the first controller 38 in accordance with the higher detected value from.

Therefore, the second controller 36 receiving these signals outputs signals to the cooling tower device 28 to increase the rotation speed of the fan 33 and adjust the third electric control valve 29. Circulating cooling water W
By increasing the flow rate to the shower device 34, the cooling capacity of the cooling tower device 28 is increased by an amount corresponding to the difference.

When the temperature detected by the third temperature sensor 37 is low, the reverse control operation is performed as described above.
The cooling capacity of the cooling tower device 28 is reduced, and cooling is performed with increased dependence on the cooling capacity of the heat pump device 21.

In this way, as for the shortage of the cooling capacity, only the difference is replenished by the second cooler 15 as necessary, so that the heat source generated by the heat pump circuit 25 can be efficiently utilized, The heat sterilization apparatus 1 can be made compact by omitting installation of a heat storage tank as in the past.

Next, a second embodiment shown in FIG. 3 will be described.

The second embodiment is a process for heating the process liquid L'for food production to a predetermined high temperature and then cooling it to an appropriate temperature (for example, a low temperature lower than the initial temperature) for use. The present invention relates to the liquid processing apparatus 1 '.

The process liquid treating apparatus 1'as described above is similar to the above-described embodiment as shown in the figure, but in this embodiment, the second heater 13 is not installed and the second heater 13 is not installed. The electric control valve 18 is different from the above-described embodiment only in that it is controlled by the fifth temperature sensor 57 installed in the processing pipe line 11 on the downstream side of the cooler 16, and the other points are the same.

In the following description, only the differences will be described, and the same components as those in the embodiment will be designated by the same reference numerals in the drawings and the description thereof will be omitted.

That is, in the process liquid processing apparatus 1'shown in FIG. 3, the process liquid L'is circulated in the processing pipe line 11 in the arrow direction.

The process liquid L'is directly heated to a predetermined temperature by the heater 14 in the process liquid processing apparatus 1'and subjected to necessary sterilization processing. In addition, when the capacity of the heat pump circuit 25 is not large enough,
You may install a 2nd heater like the said Example.

Further, as described above, the second electric control valve 1
8 is controlled by the fifth temperature sensor 57 installed in the processing pipe line 11 on the downstream side of the cooler 16, and this point is also the process liquid stored in the tank as required in the same manner as in the above embodiment, if necessary. The liquid temperature may be controlled.

In the process liquid treatment apparatus 1'configured as shown in FIG. 3, the second cooler 15 is controlled by the first and second regulators 38 and 36 as described above. Since the difference is compensated for, the heat from the heat pump device 21 can be effectively used without using the heat storage tank, and the process liquid treatment device 1 ′ can be configured compactly, as in the above-described embodiment. .

[0075]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the invention, the second cooler having the heat source independent of the heat pump device is provided between the heater and the cooler of the pipeline. When installed, the heat source of the second cooler generates the amount of cooling heat corresponding to the difference between the amount of cooling heat for bringing the heated liquid to a required temperature and the amount of cooling heat by the cooler. The liquid can be heated to a predetermined high temperature by operating the heat pump device according to the initial temperature of the liquid.

Then, when the liquid is thereafter cooled to the required temperature lower than the cooling limit temperature, the cooling corresponding to the difference is performed by the second cooler independently of the heat pump device. The liquid can be efficiently cooled to a required temperature with a small operation of the heat source of the cooler.

Moreover, since the cooling by the second cooler is performed first, the cooling is efficiently performed, and a relatively simple device can be used as the heat source of the second cooler.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the lack of cooling in the liquid heating / cooling device using the heat pump device is adjusted by the operation of the second cooler, and the conventional installation of the heat storage tank becomes unnecessary. Therefore, the liquid heating / cooling device can be made compact.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a heat sterilizer for a culture solution for hydroponic culture.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a first adjuster.

FIG. 3 is an overall configuration diagram of a process liquid processing apparatus for food production.

[Explanation of symbols]

 L culture liquid (liquid) L'process liquid (liquid) 1 heat sterilizer (heat treatment device) 1'process liquid treatment device (heat treatment device) 11 treatment pipe line 14 heater 15 second cooler 16 cooler 21 Heat pump device 23 Evaporator 24 Condenser 28 Cooling tower device 37 Third temperature sensor (liquid temperature sensor) 41 Fourth temperature sensor (liquid medium temperature sensor)

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A heater and a cooler are installed in this order from an upstream side in a pipeline through which a liquid flows, and a condenser and an evaporator of a heat pump device are used as heat sources of the heater and the cooler, respectively. In the liquid heating and cooling device, the liquid is cooled to a predetermined high temperature by the heat generated by the condenser, and then the liquid is cooled by using the cooling heat of the evaporator. A second cooler having a heat source independent of the heat pump device is installed between the heat pump device and the heat source of the second cooler, and a heat quantity of cooling for heating the heated liquid to a required temperature. A heating / cooling device for a liquid, which generates a cooling heat amount corresponding to a difference from a cooling heat amount by the cooler. 2. The liquid heating / cooling device according to claim 1, wherein the cooling heat amount of the evaporator is transferred to the cooler via a liquid medium, and the temperature of the liquid medium at the inlet side of the evaporator. And a liquid temperature sensor for detecting the liquid temperature between the second cooler and the cooler, the second cooler and the cooler being provided. For the liquid temperature between the two, while setting a target value that goes up and down with the detection value of the liquid medium temperature sensor, the second so as to bring the detection value of the liquid temperature sensor close to the target value. A liquid heating / cooling device, characterized in that the cooling capacity of the cooler is adjusted. 3. The liquid heating / cooling device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a cooling tower is used as a heat source of the second cooler.