US1783464A - Refrigerating machine - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 2, 1930. F. FOLILNN 1,783,454

REFRIGERATING MACHINE Filed Jun' so, 1926 I I INj/ENT R Patented Dec. 2, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE RAOUL FERDINAND FOLLAIN', or GOLOMIBES, FRANCE, ASSIGNOR 'ro soorn'rn IANONYME,

POUR LEXPLOITATION DES rRooEDns FRANCE MAURICE LEBLANCVICKERS, 01 PARIS,

REFRIGERATING MACHINE Application filed June 30, 1926, Serial No.

My invention relates to a refrigerating machine intended to obtain economically great differences in temperature of the type which operates by direct evaporation of water or other liquid in a vacuum.

The advantages inherent in the series cooling method, when employed in plants to produce great differences in the temperature are well known to those skilled in the art, and these are due to the saving in power in the operation of the compressors, which are the same in number as there are stages in the series system, thus offering a marked reduc tion in the ratio of compression of the devices employed.

Refrigerating machines are known, which operate by the evaporation of water in a vacuum and are constituted by a series of evaporators in which the temperature and pressure decrease from one to the other and which are traversed in series in the said direction by the liquid to be cooled by evaporation, each evaporator being associated with the corresponding condenser of a series of condensers in which a different pressure and, temperature exists at each stage and which are traversed in series by the condensing water in a direction from the coolest to the hottest.

In the apparatus according to my invention the condensers are of the spray or jet type and are superposed in an inverse order to that of the evaporators with which they are respectively associated, the coolest condenser being located at the highest stage and the condensing water flowing naturally from one condenser into the next following one. By this arrangement it is ossible to eliminate all motive ower which would otherwise be required or circulating the water or other liquid in the condensers, thus resulting in considerable economy.

The accompanying drawing is a diagrammatic View of an embodiment of my invention illustrating by way of example the principle upon which it is based.

In the drawing the arrangement of the evaporators a, b, a, the condensers l, m, n, and the compression apparatus 2', y, k, shown by way of example as steam e] ectors, might 119,599, and in France October 14, 1925.

of pumps will be eliminated.

Devices are interposed'between the several evaporators which assure the free circulation of the liquid to be cooled from one evaporator to the other, while at the same time maintaining the individuality of the vacuum required for each stage of the process.

An arrangement such as the liquid seals p 9 corresponds exactly to these conditions.

When discharged from the lower evaporator a, the completely cooled liquid may be withdrawn by the usual means, either on the barometric principle or by the pump 7'.

The condensers Z m'n offer the particular feature that they are superposed, and this allows the use of a common amount of water which is circulated through the said condensers in series. The condensers are of the spray or jet type, the free circulation of the condensed water from one condenser to the other is assured by a device analogous to what is provided for the circulation of the liquid to be cooled through the evaporator for instance the liquid seals p g.

This arrangement does not exclude the possibllity of supplying at any of-the aforesaid stages of condensation a certain amount of fresh water, should it be necessary to reduce the tension prevailing in any one of the condensers.

Another important feature of the plant consists in the methodical order in which the the compressor 71 used with the warmest evaporator may deliver into the warmest condenser without inconvenience.

The compressors used with the intermediate evaporators are connected upon the same principle; in the case of a plant comprising three evaporators, the compressor 7' used with the middle evaporator b will deliver directly into the middle condenser m.

At the discharge end of the lower condenser n, the hot water is withdrawn by means known per se, such as a suitable pump 8 or the usual barometric tube. v

The vacuum for the condensers is produced by means of air-extracting apparatus of a suitable type, for instance steam ejectors, characterized by a special arrangement of ejectors in series comprising as many ejectors on the upper side 25 u o as there are condensers in operation; these condensers are operated in parallel and discharge at a common pressure which is maintained by a compression stage w common to the diflerent ejectors on the upper side, and this combination will economically assure the vacuum in the several stages of condensation.

The air with-drawing apparatus thus disposed might be provided with auxiliary condensers which are supplied in any suitable manner.

A simple air withdrawing apparatus of any type may be employed to produce the vacuum in the whole number of condensers in use. In this event, the air withdrawing apparatus takes the air from the coldest condenser, and the air extracted from the warmest condenser will rejoin this same condenser by passing through the intermediate condenser or condensers in which it becomes cooled, and thus attains the coldest condenser at the minimum volume, from which, as above disclosed, it is taken off by the air withdrawing apparatus- In operation, the liquid to be cooled enters the first of the series of superposed evaporators, where, due to the vacuum caused by the steam ejector 6, part of the water is evaporated and the remaining water somewhat cooled. When a certain predetermined level of water has been reached in this evaporator, the liquid seal p opens and allows the partially cooled water to enter the next evaporator or zone b in the form of a spray. Again the partial evaporation and resulting cooling occurs. This process is continued until the proper temperature of liquid is obtained. The centrifugal pump r motor or engine driven, circulates this cooled water from the last evaporator through a series of pipes which may pass through brine or other material to be cooled, and after it has taken up the heat of the substances to be cooled, the water again enters the evaporators at d. The liquid vaporized in each evaporator is withdrawn from the evaporator by means of the vacuum maintained by the associated steam ejectors i, j or see Flg. 2,

tively. Here cold water from the line a is sprayed upon the vapor entering the condenser Z. Air in the condenser is exhausted by the associated steam ejector 'v. The entering vapor and water strike the spray of cool water, and condensation of the vapor re- 7 sults. This vapor in condensing will give up a certain amount of heat which is imparted to the water. When a certain predetermined level of water has been attained in the con denser Z, the liquid seal 12' opens and permits the condensate to enter the next condenser m of the series in a spray and again the process is repeated for the vapor entering this condenser m from the second evaporation zone G, and this operation is repeated on the third condenser 12..

One condenser is rovided for each evaporator and a centri ugal pump S, driven by the same power unit as that of the cooled water circulation pump 0", will drive the said condensate back to the storage tank to be used again when needed in the cycle of operations.

By connecting the coolest evaporator to the coolest condenser and the Warmest evapo- 9 rator to the warmest condenser, the relative temperatures of the condensers and evaporators are employed in the most eilicient manner to assist in maintaining the required vacuum on the evaporators and to appreciably lower the work required by the ejectors such as j or i, and la. It also provides a further saving of energy by allowing a low velocity ejector to be connected between the warmest evaporator and condenser, and a higher velocity for the exhausting of vapor from the coldest evaporator to the coldest condenser. This, together with the liquid seals provides individuality of vacuum in each condenser and each evaporator.

Due account can thus be taken of the considerable saving of power, steam and water afforded by the above-described plant, whose construction will not strictly depend upon what is shown in the drawings, these being given by way of example. In particular, the number of evaporators and condensers comprised in the plant may be as desired.

Obviously, the means above disclosed may be employed separately or in combination without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

It is evident that the compressors, evaporators and condensers may be of any suitable type or construction, and the two last-mentioned apparatus may consist of horizontal instead of vertical cylindrical bodies. The nungier of these apparatus may also be as desire Hill What I claim is:

1. In a refrigeration machine, of evaporators, a plurality of superposed condensers, direct series connection of said condensers so that the condensate and cooling water will flow from one 'to the other by gravity, liquid seals between said connections for providing individuality of vacuum between said condensers.

a plurality 2. A refrigeration apparatus having a v series of evaporators and a jet condenser for each of said evaporators, each condenser provided with an air exhausting apparatus consisting of steam ejectors discharging into a common ejector which discharges the air at a common pressure to the atmosphere.

3. In a refrigeration machine, of superposed evaporators, a plurality of superposed condensers associated therewith, a connection between the highest evaporator and the lowest condenser, and a connection between the lowest evaporatorand the highest condenser, an ejector in each connection and an ejector associated with each condenser leading to a common ejector.

4. In a refrigeration machine, three superposed evaporators, three superposed condensers associated therewith, a communicating connection between said highest evaporator and lowest condenser, between said lowest evaporator and said highest condenser, and between said intermediate evaporator and condenser, and liquid seals between said individual evaporators and condensers.

5. In a refrigeration machine three superposed evaporators, three superposed condensers associated therewith, a communicat ing connection between said highest evapo rator and lowest condenser, between said low est evaporator and said highest condenser, and between said intermediate evaporator and condenser, and liquid seals between said individual evaporators and condensers, the fluids both in said evaporators and in said condensers flowing gravitationally downwardly.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification.

RAOUL FERDINAND FOLLAIN.

a plurality

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