WO2021001671A1 - Method for pressurisation by combination of thermal expansion and sudden changes of state - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention aims to provide a method that allows the energy density of a volume of a fluid to be raised by increasing its pressure through heat and changes of state, even at very low temperature differentials, in order to exert useful mechanical work. The steps of the method are a combination of changes between the liquid and vapour states. Depending on the desired implementation, these changes can exceed the critical pressure and/or temperature values, ​​resulting in supercritical fluid, compressible liquid or gas. The method is demonstrated in a prototype cell. These steps can take place in a single volume that adapts to them or in a sequence of specialised volumes for each of them. The steps can take place sequentially or, where they enhance each other, it may be preferable for them to occur concurrently.

Description

PRESSURIZATION PROCESS BY COMBINATION OF THERMAL EXPANSION

AND SUDDEN STATUS CHANGES

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The object of the invention is to provide a process that allows raising the energy density of a volume of a fluid by increasing its pressure from heat and changes of state, even in very low temperature differentials, in order to exert useful mechanical work. The stages of the process are a combination of changes between the liquid and vapor states. Depending on the desired implementation, these changes can exceed the critical pressure and / or temperature values resulting in supercritical fluid, compressible liquid or gas. The process is demonstrated in a prototype cell. These stages can take place in a single volume that adapts to them or in a sequence of volumes specialized in each of them. The stages may occur sequentially or, where they enhance each other, it may be preferred that they occur concurrently.

BACKGROUND AND PRIOR ART

The closest antecedent of the present invention is the process on which the Stirling Engine is based, as the "hot air" engine patented by Robert Stirling in 1816 has been called since 1945, together with the "regenerator", which differentiated it from other contemporary hot air engines.

However, even though the characteristic of the Stirling Engine is to exert work by converting heat into pneumatic potential energy expressed in a difference of pressures, as in the invention, in the Stirling engine this is achieved by the difference in specific volumes of the same gas at different temperatures and in the present invention it is guided by another thermodynamic mechanism: reaching said difference in volumes by changing the state of the working fluid. or.

Also found in the closest art are three patent documents, which indicate changes of state:

CN201858043 (U) - Working Fluid Phase Change Cycle Single Acting Vane Heat Engine Standard span motor and therefore based on a pressure difference in the working fluid. This pressure differential is achieved based on the difference in specific volumes of the different states of the working fluid. Through its evaporation at the inlet, a high pressure is generated and its condensation at the outlet reduces the specific volume, determining a lower pressure. Heat is both supplied and extracted from external sources, at cryogenic temperatures, in the case of condensation. The fluid in the expansion process is injected between the chamber openings that are increasing in volume and is withdrawn when the chambers begin to reduce their volume by means of the aspiration of the reduced pressure that generates their condensation.

EP2087210 (Al) - Method For Converting Heat Energy And Rotary Vane Piston Motor - Motor based on a saturated fluid that changes linearly state externally to apply the work in oscillating rotary piston motor.

GB2528522 (A) - Thermodynamic Engine Motor that works by changing the state of a working fluid by means of a second heat carrier fluid. The heat exchange is done by combining the working fluid with the second fluid.

The present invention has in common with these last three antecedents in that in all of them a change of state is applied in the working fluid. However, the difference with all of them is that while in them the change of state is achieved by applying or extracting heat in the whole mass in general, in the invention pressure and temperature conditions are forced that cause a spontaneous change of state, sometimes selectively in a part of the dough.

This difference is very significant since in the antecedent cases a temperature differential is needed to achieve heat transfer (Newton's Law of Cooling) and the success of the change of state depends on the amplitude of this differential. In the invention, by generating the conditions of spontaneous change of state, it is achieved that the fluid evaporates even being at the same temperature as its surroundings but absorbing heat causing it to cool or that it condenses, rejecting heat that results in an increase in the temperature of its surroundings. .

The theoretical foundations of thermodynamic properties that apply in the present invention are based on the inherent properties of fluids and their changes of state. These properties were studied by James Thomson, Thomas Andrews and Johannes Van der Waals, whose works are antecedents of the invention.

The doctor . Thomas Andrews, in his article "On the Continuity of Gaseous and Liquid States of Matter"

("On the Continuity of the Gaseous and Liquid States of Matter ", 1869) had anticipated the liquefaction of gases until then considered" permanent. "When determining that carbon dioxide was not condensable above 304K, regardless of pressure, he estimated that there was a temperature value above from which the gases could no longer be liquefied. He then estimated that the permanent gases could be liquefied if they cooled sufficiently, that is, below this temperature, which would later be known as "critical." This temperature is one of the values of what today is called the "critical point." The last "permanent gas", helium, was liquefied in 1908 in Holland by Kamerlingh Onnes, verifying the theory of Thomas Andrews.

James Thomson, brother of William, later Lord Kelvin, and colleague of Dr. Thomas Andrews, in Belfast, while also studying the liquefaction of gases. In this he noted and studied what he called "the difficulty of making a beginning of their change of State". This difficulty is what is currently called "subcooling" and "overheating", considered today "metastable states" or "metastates".

Johannes van der Waals won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1910 for his work on the equation of state of gases and liquids. Your work is important to the invention in two respects. In the first, Van der Waals was able to estimate these metastable states by discovering their limits. It established at what maximum / minimum pressures can be kept liquid or gaseous, respectively, depending on the temperature. In a graph of pressure versus volume, the subcritical isotherms have a valley (minimum pressure) and a peak (maximum pressure) within the liquid / vapor coexistence hood, which together describe the line after which nucleation or condensation is spontaneous . This line was called "spinodal". In the second aspect Van der Waals proved that at their reduced values all fluids deviate from ideal gas behavior by roughly the same degree. This is the "Theorem of Corresponding States"("Theorem of Corresponding States", 1873). This theorem states that all fluids, when compared with the same temperature and reduced pressures, deviate from the ideal gas behavior by roughly the same degree. The most important example is the Van der Waals equation, the reduced form of which can be applied to all fluids.

As a corollary to the work of these scientists, it is possible to draw Graph 1, which allows anticipating the physical behavior of all fluids that do not undergo chemical changes in the face of heat, that is, their formula does not change and does not transform into another compound.

This Graph 1 details the so-called "Van der Waals" isotherms on a graph of P = / (V). "K" is the critical point. Passing through "K", there is the "bell", called the "binodal curve" or "Andrews curve" that encloses the area of liquid-vapor coexistence. This curve is intersected by the subcritical isotherms, in blue, which have the minimum and maximum predicted, the combination of which forms the "spinodal" line. This graph details the metastable states: stretched liquid, superheated liquid, and subcooled vapor.

It is known in the art, then, that those fluids that do not change chemically in the face of heat, that is, that do not become another compound, can change their state of aggregation, and be in one or another state according to their temperature and pressure. They can change directly or enter a metastable state until the balance is broken, or reaches its maximum.

The invention is based on the use of these properties in a suitably determined process capable of being developed in a mechanical device also specifically designed on a working fluid that fulfills them and chosen according to its thermodynamic properties with respect to the intended application.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the invention is to provide a process that allows raising the energy density of a volume of a fluid by increasing its pressure from heat and changes of state, even in very low temperature differentials, in order to exert useful mechanical work. The stages of process are a combination of changes between the liquid and vapor states. Depending on the desired implementation, these changes can exceed the critical pressure and / or temperature values resulting in supercritical fluid, compressible liquid or gas. The process is demonstrated in a prototype cell. These stages can take place in a single volume that adapts to them or in a sequence of volumes specialized in each of them. The stages may occur sequentially or, where they enhance each other, it may be preferred that they occur concurrently.

In thermodynamic terms, it is an increase in the internal energy of the fluid. The internal energy, by the first principle of Thermodynamics (AU = Q + W), can be increased by providing work (W), for example, by reducing the volume on the same mass with a piston; or by increasing the mass in the same volume, as in an axial compressor; or providing heat (Q), with a boiler; all known forms in the art.

The novelty of the invention lies in the fact that the heat contribution to the fluid is made by absorption of latent heat by deliberately and controlled causing a sudden spontaneous boiling where it is not expected to happen, in a confined system, with its corresponding change of state by evaporation . This determines that the heat transfer is not produced by the heat source in proportion to the difference in temperature, as prescribed by Newton's Law of Cooling, but rather absorbed by the fluid that changes state and, consequently, its magnitude does not depend of this difference. The temperature remains unchanged in the evaporating fluid. This principle of operation causes a thermodynamic imbalance whose consequent equalization process, adiabatic in ideal terms, it has as consequences the other stages claimed and, the sum of all is the invention.

The claimed invention is_a_process_of potentiation, or increase in potential energy, of a fluid for its conversion into work in a reversible thermodynamic cycle (AS = 0) without chemical exchange with its environment. The implementation of the invention is based on a heat pump circuit specifically designed for this purpose, where the implementation is one more station destined to boost a percentage of the condensed fluid at high pressure with all the heat that has been captured in the evaporation stage. Accordingly, the present invention provides, in an embodiment to be described later, the process and steps thereof through which the entropy maximization of the fluid is achieved. The reduction to the starting point, closing the thermodynamic cycle, is carried out by converting the potential energy acquired into work by means of any of the methods already known, or to be known in the art, mounted in series after the process in this same circuit. As stated before, the result is a reversible thermodynamic cycle without chemical exchange with its environment.

Its field of application is the mechanical work production sector, particularly, but not restricted, where the energy source is available in the form of heat, even at low temperatures. Its most notable areas of application, without being limited to these, are energy efficiency, energy generation and, with particular emphasis, transport.

In the area of energy efficiency, it allows to take advantage of the heat from waste from industrial processes, the unwanted content in effluents, or fluids in general that need to be transported, and / or the rejection heat of the condensers in the refrigeration equipment.

In the field of generation, it allows generation from the harvest of atmospheric heat or a volume of water. In the case of atmospheric heat, the harvest includes that of latent heat from condensed moisture concurrently.

In the case of transport, it allows generating mechanical energy from a heat battery in the form of volumes of hot liquids or solids, saving other physical-chemical energy storage methods. Where conditions allow it, the heat can also be that of atmospheric origin or, in the case of navigation, that of the water.

The invention admits the use of multiple sources of heat simultaneously, or in series. In the case of the automotive industry, it allows a liquid source on board and an atmospheric source, even if it is minimal. This secondary source or sources are useful to save the heat of the main source or to transfer heat to it in times of non-use.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF EACH FIGURE

Figure la - Graph of P = f (T) for the Study of the Saturation Line and the Limits of Superheating and

Subcooling for R410a thermal fluid.

Figure Ib - Graph of P = f (T) for the Study of the Saturation Line and the Limits of Superheat and

Subcooling for R744 - CO2 thermal fluid. Figure 2a - Scheme of the basic Prototype Cell of the invention. The essential elements of the device are shown: copper tube (sometimes also called "loading chamber" or "processing chamber"), with pressure gauge, thermocouple and spherical access valve.

Figure 2b - Evolution of relevant variables in the CYCLE

COMPLETE of the potential energy charging process, presented in graphical form Sequential sampling-40 Hz (40 samples correspond to ls) vs Multiple Reference Value. The data represented arises from a sampling with R744 of working fluid and subcritical objective.

Figure 2c - Evolution graph of the surveyed P-T points (pressure-temperature), during the load cycle, depressurization process by discharge, with saturation curve, as a reference.

Figure 3a - Graphic diagram of the architecture of the prototype Unit 'C _å '

Figure 3b - Evolution of relevant variables in the CYCLE

COMPLETE of the potential energy charging process. The variables relevant to the process are presented: Temperature (° C x10), Pressure (PSIg), Percentage of Total Mass of Fluid in Steam (% M x2000 +500), Percentage of Volume

Total in Steam (% V x800 +500). Each point in the graphs corresponds to "sample points" taken sequentially at the rate of 40 per second (40Hz).

Figure 3c - Detail of the Evolution of Relevant Variables during charging by Sudden Evaporation and Thermal Expansion.

This graph is a detail of the first half of the graph in figure 3b, shown on a more expanded scale. The different stages that will be described with the examples of realization are shown.

Figure 3d - Detail of the Evolution of relevant Variables during loading by Sudden Evaporation and Expansion Thermal, with milestone references. In this detail, which is the same presented in Figure 3c, vertical reference lines have been added, which follow the order in the references. The long blue lines are changes in the device and the short brown lines are physical references of the process. The red lines indicate the entrance to the state of compressible fluid, the first, and to the state of supercritical fluid, the second.

Figure 3e - Evolution graph of the surveyed P-T points (pressure-temperature), during the load cycle, depressurization process by discharge, with saturation curve, as a reference.

Figure 4a - Example Refrigeration Circuit integrating the cell of the invention, as will be used in examples 3A and 3B. The labels refer to the systems described in the detail of the examples (1-4, base refrigeration circuit; A-D, motor; a-d, enthalpic cycle of the invention).

Figure 4b - Mollier plot. Thermodynamic cycle using R410a as a working fluid in a working circuit that includes the cells of the invention, related to the

Example 3A.

Figure 4c - Graph P = / (V). Duty cycle using R410a from the single cylinder engine of Example 3A.

Figure 4d - Mollier plot. Thermodynamic cycle using R744 as working fluid in a working circuit that includes the cells of the invention, related to the

Example 3B.

Figure 4e - Graph P = / (V). Duty cycle using R744 from the single cylinder engine of Example 3B.

Figure 5a - Graphic diagram of the Invention in a possible embodiment of a pulsed generation device. A working piston cylinder assembly is shown as the cells of the invention, related to Example 3.

Figure 5b - Shows the profile of the Cam Crown. An arrangement of 6 cylinders on a 4-instance crown is also shown, related to Example 3.

Figure 6 - Graphic diagram of the Invention in a possible embodiment of a device for continuous or axial generation with a turbine.

Terminology

The following terms, as used in the present invention, are defined as follows:

- Self-cooling: Name of the process in a saturated fluid that results in a final temperature lower than the initial temperature without rejecting heat to the environment. It is the result of a very rapid pressure drop, or in an adiabatic container, which determines the evaporation of at least a part of the liquid mass in the quantity necessary to reach a new equilibrium of saturation. The heat of evaporation arises from sensible heat, which determines a lower final temperature of the system.

- State Change: evolution of matter between various states of aggregation without a change in its composition occurring

- Cell of the invention: This term refers to a set of mechanical elements that, appropriately linked to each other, allow the method of the invention to be developed. This set of linked elements called a cell can partially or totally include elements such as: chambers or containers, valves, heaters, thermostats, thermocouples, thermometers, pressure gauges, pipes, electronic components, control components, depending on the purpose of your application.

- Coefficient of Performance (CoP, Coefficient of Performance): It is the numerical relationship between the displaced energy and the work required to do it. A ratio of 1 means the same amount of work as displaced energy. Greater than 1 indicates that more than the required work is displaced and less than 1, that the displaced energy is less than the required work.

- Glide: Property of zeotropic mixtures. It is the range of temperatures in which the change of state occurs, as its components have different boiling points. In refrigerants this slip is usually about 4 to 7 Kelvin, but it can be higher or lower only depending on the mixture of thermal fluids.

- Boiling: It is the rapid vaporization throughout the mass of a liquid that occurs when the temperature is reached for which each pressure value is below the critical pressure at which the fluid can be in a liquid state.

- Sudden Boiling: It is the boiling that takes place when a liquid is suddenly in a state of excessive overheating or that being overheated is disturbed, losing stability. This boiling can be total or partial -or localized-. A total flash boil affects the entire mass and occurs when it is left in a state of overheating due to a drastic reduction in pressure. This pressure reduction produces an instantaneous homogeneous nucleation. A localized flash boil occurs when an intense source of heat strikes some point in the mass so rapidly that it evaporates, without changing the surrounding fluid.

- Laminar Boiling: It is a type of boiling that occurs due to heat input when the heat input surface is significantly hotter than the boiling point of the liquid. This determines a heat flow greater than that which the fluid can transmit, evaporating the affected molecules. These molecules generate a very thin layer of vapor between the hot surface and the liquid, which gives it its name, which has less conductivity than the liquid, which maintains the system.

Nuclear Boiling: A type of boiling that occurs when vapor bubbles or evaporation "nuclei" appear. These nuclei can be around an impurity or the intersection of hypobaric waves, which generate points of very low pressure, in the event of a sudden depressurization. There are two types according to the distribution of the bubbles: homogeneous or heterogeneous.

- Homogeneous Nuclear Boiling: It is a nuclear boiling in which the evaporation nuclei are distributed in equal proportion throughout the mass of the liquid. They are typically generated by depressurization.

- Heterogeneous Nuclear Boiling: It is a nuclear boiling in which the nuclei are generated on the contact surface with the liquid. These nuclei are formed around impurities or roughness on the surface. If this surface is very smooth, the liquid can overheat without boiling.

- Dynamic Equilibrium: In a closed system when the mass of evaporating liquid equals that of condensing vapor, it is said that the system is in "dynamic equilibrium", or "evaporative equilibrium". It corresponds to the state of saturation.

- Evaporative Equilibrium: it is equivalent to Dynamic Equilibrium.

- Saturation State: State of a fluid whose temperature and pressure are in direct correspondence and dynamic equilibrium is achieved. The vapor pressure is the maximum possible for its temperature and its temperature is the maximum for its vapor pressure, without boiling. - Linear evaporation (or condensation): refers to the usual evaporation or condensation, since its rate of change of state per unit of time is linear, in open systems.

- Azeotropic Fluid (mixture): Liquid mixture of defined composition between two or more chemical compounds that boils at a constant temperature, at constant pressure, and behaves as if it were made up of a single component. Its vaporous phase has the same composition as its liquid phase.

- Zeotropic fluid (mixture): A zeotropic mixture (ISO 817) or "non-azeotropic", is a fluid mixture of two or more components that have different boiling points. Its composition per phase varies with evaporation, since its components behave independently and have different evaporation rates.

- Supercritical Fluid (FSC): State of the fluid that is at a higher temperature and pressure than its critical temperature and pressure. It is characterized by combining the properties of liquids and gases. There is no phase transition between liquid and vapor.

- Compressible Fluid: Fluid above its Critical Pressure, but below the Critical Temperature. It behaves like a liquid, but it can be compressed.

- Working Fluid: It is the fluid (liquid or gas) used in the device of the invention and on which the actions of the method of the invention are applied.

- Mollier's Graph: Thermodynamic graph that has as one of its axes the Enthalpy (h), so named since 1923 in honor of the German professor Richard Mollier, a pioneer in experimental research in thermodynamics.

- Spinodal Line: It is the line that details the local stability limit. In the scope of the invention, and in the graph of reduced values P = / (V), is the line defined by the set of roots of the first derivative of the subcritical van der Waals isotherms and the critical point.

Binodal line, of coexistence or "Andrews": It is the line that details the limit of coexistence of more than one phase or state of aggregation of matter. The Andrews line is a binodal especially, bell-shaped, which appears on the graph P = / (V) and which describes the limit of the biphasic fluid - contained in the bell. The Andrews line is usually divided into two: the limit of the area of coexistence with the liquid state, called the "bubble line", and the limit of the biphasic fluid with the vapor, called the "drip line".

Elongated Liquid: It is the metastable state of a liquid in which the pressure exerted on the exposed surface of the liquid is less than zero (negative pressure), increasing its intermolecular space. When the equilibrium is broken there is a partial evaporation of the liquid that fills the space left by the molecules that return to their distance corresponding to the temperature.

Superheated Liquid: It is the metastable state of a liquid that, without being boiling, its temperature exceeds its saturation temperature at the pressure to which it is subjected or, conversely, when its pressure is below the saturation pressure in function at the temperature found. When the equilibrium is broken, the liquid spontaneously boils.

Thermal Mass, Heat Battery or Thermal Flywheel: Mass of material in the most suitable state for its function, the purpose of which is to contain -in practical exchange-related terms- an infinite amount of heat. It can yield or receive heat without significantly changing its temperature.

Metastability: It is the property of the system with several possible states of equilibrium, which can reach pseudo-intermediate stability, or precarious stability, which is maintained over time as long as they are not affected by an external disturbance.

- Critical Pressure: Pressure from which the liquid is compressible and cannot be converted into a gas regardless of its temperature.

- Critical Properties: They are those that describe and determine the critical point and the behavior of the fluids in its surroundings.

- Critical Point: Point at which the fluid is at its critical pressure at its critical temperature. It is the highest temperature and pressure culmination of the saturation curve.

- Boiling Point: It is the point on the temperature scale at which the vapor pressure of a liquid equals the external pressure to which it is subjected. It is a property of each fluid.

- Critical Temperature: Temperature from which a fluid in a gaseous state cannot be condensed regardless of the pressure, in which a "vapor" is called "gas".

- Critical Values: Value module of the critical point, in terms of pressure, temperature and specific volume (or density)

- Reduced Values: They are scalar values resulting from the quotient of pressure, temperature or volume between their respective critical values. A value equal to 1 denotes the critical value, less than 1 are "subcritical" values and greater than 1 are supercritical, or transcritical.

- Subcritical values: State value of the fluid less than the critical value, or module of the critical point, in its corresponding scale.

- Supercritical or transcritical values: Fluid state value greater than the critical value, or module of the critical point, in its corresponding scale. - Check or Non-return Valve: Flow control valve arranged in the pipeline that only allows flow in one direction, preventing flow in the opposite direction.

- Flow-Check Valve: Valve similar to the Check, which, in addition to allowing flow in one direction, limits its maximum flow. Allow flow only the determined direction. It prevents passage if the flow changes direction, or if it exceeds a maximum, even in the intended direction.

- Subcooled Steam: It is the metastable state of a steam in which its temperature is below its saturation temperature at the pressure it is, or on the contrary, it is at a pressure higher than the saturation pressure corresponding to its temperature. When the equilibrium is broken, the vapor spontaneously condenses.

- Neighborhood of Critical Point (Near-critical point): Region of Pressure / Temperature close to the critical point where the physical properties of the fluids present very fast variations of properties.

- Zones of metastability: In the graph of P = / (V), where the Van der Waals isotherms and the epinodal and Andrews lines are plotted, three areas called "metastability" are denoted, due to the precarious state of equilibrium of the fluid. These are the area of negative pressures ("elongated liquid"), and the resulting areas between the Andrews and spinodal lines. The area between the Andrews line less than the critical point or "bubble line" and the spinodal of minima is the "superheat" area. The area between the Andrews curve greater than the critical point or "drip line" and the spinodal of maxima, is the "subcooling" area. The fluid can be in these areas without changing state as long as it is not disturbed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to increase the internal energy of a fluid in order to exert useful mechanical work and, furthermore, to do so from heat sources of low temperature, or minimum differential with the invention, and without chemical exchange with the environment.

The process uses principles extensively studied and known in the art. By way of review, they are:

- That gaseous states of aggregation have higher enthalpy than liquids. Therefore an evaporation process requires heat from its surroundings and a condensation process rejects heat from its surroundings.

- That the heat transfer rate is a function of the temperature differential (Newton's Law of Cooling)

- That fluids expand and contract as a function of temperature, with the notable exception of water, below 3.8 ° C.

- What is a correspondence between temperature-pressure-specific volume and the state of aggregation of matter. (Corresponding State Theorem, Van del Waals)

- That state change processes are isothermal.

From these principles it arises that the process cannot be an increase in sensible heat (heating) because the increase in internal energy would be limited to the product of the specific heat of the fluid and the mass times the temperature difference and this, by definition, is limited , making the implementation unfeasible or unhelpful. The process has to be an increase in internal energy by latent heat (evaporation) but evaporation requires heat, so the evaporation rate depends on the rate of heat input and the rate of heat input depends on the differential of temperature. Therefore, then, it appears that the evaporation rate depends on the temperature difference, which, again, is limited. From all this it follows that a direct application of these principles makes any implementation unfeasible in practical terms. The novelty of the invention is to resolve this infeasibility without violating the principles known and verified in the prior art and governed by the laws of thermodynamics.

The process object of the invention, then, is a method of optimization in effectiveness and efficiency, in a closed thermodynamic system, of the property of liquids to absorb heat when evaporating. The invention must push and overcome the limitations imposed, without violating laws of science.

The first approach, then, is to cause the fluid to evaporate by spontaneous boiling. In this way, the evaporation rate does not depend on the heat supplied, but on the heat that can be absorbed.

By the Corresponding States Theorem, and the studies associated with it by Van de Waals, we know that the saturation state of fluids has a direct correspondence with their pressure and temperature. If we increase the temperature, or reduce the pressure, of a liquid, it has to evaporate as it cannot remain in a liquid state. This is what is called spontaneous boiling. Even so, from the work of James Thomson, we know that the liquid can enter a metastate of overheating but after the spinodal limit that Van der Waals predicted, boiling happens and it is sudden and, therefore, it is called "sudden".

Spontaneous pressure reduction boiling is adiabatic, therefore internal energy does not increase. As the The objective is to increase the internal energy, spontaneous evaporation occurs due to an increase in temperature.

The liquid is confined to a closed system, so that if the heat input were gradual whether it evaporates or expands the fluid, these increase the pressure to the same extent that the heat increases and does not boil.

Therefore the liquid has to be subjected to an intensive heat input. When the heat is intense enough, its incidence on the molecules of the fluid causes their evaporation without raising the temperature of the system, which remains constant. The heat source must be able to ensure that the fluid being impinged can exceed the maximum superheat temperature and must be able to maintain the necessary heat flow corresponding to the evaporation rate. Otherwise the hot surface cools down and the process is interrupted. This heat flow is proportional to the temperature difference between the source and the temperature of the working fluid.

The first optimization step can then be to improve the temperature differential between the source and the working fluid. This is achieved by causing a spontaneous boiling by pressure reduction before the supply of intense heat. This boiling is adiabatic, but the pressure reduction leaves it in a state of excessive superheating and results in spontaneous boiling. Part of the fluid evaporates in the form of bubbles - called "nuclei" - within the liquid and the heat necessary for this evaporation is absorbed from the liquid in its environment. This a "homogeneous nuclear boil" and is a self-cooling process. The fluid ends up "nucleated" and at a lower temperature and even much lower than the initial one, without having rejected heat. The fluid thus cooled can be much colder even than the surroundings - so it could not have been cooled by Newton's law - and this increases the temperature differential that can ensure the success of the intense heat input stage. This optimization can be used not only to widen the spread, but also to create it.

With spontaneous boiling due to the contribution of intense heat, the capture or harvesting of heat from the process ends, although it extends into the first stage of the equilibrium stages. These equilibrium stages are part of the claimed process.

Evaporation is an isothermal process, but not isobaric. The boiling of the heat harvesting stages generates steam that accumulates in a finite volume. This implies an increase in the internal pressure of the system. This steam is at the same temperature as the rest of the system. The pressure increase over the vapor is a form of subcooling. Eventually the pressure increase causes the steam to exceed its maximum subcooling and it condenses spontaneously. The heat of rejection of this condensation increases the temperature of the steam and this, being warmer than the underlying liquid, heats it. This stage involves the dual condition of excessively superheated liquid evaporating while generating excessively subcooled vapor condensing. This is a stage of dynamic equilibrium. Condensation is spontaneous and gives off heat even when it is at the same temperature as its surroundings in a process contrary to self-cooling which, by analogy, can be called "self-heating". The steam that was in cores (bubbles) is also excessively subcooled and condenses, rejecting heat directly in the liquid. Eventually the liquid fluid becomes too hot to maintain the temperature difference with the heat source and the evaporation stage is completed, and therefore the intensive heat harvesting of the claimed process.

The next stage combines the liquid in direct contact with the heat source that no longer manages to evaporate it and steam still in excess of subcooling. Both sources result in the increase in temperature of the liquid that results in its expansion, which compresses the vapor, feeding back its excessive subcooling, which results in spontaneous condensation, which heats the liquid, and so on until equilibrium. The equilibrium, depending on the absorbed heat, volume, and mass, can be a saturated fluid, supercritical fluid, or their intermediates, gas or compressible liquid. The quality of the supercritical fluid depends a lot on the volume variation in the spontaneous boiling due to pressure drop, which contributed volume since density is an important value and this is the amount of mass per unit volume.

This last stage can end up with the working fluid hotter than its original heat source and begin to reject heat in favor of the source. At this stage, the ejection of the fluid from the chamber or "load cell" begins, ending the claimed process.

This process is enhanced if the fluid is in its saturated condition and its loading is done with care not to affect it. If it were not saturated, there is a transit of heat that will only achieve its saturation and this results in inefficiency, although it does not prevent operation. If it is to be accepted that it is not saturated, its conditions will have to be relieved to adapt the other variables.

The stages, therefore, are:

- Conditioning / Survey (at saturation)

- Injection (entry into loading chamber, unaffected)

- Nucleation and Self-cooling (With pressure drops that can equal zero, if the stage is not deemed necessary)

- Sudden Evaporation by spontaneous boiling.

- Evaporation / Condensation (dynamic balance) - Expansion / Condensation

- Ejection or Expulsion

The control of these processes can be expressed graphically as shown in Figures la and Ib with graphs P = f (T), in which the saturation curves and the superheating and subcooling limits for the working fluids R410A and R744 are shown. -C0 ₂ , which will be described later.

In these figures a and Ib, the navy blue line corresponds to the saturation line, or vapor pressure for each temperature. The lighter blue line to its right represents the superheat threshold required to produce spontaneous evaporation. The turquoise line, to the left and above, represents the subcooling threshold to produce spontaneous condensation. This graph together with the limit lines of the critical values shows the areas of interest to this invention.

The critical value lines (pressure and temperature) intersect at the Critical Point and define four quadrants. The upper right quadrant is the quadrant of supercritical values, and the fluid can be in only one possible "supercritical fluid" state. The quadrant below this, below the critical pressure, but to the right of the critical temperature is the quadrant of "superheated steam", which in this state we call "gas." The quadrant above the critical pressure, but to the left, below the critical temperature is the compressible liquid quadrant.

The lower left quadrant of subcritical values in both pressure and temperature is the biphasic quadrant because in it the fluid is found both in liquid and vapor phase. The boundary between these phases is the above saturation curve. On its sides are the maximum superheating and subcooling lines. Therefore between the two limits is the "area of coexistence" where the fluid can be in the vapor phase or liquid phase. Above the maximum subcooling line it can only be in the liquid phase and to the right of the maximum superheat it can only be in the vapor phase. If any volume of fluid is liquid beyond the maximum superheat or in the vapor phase beyond the subcooling limit, a spontaneous change of state occurs, which is the one used by the invention.

These spontaneous state changes can be caused by varying pressure or temperature - or both - so as to leave the fluid in the desired graph area. From the blue line, an isobar (horizontal) to the right corresponds to evaporation due to heat input and to the left, condensation due to heat extraction. From the saturation line an isotherm (vertical) downwards corresponds to an evaporation by pressure reduction "volume supply" and upwards to a condensation by pressure increase, or "volume extraction".

The graphs include reference lines that mark the critical pressure and temperature values, which intersect at the critical point, which is also the end of the saturation line.

The figure 'a' corresponds to the study for R410A. The figure 'Ib' represents the values for the R744-C0 ₂ ·

The present invention makes use of one or more of these mechanisms, repeated or not, sequenced or combined between yes, to manage or multiply its effect depending on the final object of the implementation and the available resources.

Working fluid.

The selection of working fluid is a critical variable for the efficiency of the design of the different embodiments of the invention. Depending on the complexity and requirements of the solution to be provided, the working fluid can be a pure fluid, an azeotropic mixture, a "zeotropic" mixture (modernism for non-azeotropic, ISO 817), or a solution.

Pure fluids and azeotropics are constant, unchanging, and permanent. Zeotropic mixtures and solutions allow possibilities that are very interesting for the purposes of implementing the invention since they allow optimizing its performance and its ability to adapt to prevailing conditions.

Zeotropic mixtures can result from mixing fluids of distant properties for optimization of phase change combinations. If fluids with a significant temperature glide ("temperature glide") are selected, it allows to benefit from the action of each fluid in the different parts of the circuit where the invention is implemented. The slip can exceed the temperature difference of the embodiment, so that one of the components serves as a pressurizing agent through its evaporation and the other as an energy transport agent, for example, in kinetic energy or heat mode, remaining liquid , in the stage of expressing itself as motor work.

The solutions allow to improve the thermodynamic properties of the working fluid. If the solution can be varied, the properties can be adjusted on demand thermodynamic to the current operating conditions, optimizing its performance.

The working fluid can also be mixed or combined in some way with other fluids with a function other than the invention, but useful or necessary for the entire circuit considered, such as lubricants, sealants, leak detectors, etc. insofar as it does not affect the properties used by the invention.

Any fluid with the ability to change state of aggregation and reach a stable or metastable liquid-vapor dynamic equilibrium in a container, existing and known in the art, or to be discovered or synthesized, is an obvious substitution.

In the simplest embodiment of the invention, the working fluid is a one-component fluid or azeotropic mixture that is capable of completing the entire circuit: from a saturated liquid, then passing through the stages of sudden change of state with incorporation of heat to finally generate the mechanical impulse.

In carrying out the examples of the present invention, two types of working fluids have been chosen: R744 and R410A. R744 is carbon dioxide, a pure fluid, and R410a is a quasi-azeotropic mixture of two HFC (hydrofluorocarbon) gases.

Process of the Invention

The claimed process is a process of converting heat into potential energy. This process takes place in a device that is part of a heat / work capture circuit. In general, the claimed process consists of the following stages:

(a) Conditioning / Survey

(b) Injection

(c) Nucleation and Self-cooling

(d) Sudden Evaporation

(e) Evaporation / Condensation

(f) Expansion / Condensation

(g) Ejection or Expulsion

The steps (a) to (g) described above represent different moments of the claimed process. These can be carried out in a device with a single volume that adapts to the different stages in progress ("batch process", or "batch"), or it can be implemented in a device that implements several specialized volumes in each one. stages arranged in series and the working fluid flows from one to the next to complete the process ("continuous process"). The description below describes the process stages in a volume regardless of whether the stage container is the same, or whether it is each of the volumes in a series.

In more detail, the stages are described as follows:

(a) Conditioning / Survey

The claimed process starts from the working fluid in a liquid state. The efficiency of the process is greater the closer the fluid is to saturation conditions.

This stage, then, consists of conditioning the working fluid to saturation conditions in terms of pressure and temperature. It can be implemented with heat exchangers for heating / cooling and pressure reducing valves or compressors to regulate the pressure, or leaving it at rest in a storage tank of sufficient size - so that the entrance and exit of mass is not a relevant percentage to affect the concept "at rest" -.

Failing that, in the absence of conditioning and vice versa, the conditions of the working fluid can be relieved to adapt the following stages.

This stage could not be implemented and the following stages could be applied with excess variables, but being an option, they would defeat the efficiency purpose of the invention.

In a more optimized embodiment, the implementation will condition the working fluid to the design saturation point and relieve the result to adapt the subsequent stages.

(b) Injection

This stage involves the transit of the working fluid from the storage tank to the processing chamber and does not involve either of the two volumes. The stage results in the working fluid put into the chamber for processing. This fluid is taken from the lower part of the storage tank and is by no means sucked from the chamber, but is injected. This method ensures that fluid is provided in a liquid state, and not vapor, and does not evaporate upon injection. The fluid always maintains at least the saturation pressure.

The processing chamber either has a surface that yields to fluid pressure from the reservoir or is the first volume of a continuous processing device. The pressure differential that ensures this transit, without prejudice to the fact that there may be some type of impeller, is given between the pressure of the reservoir against the outside of the yielding surface, in a batch process, or in a lower pressure of the first volume in continuous processing, than if the fluid evaporates, but already within the framework of the next stage.

(c) Nucleation and Self-cooling

Fluid injected, in a batch process, or being injected, in a continuous process, is suddenly exposed to a drop in pressure.

In the batch process, once the volume of working fluid to be processed is mechanically isolated from the rest of the circuit, it is subjected to a rapid mechanical expansion of the container.

This pressure loss supposes the mechanical expansion of the saturated liquid and results in evaporations at points homogeneously distributed within the mass. These points are called (evaporation) nuclei. Science knows this phenomenon as "homogeneous nuclear boiling" and the fluid results in what is called "nucleated fluid".

This phenomenon, due to its speed, is an adiabatic process. The bubbles take the heat of evaporation from the sensible heat of the liquid fluid that surrounds them. It can be enhanced with heat from the contact surfaces, but it is essentially adiabatic, because the rate of heat conduction of the fluid itself is less than that of nucleation.

The liquid, now nucleated, is colder because it has given up sensible heat to evaporation. This process is known in science as "self-cooling." The liquid returns to the dynamic equilibrium of saturation, now at a lower temperature.

The temperature resulting from this process can even be much lower than the coldest available, so it could not have been achieved with heat transfer according to Isaac Newton's Law of Cooling. This characteristic allows to increase, and even create, a temperature differential where he does not speak it. To operate where the temperature differential does not speak or was reduced is one of the objectives of the invention.

This stage of the claimed process is of great importance in the efficiency of the process. The dual condition of colder and nucleated generates various potentiation factors for the following stages. A cooler temperature accelerates the rate of heat transfer in the next stage, since the transit through the contact surface depends on the temperature difference, without increasing the temperature of the source. A colder saturation temperature results in a greater enthalpy difference between the liquid and vapor phase (enthalpy or heat of evaporation) which is seen graphically as it is further towards the base of the bell of the Mollier diagram (P = f (R) ). Cooler liquid has a lower superheat temperature limit and steam has a lower subcool pressure limit.

The pressure drop is equivalent to an increase in specific volume, or a decrease in density. This density is the total density of the system and, therefore, that of the supercritical fluid, if it is the objective of the implementation.

Specifically, in a batch implementation a finite mass is processed in a finite volume. The pressure drop is achieved by adding volume and this defines the density. Therefore this contribution of volume determines the quality by density of the supercritical fluid.

The nucleated fluid characteristic is important in the next stage because when the pressure increases, the condensation of the bubbles is caused and makes them act as heat nuclei, enhancing the expansion effect of the following stages. Care must be taken at this stage that the working fluid does not enter a metastable state of negative pressure, or "elongated / stretched liquid".

Even with the obvious benefits of this pressure drop or volume contribution, it can be ZERO, which is equivalent to skipping the stage, because even with its absence it is still the same process.

(d) Sudden Evaporation

In this stage the fluid is subjected to an intense heat flow through all the contact surfaces. The temperature difference must be at least such that the source temperature exceeds the maximum superheat of the working fluid liquid. It will be preferred that the temperature difference ensures a heat flow at least as important as that of the heat of evaporation because, otherwise, the stage will end up cooling the contact surface and, with it, the stage itself.

In a pulsed or batch processing implementation, heating of the vertical side walls is preferred. This will establish a laminar boiling system, with stable operation, until the culmination of the stage conditions. The vapor of the fluid produced will accumulate in the upper portion of the volume with the rest of the vapor, which gradually increases the pressure. It is preferred that this portion of the volume is thermally insulated from the environment. In this implementation this stage ends when the maximum subcooling pressure of the steam is reached.

In a continuous implementation this application of heat will increase the vapor titre, but the two-phase fluid will continue to mix into the next volume.

(e) Evaporation / Condensation This stage is the linear continuation of the previous one. This stage is the dynamic equilibrium between the evaporation that arises from the laminar boiling established in the previous stage with the condensation due to excess subcooling of the vapor.

Boiling is an isothermal process, but not isobaric. In the previous stage (d), with all the fluid at the same temperature, the pressure of the system has been increasing due to the effect of evaporation by boiling. This pressure increase is subcooling of the steam, by pressure higher than saturation. This stage begins when the pressure exceeds the vapor subcooling limit pressure.

The double concurrent phenomenon is established: evaporation due to excess superheating of the liquid in contact with the hot surface and condensation of vapor due to excess subcooling. These phenomena are in dynamic equilibrium.

This stage is in principle isothermal, but the rejection heat that arises from this condensation, which is prevented from dissipating to the environment, raises the temperature of the steam, first, and is turned over in the form of heat sensitive to the liquid, which begins to expand.

As the liquid heats up, it reduces its temperature difference with the heat source and reaches a point where it ends up with the minimum difference necessary to ensure sudden evaporation. This ends with the laminar boiling system and, with this, this stage ends.

(f) Expansion / Condensation

After the evaporation stage, the volume still has an excess of vapor, which began to condense when it exceeded the maximum subcooling and will continue to condense until the pressure is reduced until it reaches saturation pressure. This condensation rejects heat that, in the absence of another possible destination, heats the liquid. The liquid when heated reduces its density, increasing its volume. This increase in volume, in a finite volume, reduces the volume available for the vapor, which is compressed, increases its pressure and continues to condense.

Eventually, and if desired by design, the supercritical phase of the working fluid will be entered. The density will be determined by the amount of mass per unit volume, which arises directly in a batch implementation, and the mass flow rate in a continuous system, and the final pressure arises from the amount of heat absorbed by evaporation in the stages of laminar boiling.

Here the pressure and the final phase or phases of the process are determined.

(g) Ejection or Expulsion

In this last stage of the process, the working fluid is at the working pressure sought by design. Ideally it is the same pressure as the target, which is an isobaric accumulator.

This allows any pressure differential to cause the working fluid to flow out, in expulsion, or ejection.

In a batch implementation, the surface that gave way to the fluid in the injection now ejects it by providing whatever pressure difference might be available. In the case of continuous implementation, the incoming fluid prints a pressure differential that allows the ejection in the same quantity as the incoming one.

EXAMPLES

2 prototypes are built as an example, which allow to demonstrate the stages of the process claimed and described in the section "Process of the Invention", in the chapter "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION".

Example 1 is a simple camera, called "Loading Chamber" or "Processing Chamber" and its objective is to experimentally demonstrate stages (d), (e) and (f).

Example 2 is a camera identical to that of example 1 complemented with the necessary accessories to experimentally demonstrate all the steps from (a) to (g). The chamber is equipped with an electric heater to condition the working fluid, a solenoid valve to induce nucleation, and a ball valve to isolate the conditioned and nucleated fluid for evaluation in the following stages.

The exemplary embodiments described in the chapter on examples are carried out using the fluid called R744 and R410A as working fluids.

The R410A fluid is a quasi azeotropic mixture of two hydrofluorocarbon gases: difloromethane (R-32) and pentafluoroethane (R-125), widely known in the art for its use as a refrigerant in air conditioning and refrigeration equipment. It is sold under the trade names Forane 410a®, Puron®, EcoFluor R410®, Genetron R410A® and AZ-20®.

The R744 fluid is carbon dioxide (CCy), a pure fluid, whose essential characteristic, in addition to the high efficiency for the process of the invention, is that it has an ozone depletion potential (PAO) equal to zero and a potential of Minimum atmospheric warming (GWP), in line with current environmental requirements.

Example 1. Prototype Loading Chamber, or Processing A prototype Loading Chamber, or Processing Chamber is built to verify stages (d), (e) and (f), of the claimed process.

The diagram of this prototype is presented in Figure 2a. A copper cylinder is constructed, with an insert for a thermocouple, a capillary for reading with a pressure gauge and a closed access with a ball valve.

R744 is used and, due to the high working pressures of this fluid, it is decided to keep the experience at subcritical values.

The Prototype is charged to 70% liquid volume at -5 ° C (268.15k), and is allowed to reach saturation equilibrium. It is immersed in a 25 ° C water bath for

10 seconds.

The results obtained are detailed in figure 2b, where you can see the planned stages, (d, e and f)

Example 2. Prototype of the cells of the invention

An example cell is constructed that allows to test experimentally all the stages from (a) to (g) described in the section "Process of the Invention", in the chapter "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION".

Figure 3a shows the diagram of a prototype cell of the invention and the elements that comprise the design of the invention are listed. The experimental tests of the claimed process have been developed on said cell.

Said prototype cell is a rigid device built around a rigid cylindrical copper loading chamber (200), where the entire claimed process takes place. The loading chamber (200) is jacketed along the longitudinal axis of the second container (100), also made of copper, whose respective lids hug the chamber (200) just where they are annealed in the weld, to reinforce it. This second container is where the hot water injection takes place (100). It has a lower drain valve, an upper air pressure relief tube during charging. The hot water, which is admitted through a ball valve (104), comes from a large capacity tank (102), with an electrical resistance (103) for heating the water contained in (102), whose temperature is controlled with the thermocouple (106).

Through the lower lid of the chamber (200) an electric heater (201) was inserted. In a lateral insert a tube for a thermocouple (202) was installed, and a capillary for the pressure tap connected to the manometer (203). At the top of the chamber (200) is the ball valve (204) defining two constant volumes for the chamber (200), limiting it to a lower half when closed. Above the valve (204) a tube extends up to a 90 ° elbow that positions the tube horizontally and allows better operation of the solenoid-operated valve (205), which opens an exhaust to a hermetic volume external to the cell and of sufficient relative size to represent an "infinite" volume with respect to the volume of the cell. In the elbow of the tube there is an access valve (206) for charging the working fluid.

All valves are operated by magnetic or pneumatic actuators that are managed by a board of programmable timers.

Test

The stages of the test procedure are executed by means of automation of sequential steps programmed in a PLC. a) The chamber (200) of the invention is charged with 91g of R410a. The liquid phase represents 60% by volume, 96% by mass, at 25 ° C, at 225 PSIg.

b) The valve (104) is closed.

c) A volume of water is loaded into the pressurizable reservoir (102), equivalent to the capacity of the enveloping container (100) that completely surrounds the chamber (200).

d) The necessary amount of nitrogen gas is entered into the reservoir (102) to pressurize the volume of water contained in (102) and the access plug (101) is adjusted.

e) The volume of water enclosed in (102) is heated with the resistance (103) until reaching the working temperature of 90 ° C. Resistor (103) is turned off f) Valve (205) is kept closed, and valve (204) remains open.

g) The working fluid contained in the chamber (200) is heated with the resistance (201) to reach the initial working temperature (To) of the R410a fluid and it is conveniently set that said initial temperature of the working fluid is 45 ° C; temperature that produces the best end result in the fluid. At 45 ° C in the initial 91 g charge the R410a liquid now represents 66% of the volume and 94% of the mass, at 384 PSIg.

h) Resistor (201) is turned off.

Having reached this point in the procedure, the following steps were continued with precise sequential time control through the PLC device.

i) Data acquisition and recording on a computer is activated j) The chamber (200) is depressurized by opening the valve (205) for 1/10 of a second, to allow the vapors accumulated in the upper part of (200) to escape.

k) During 1 second later it is expected to allow the fluid to reach its equilibrium at its new temperature of the now nucleated fluid, of 42 ° C. l) In the next second, the valve (204) is closed, leaving the fluid at 42 ° C trapped in the chamber (200) with 3% vapor in the form of vapor nuclei homogeneously distributed in fluid. The carryover of fluid between valve (204) and valve (205) is ignored.

m) The valve (104) is opened allowing all the heated water in the container (102) to be suddenly driven into the container (100), into which it enters through the tangential orifice (105) generating a vortex around the walls of the chamber ( 200) until complete. This stage results in a drop in the temperature of the water entered (100) up to 80 ° C, by heating the outer walls of the chamber (200).

The temperature difference between the outside and inside of the chamber wall (200) is what causes sudden evaporation, the main characteristic of the result of the process of the invention.

Useful work from this process is extractable when the fluid expands after it has reached the supercritical state; this is, for example, but without being limiting, an expansion acting on a piston or any other device capable of capturing the potential energy developed in the expansion produced by pressure, to kinetic energy. The graphs presented in Figures 3b, 3c, 3d and 3e also explain the above test process.

Figures 3b and 3d

The relevant variables of the claimed process are shown in figure 3b. The graph is a comparison between Temperature (° C x10), Pressure (PSIg), Percentage of Total Mass of Fluid in Vapor (% M x2000 +500), Percentage of Total Volume in Vapor (% V x800 +500), all in function of "sample points" determined sequentially at the rate of 40 per second (40Hz). They are compared on a relative scale because what is intended to show is their trend rather than their absolute value. The pink line corresponds to the temperature, the blue to the pressure, the green to the percentage of Mass and the orange line to the percentage of volume. These last two disappear when reaching zero (500, in the graph) when the working fluid enters the state of "compressible fluid" and then in the state of "supercritical fluid".

The graph in figure 3c shows a detail of the first half of graph 3b, on a more expanded scale. — Two isotherms and three references are added. The isotherms correspond to the initial equilibrium temperature, and the new isotherm after nucleation due to the sudden drop in pressure (horizontal solid lines in yellow). The reference lines are the critical pressure and temperature values (blue and magenta horizontal dotted lines) and, in the green dotted line, the zero (0%) of the musical and volumetric percentages.

In graph 3d, identical to 3c, vertical references are added to allow distinguishing the different stages of the process described above.

With depressurization (step 'j') (solid blue line, series 3 figures), a 100psi drop is seen in a tenth of a second and the pressure recovery in two tenths, but balancing 2.4K colder (continuous magenta line, series 3 figures), which shows that there was an adiabatic evaporation characteristic of this type of sudden evaporation. The extraction of steam is evidenced in the pressure drop and in the Vapor Mass Percentage and the subsequent recovery of both with a new, lower equilibrium temperature.

Two seconds after the equilibrium is recovered, the volume cut-off arrives (step '1') and an abrupt decrease in the percentages of Mass and Volume of the steam is distinguished, which corresponds to the division of the volume of the working fluid chamber. The vapor percentages drastically decrease green and orange continuous lines, figures from series 3), as expected when leaving out the neck of the chamber with the volume of vapor where, taking into account that we conserve the lower 55% of the volume, its value greater than zero show that the vapor is found in bubbles within the fluid and not above it, otherwise the vapor would have remained all in the part of the volume excluded from the working fluid chamber.

Three seconds later the hot water is injected (step 'm') which arrives 6 tenths later. As the pressure increases, the percentage of vapor decreases as the fluid reaches the state of compressible fluid. Upon reaching this state, represented when the pressure line crosses the critical value, the amount of steam becomes zero. This is represented in the 3d graphic with the first red vertical reference. As the temperature increases, when it crosses its critical value, the new red vertical reference, it enters the third part of interest of the 3d graph: supercritical phase fluid.

In summary, after a prolonged equilibrium, a pressure drop is produced with recovery, colder, a contribution of heat that rapidly raises pressure and temperature and a third stabilization stage, already within a supercritical fluid.

Summarizing the cycle described so far.

It is observed in figures 3b, 3c and 3d that the pressure is in equilibrium, it drops abruptly with depressurization, it recovers to a new lower P and T equilibrium, it shoots up with flash evaporation and laminar boiling, it grows more moderately with evaporation / condensation and even more moderately during thermal expansion until it converts the working fluid into compressible where it absorbs all the heat as sensible heat and increases its rate again, until it reaches the supercritical state.

A thermal equilibrium is reached at 87 ° C, above the 80 ° C of water. This indicates that the fluid absorbed more heat than it needs to be at that density, which is constant as both the volume and the mass are fixed, at the temperature of the water in the chamber (100).

The vapor percentages are in equilibrium. They fall abruptly during extraction, recover their volume, but not their mass after repressurization, and reach equilibrium again. With the volume cut they drop steeply, but not to zero. This drop is to be expected because the neck of the chamber with all the steam that was in dynamic equilibrium is outside the volume under consideration. The fact that the vapors have not fallen to zero indicates that bubbles are present within the working fluid. Steam acts in favor of pressurization. For such a pressure increase, the little vapor evaporated is a key factor in considering the efficiency of the claimed process. As the pressure continues to increase, the volume and mass of vapor disappears until the liquid fluid occupies the entire volume as "compressible fluid", the percentages reaching zero (Fig. 3d, solid green and orange lines).

Figure 3e

Figure 3e helps to explain the cycle described above but now expressed chronologically in a graph P = f (T) of a heat load cycle in the working fluid from the heat source, which in our Example 1 It is the hot water from the container (100), and from the decompression that occurs inside the chamber (200). Indeed, the graph of Figure 3e has been divided into four quadrants corresponding to the state of fluid matter. The lower left quadrant is the quadrant that shows the evolution of the biphasic fluid up to its critical point, in which the origin of coordinates (T, P) _critical of the axes of the quadrant has been set. The solid dark blue line corresponds to the saturation curve where the fluid coexists in two states of aggregation, where it is usually in equilibrium.

The other three quadrants are single phase quadrants. The upper right quadrant corresponds to the "supercritical fluid" quadrant. The upper left is corresponds to "compressible fluid", which behaves like a liquid, but is compressible and remains in a liquid state, regardless of its temperature. The lower right is the quadrant that corresponds to "superheated steam" or "gas", because it no longer condenses, regardless of the applied pressure.

The celestial solid line is the route of the points of the states of the working fluid captured by the thermocouple (202) and the manometer (203) with a sampling frequency of 40 points per second transmitted by the appropriate interface to the computer, during the heat load cycle of the working fluid from injection of hot water in the container (100). Said path begins with a pressure drop and temperature drop (301) when the solenoid valve (205) is opened, followed by a recovery of the values of T and P to the state of two-phase equilibrium in the saturation line (302). After a few seconds, a quasi-isothermal pressurization occurs (303) that corresponds to a sudden change of state. Then the path follows a quasi-parabolic path (304) that takes the fluid system to the supercritical quadrant passing through the state of "compressible fluid" (305). Already in the supercriticality quadrant a maximum temperature value (306) is reached and then a trajectory section in pressure equilibrium with temperature drop (307). So far the graph corresponds to the process claimed in the present invention. For the purposes of the same, it is demonstrated that through the process of the invention potential energy is generated and accumulated in the form of pressure accumulated or contained in the chamber (200). The pressure difference between points (307a) and (307b) corresponds to the value of useful work that the system is capable of carrying out on the environment, and that is the result sought in the claimed process.

Also for the purposes of this test, after reaching the pressure value (307a), the chamber (200) was allowed to depressurize; This is shown in the vertical quasi-instantaneous isothermal fall (308), to reach biphasic equilibrium again and start a new load cycle, repetitive and subsequent to the previous one.

Below, in Example 3 a device is described in operation in accordance with the previously described procedure. Example 3. Energy Balance

Taking into account that the cell of the invention develops energy transformations, the cycle where it works must comply with the conservation laws of a non-conservative system. Example 3, in two versions A and B, is added to show that this requirement is met. Alternatively, it is possible to calculate an efficiency value.

To consider the conservation of energy transformations throughout a cycle, it is necessary to consider the energy contributions that originate from the outside to the inside of the cell of the invention and the mechanical work that is generated outside said cell. It was assumed that the heat source that provides the energy flows and is constantly available at a constant or more or less constant temperature in a narrow range. A constant heat source at constant temperature allows for stable heat absorption or heat "harvesting" performances. With the expression "heat harvesting", as used in the present invention, the heat extracted from the environment must be understood, considered as a closed or open system, which is absorbed by the refrigeration circuit where the working fluid is located. will use the invention.

For the energy calculations, the specific values were taken into account, that is, referred to the unit of mass. All values refer to lKg of working fluid regardless of whether this implies different speeds in each component to process a unit of mass per unit of time.

For the purposes of the present invention, we have named these applications by their characteristic names and with them the Energy Balance and compliance with the general laws of energy conservation are studied. A. Residual Heat Recovery Unit in a central refrigeration system, such as a supermarket would be equipped, and

B. Electrical generation system from atmospheric heat. Both are valid and possible implementations that fall within the scope of the invention. The explanation is complemented with a graphic detail in the series of figures 4.

Both implementations have similar characteristics, such as the source being an inexhaustible source of heat, in practical terms, at a stable temperature. Variable sources in their temperature, or availability of heat, or progressive, such as heat storage that cools down, do not prevent the use of the invention, but require provisions that exceed the claims of this specification. A regular and inexhaustible source is preferred.

Both examples implement the invention in a specific refrigeration circuit for the invention where the evaporator harvests the heat at the source and the condenser is equivalent to the chamber 100 of figure 3a. A diagram of this circuit is included as figure 4a. The invention could be in a parallel path between two between the storage tank and the evaporator, the other being a route from the storage tank to the evaporator passing through an expansion valve (as an exclusive heat harvesting route, not drawn) but , in the examples it is the single track, so it is in series after the storage tank and before the engine. The condenser is chamber 100, so it is after the compressor and before the storage tank. Both examples use the "possible implementation" of the load cell detailed in the series of figures 5 to use the claimed process. The variation between the examples is the working fluid. R410a is used in the first and R744-C0 ₂ in the second.

In these examples, three sets of labels are used to distinguish the stages. These are numerical from 1 to 4, as is customary for a standard refrigeration cycle on which the invention is based, drawn on a Mollier graph, a capital alphabetical series AD, for the cycle P = / (V) of the engine and a lower case alphabetical cycle (a) - (d) for the enthalpic cycle of the working fluid affected by the process object of the invention, also detailed in the same Mollier graph.

A. Residual Heat Recovery Unit in a Central Refrigeration System

A Residual Heat Recovery unit in a Refrigeration System essentially comprises three parts: (1) compressors, (2) heat radiators, and (3) an adiabatic container containing an appropriate volume of water. Components (1) and (2) are widely known in refrigeration art, but the addition of component (3) interposed between (1) and (2) is what makes these Refrigerating Units novel, surprising and unknown in prior art: endows them with the ability to recover residual heat, normally released to the environment (Diagram 1, which is the scheme of a classic refrigeration system known in the art), to transform it through the process of the invention into useful work (Diagram 2, which is the diagram of a refrigeration system that includes the process of the invention) and thus be recycled in other mechanical processes.

Indeed, the volume of water in the container (3) in diagram 2 is used as a heat exchange / transfer medium from the main circuit of the Central Refrigeration System (1) towards the base refrigeration circuit where the invention is implemented.

In the embodiment of diagram 2, the hot steam from the discharge of the compressors (1) is circulated, through an appropriate circuit, for example, but not limited to, a coil, a pipe, a container of various shapes, etc. , towards the container (3) that contains the volume of water that is now used as a heat carrier.

To ensure the operation of this type of recovery circuits, the temperature condition that the water in the container (3) must meet is that it must be in the range where it is cold enough to condense the vapor from the compressor discharge and Hot enough to evaporate the working fluid of the refrigeration cycle that implements the invention (4). The temperature of the heat exchange water in this example is in the range between 32 ° C and 38 ° C. Below In this range, the water would lose the ability to evaporate the working fluid in (4) -which would stop- and, above that range, it would lose the ability to condense the discharge of the compressors (1).

The system of the example of diagram 2 is configured as two independent circuits (1) and (4), watertight, but thermally interconnected through a volume of heat transfer water (3). The cooling circuit (1) condenses its working fluid releasing heat into the water (3) by means, for example but not limited to, of a submerged coil, and the circuit of the invention (4) that acts as an energy recuperator harvests it of (3) thus evaporating the working fluid it contains and then increasing its pressure in chamber 200 as described above under the heading "Figure 3e".

With the refrigeration circuit described above that includes the energy recovery chamber (4), which is essentially the method of the invention, the energy balance was carried out, the experimental values of which are shown in detail later in Table 1.

This energy analysis, however, divides the single circuit system into several subsystems, which are outlined in Diagram 3.

The exchanges of heat and mass between subsystems that make up the base refrigeration circuit of the invention are grouped as "internal exchanges" and the exchanges of heat or work with the environment are considered "external exchanges".

Description of the stages of the energy balance calculation represented in Table 1.

• Start-up Stage: This stage only takes place when the recovery system is put into operation. The fluid is assumed to be in dynamic equilibrium at room temperature. This stage implies the evaporation of all the fluid that could be liquid because the beginning of the first stage of the stages of the cycle supposes the entire mass in a vapor state. The heat transferred here is "in sufficient quantity" and is not the object of this balance.

• Stage 1: It is the first stage of the cycle. The fluid enters completely evaporated, corresponding to point 1 of the Mollier graph (Figure 4b). The steam is compressed at the behest of external work provided in the form of electricity ("external work") reaching point 2 on the Mollier graph, which is the point in the working fluid at which it reaches its highest Internal Energy value. The fluid enters the condensate stage, but without being subcooled, yielding its energy in the form of heat of condensation to the following Stage 2 as heat ("internal heat") and as work ("internal work"), pushing the piston of the invention , in the next stage. This end point corresponds to point 3 'of the Mollier plot of Figure 4b. This internal work resulting from the heat of condensation is transmitted through the cam ring of the invention acting as a lever and the pneumatic accumulator as a hydraulic means directly to the engine. The loss of energy in the rotation of the camshaft is only that of friction and the extension of the springs since the expelled liquid is at the same pressure as the external liquid which, in turn, maintains constant pressure through the hydraulic accumulator. Stage 2 (Invention): This stage corresponds to the invention as claimed, it is the invention itself. The fluid enters the chamber (which would be chamber 200 in figure 3a, but implemented as detailed in figure 5a) pushing the piston (with the work done detailed at the end of the previous stage). This piston pushing work rotates the camshaft, stretches the depressurization springs, and is transmitted to the pistons in the final stage to expel fluid from the pistons. Therefore the work does not change the internal energy of the fluid, but is transmitted through the invention to expel the fluid at the end without modifying it at any time.

The fluid in the invention is then subjected to a sudden depressurization by "volume supply" by suddenly lowering the piston and exposes the fluid to the walls that have been heated by the heat of condensation given to the bath (chamber 100, of figure 3a) of the invention by the condensation in the previous step. These are the "Nucleation" and "Flash Evaporation" substages. This sudden evaporation, and its consequent simultaneous condensation, ends up giving heat to the fluid that did not evaporate, and it expands, compressing all the fluid. The fluid reaches its maximum expression of temperature and pressure, moving to the next stage. This pressurization stage from the heat of the bath also collaborates with the rotation of the crown of cams and stretching of the springs, so these two loads can be neglected in the balance studied.

• Stage 3 (Isobaric accumulator): The fluid is in the cylinder of the invention at the same pressure and temperature as the isobaric accumulator. It is expelled from it by the working fluid that enters the other cylinders (which are in the previous stage) at the same time. East The accumulator is intended to absorb flow fluctuations and does not change in any way the state of the working fluid following the engine. Maintains constant pressure. It absorbs the printed work at the end of stage 1 compressing the bladder and returns it when the load is enabled on the engine, decompressing the bladder to load the piston, of the next stage.

• Stage 4 (Engine): The fluid absorbs the printed job at the end of stage 1 and pushes the piston while loading. Upon reaching the charge, the intake closes and an isothermal expansion begins. Then open the dump valve. The fluid sees its internal energy reduced and loss of pressure and temperature and condensation are reflected. This stage performs external work. Graph P = f (V) of the motor for example A is figure 4c and for example B is figure 4e.

• Stage 5 (Recovery): This stage is the heat recovery or recharge stage. The fluid goes back through the evaporator (chamber 3, of diagram 2, of the Central Refrigeration System) and recharges the heat lost in the cycle. The final result of the stage is identical to the end of the Start-up Stage, being compatible. Once at this point, the cycle restarts in Stage 1 or it continues to the output stage that corresponds to the stopping of the heat recovery unit.

• Exit stage (stop): The recovery enters this stage to stop its march. The working fluid here returns to its saturated state at room temperature, as it was at the beginning of the Start-Up Stage.

B. Electrical generation system from atmospheric heat. This example is analogous to the previous one. It shows how sensible heat can be harvested from the air of the atmosphere, and latent heat from the moisture dissolved in it. It maintains the characteristic of having an infinite and stable heat source in practical terms. The example assumes a tropical country, to make the example easier, but can be installed where the process can be ensured. The heat harvest is done with an evaporator exposed to the elements, on a rooftop. It is preferred, but not limited to, a rooftop or place exposed to the wind and the Sun. As working fluid, R744 is used which, as stated earlier in this description, is carbon dioxide (CO2) · Depending on the objectives , different working fluids can be used. In the example R744 is chosen because it gives better results in temperatures between 0-10 ° C. In the example an ambient temperature of 25 ° C was assumed.

The data analysis is identical to the previous one with the only variation of the values.

Table 2 is given below, with the data specific to this example, and the Mollier graph is figure 4d and the graph P = / (V) of the motor is in figure 4e.

Example 4. Commercial implementation. Pulsed Generation Device, the batch or "batch".

Chamber 200, where the claimed process takes place, has at least two possible implementations capable of producing continuous useful work with a view to its commercial exploitation.

One is the one detailed in this section, for the generation of high potential energy fluid in batches, or in pulses, and the other for constant flow.

This pulsing flow implementation is the one used in the previous examples because it is an immediate implementation of Example 2, implemented in a loop that repeats over and over again.

This pulsating implantation is detailed in Figures 5a and

5b.

This development is a "pulsed", or "pulsed" implementation, as it is generated in batches, by cylinders with a plunger / piston.

The first figure 'a' shows a cylinder with piston assembly. The second figure, 'b', shows the example layout and an instance of the "cam track" that, repeated x times and curved to form a cylinder with irregular bases, takes the name of "cam ring" and manages the movement of the pistons.

The function of the "camshaft" is identical to that of a "camshaft" only by changing its topology. While a camshaft is an axis with eccentric ovoid or circular elements and it varies the radial distance to the axis of what rests on them, in a camshaft the position varies axially.

In this implementation, a ring gear is preferred over a camshaft to keep the cylinders in a circular arrangement so as to keep the hot water bath. ("chamber 100") that shelters them as compactly as possible. A camshaft would put the cylinders in line and double the exposed surface of the bath.

The piston is made up of several parts and its piston has limited travel to the copper sector of the cylinder. Keeps the chamber tight with two O-ring type seals. Above it has a displacer whose objective is to minimize the volume inside the cylinder head when the piston is at TDC (Top Dead Center), with a minimum separation from the walls, but without touching them. The connecting rod is divided into three segments. The first part, rigid, has no movement with respect to the plunger and moves jointly with it. It has a bearing at its lower end that follows the upper profile of the "cam ring". Inside this connecting rod a telescopic connecting rod slides, that is, it uses this displacement to vary the total length of the connecting rod and the distance of its own bearing from the piston plunger, but always maintaining the same direction. These two connecting rod segments are held together with the third element which is a traction spring that keeps the connecting rod as short as possible. The bearing of the telescopic rod follows the lower edge of the camshaft.

The cylinder is essentially made up of three parts: the head, the copper body and the foot. The head is made of a material that is poor in terms of thermal conduction, but resistant to high pressures. In its upper part, vertically above, or tangentially to the side, it has the intake and discharge ports of the working fluid. The INTAKE port includes a non-return flow limiting valve -standard, not shown- (Flow-Check Valve) that prevents both reverse flow and excessive correct flow. The DISCHARGE access connects a standard non-return valve (Check Valve), not schematized either. The foot of the cylinder, built in the same material as the head, has a back pressure relief orifice that, not being drawn, connects with the low pressure circuit of the system (evaporators) to collect any percentage that could be made in spite of the O-rings. The foot has a shock absorbing plunger spring to reduce the consequences of sudden stop during the nucleation process.

The body of the cylinder is made of copper, and it is held in place by the pressure between the head and the foot that, while holding the cylinder together, holds together the lids of the marra bath, or hot water bath, which soaks the outer side of the copper.

The piston process cycle is a two-stroke, four-stage cycle. It goes from Top Dead Center to Bottom Dead Center (PMI) and back to TDC. In the decline there are two stages, one in the PMI and, the remaining, in the rise of the PMI to the PMS.

The description of the cycle can be followed in figure 'b', taking into account that the bearing of the fixed connecting rod runs along the top (green sector) and the bearing of the telescopic connecting rod, the lower edge (blue sector).

At the start of the cycle the piston is at TDC and the spring is stretched (full length, 100% green). The "cam track" moves to the left under the influence of the downward force of the piston while admitting the working fluid. The fluid does not enter through a vacuum created, as in a conventional piston engine, but through the pressure difference across the piston (high pressure from the HP stock, above, low pressure, from the evaporators, below) ("Injection") . It is this potential energy that generates the work to lower the piston, move the cam path to the left, and, as will be described, raise the piston unloading. This losing energy in work in this stage, the system recovers it in the discharge phase, so its value is canceled. The bearing of the spring accompanies the descent, so it maintains the stretch.

When reaching the end of the third sector, the piston is in the middle of its travel, with the spring stretched, and at full load. The upper cam profile determines a steep drop, which is done with force at the trades of the spring. This doubles the volume, halves the pressure, which locks the intake valve by "Flow (control)" and nucleate the working fluid ("Nucleation and Autocool"), while bringing it into contact with the surface. hot copper ("Flash Evaporation"). While the sine of the liquid is nucleated in adiabatic form, the contact surface establishes a system of sudden evaporation, and then laminar, in a volume filled to 75%, approximately (by the admission of fluid before the effective closure by Stop) and all Vapor accumulates in the cylinder head which has poor heat transfer ("Evaporation / Condensation"). The system stays one sector of the cam path, and begins unloading, with the piston moving upward. This compresses the vapors, cuts the laminar boiling, if it was still occurring, and begins the pressurization by thermal expansion and compression of the vapors, by the rise of the piston but, above all, by the thermal expansion of the liquid fluid ("Expansion / Condensation" ). The piston here receives the work that is being exerted by the liquid that is being admitted in the other cylinders, for which the aforementioned compensation is verified.

The discharge does not need additional work because it is not the piston that pressurizes the fluid and it is already at the pressure beyond the discharge port, so the difference in pressure applied by the work in the rise of the piston only causes the rise of the plunger and displacement of the fluid, not its compression ("Ejection or Ejection"). This variable is self-regulating since if the fluid, plus the work exerted, does not have the pressure from the outside, the cam ring stops and leaves the fluid exposed to heat, which increases the necessary pressure. The pressure contributed by the admitted fluid is constant. If the cold bath does not have the necessary temperature to heat the fluid to the required pressure, the cam ring remains without moving and the fluid going through the high-flow channel harvests heat, which is compressed and heats the cold bath. Variables are always adjusted at some point so that the generator keeps moving, generating the high pressure fluid.

In this example shown, six of these cylinders are used on a four-instance ring of the "camshaft" of figure 'b'. This camshaft rotates on a vertical axis. In an upper plane perpendicular to the axis of the crown and fixed, distributed on the circumference, at the same angular distance from each other of this crown, the six cylinders are arranged.

The number of instances of "cam tracks" with respect to the number of cylinders is discretionary, but here 6 cylinders are used on 4 tracks because that determines that the 6 cylinders are, two by two, in different stages of the cycle. If there were as many paths as there were cylinders, all the cylinders would be admitting, then all nucleating and finally all discharging and it would be necessary to adopt an engine to keep the "camshaft" turning, and it would do so at uneven speed because it would have to brake the crown when all They are admitting and pushing it hard when everyone is downloading. In this arrangement of 6 cylinders on 4 paths, only the two positions described in the detail of figure 'b' are possible, which follow one another in sequence. Four cylinders admitting and two discharging, or two loading, two nucleating and two discharging. There are always two cylinders unloading and at least two loading. This arrangement allows the pressure of the fluid being admitted into cylinders to push the high pressure fluid into the cylinders being discharged. This is the "external work" detailed with the blue arrow in figure 4a and makes a motorization of this "camshaft gear unnecessary.

Example 5. Commercial implementation. Continuous Generation Device.

Another possible embodiment of the invention is a continuous generation device. It is an implementation of the claimed process in a continuous flow topology. You can increase or decrease your flow, but it will not be delivered in batches or pulses, as the previous possible realization, but it is constant.

This "possible implementation" is detailed in the figure

6.

The fluid leaves from the high pressure storage tank, is conditioned ("Conditioning / Survey"), and enters through the bow of the embodiment that is in the form of an axial compressor / turbine. There the flow is regulated by a needle valve ("Injection") and enters a centrifugal rotor with restricted leaks, so that it does not act as an impeller. This fluid that comes out of the rotor nozzles is at low pressure. Due to the Joule-Thomson effect, it is nucleated and cooled ("Nucleation and Self-cooling") (sector 'A') to impact directly on the copper casing that is heated by the discharge of the compressor ("Sudden boiling") (sector 'B') . This stage partially evaporates the discharge and the two-phase fluid is sucked in by the rotors of an axial decompressor with one or more stages, which improve the vapor content, at the expense of heat inputs from hot stators (Sectors' Ci 'and' C ₂ '), and reduce the pressure ("Evaporation" of stage "Evaporation / Condensation"). Then it enters the liquid injection sector. The liquid from the same storage tank is at a higher pressure and lower temperature, and is denser (which is to say, it has a lower specific volume). It enters, because it is at a lower pressure (Sector Έ ') and passes to the next volume where it is heated by the steam itself, expands, increases the pressure, and condenses the steam, which again rejects heat that heats and expands the liquid

("Condensation" of stage "Evaporation / Condensation") (Sector Έ '). Then it enters the next volume where only the liquid is expanded by heat (Sector 'G') causing condensation ("Expansion / Condensation"). At this point the fluid is at its maximum point of temperature and specific volume (maximum Internal Energy) and gives part of its energy to a turbine, which sets the entire system in motion, from sector Ά ', and is expelled (" Ejection or Ejection ") where it exits at high pressure and temperature to move a motor.

The fluid after exerting work on the motor, plus any other quantity that may be needed directly from the storage tank, enters the evaporator for the "heat harvest". From the evaporator, the working fluid leaves in the gaseous phase and enters the axial or piston compressor in the heart of Sector 'B', to be sheltered, not lose heat and have the hottest possible discharge, which it is from the fluid from which the "sudden boiling" of the first stage takes heat.

It is important to note that due to the dynamics of this topology, fluids with a higher density, liquids, tend to be located against the casing while sheltering the steam in the center, offering natural thermal insulation.

The purpose of this description is to demonstrate the correspondence of the claimed process with the topology. An obvious implementation is to put more turbines at the end of the path and take mechanical energy from this same axis without the need for an external motor. The number of stages in each sector depends on the specific design for the need or problem to be solved.

Claims

1. A process of converting heat into work characterized in that it comprises the following stages:

(a) Conditioning / Survey, which consists of conditioning the working fluid to saturation conditions in terms of pressure and temperature through heat exchangers and pressure reducing valves or compressors to regulate pressure, or keeping it at rest in a container of stockpile of sufficient size, so that the entrance / exit of mass is negligible,

AND

to relieve the conditions of the working fluid to adapt the following stages of the process;

(b) Injection, which consists of the transit by injection of the working fluid in liquid state from the storage tank to the loading chamber (200), where the fluid always maintains at least the saturation pressure, and where the differential of pressure that ensures said transit, occurs between the pressure of the reservoir against the outside of the yielding surface, in a batch process, or at a lower pressure of the first volume in a continuous process;

(c) Nucleation and Self-cooling, where the fluid injected, in a batch process, or that is being injected, in a continuous process, is suddenly exposed to a drop in pressure, concurrent with an adiabatic mechanical expansion of the saturated liquid, resulting in in evaporations at homogeneously distributed points within the mass, such that the fluid returns to the dynamic equilibrium of saturation, at a lower temperature.

(d) Sudden Evaporation, where the fluid is subjected to an intense heat flow provided by an external heat source to the chamber (200), by all the contact surfaces of said chamber, such that the difference in temperature between the exterior and the chamber (200) exceeds that of the maximum superheating of the working fluid, where said temperature difference ensures a heat flow at least equivalent to the heat of evaporation to establish a laminar boiling system, with stable development, until reaching the pressure of maximum subcooling of the steam, where in a continuous implementation this application of heat will increase the steam titre, but the two-phase fluid will continue to mix towards the next volume.

(e) Evaporation / Condensation, where the working fluid reaches a dynamic equilibrium between the evaporation arising from the laminar boiling established in step (d) with the condensation due to excess subcooling of the vapor.

(f) Expansion / Condensation, where the working fluid continues to condense from stage (e) rejecting heat into the liquid, reducing its density and increasing its volume, where this increase in volume, in a finite volume, reduces the volume available for the vapor, which is compressed, increases its pressure and continues to condense, until reaching equilibrium at the final pressure and temperature.

(g) Ejection or Expulsion, where the working fluid is at the pressure of the circuit to exert which is approximately the same as in the isobaric accumulator installed after the invention as a shock absorber allowing any pressure differential to cause the outward transit of the working fluid, in expulsion, or ejection, where in a batch implementation, the surface that gave way to the fluid in the injection now expels it, providing it with the pressure difference that may be available, and in the case of continuous implementation, the incoming fluid prints a pressure differential that allows the ejection in the same amount at the pressure incoming.

2. The process in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that the working fluid is any fluid with the ability to change the state of aggregation, reach a stable or metastable liquid-vapor dynamic equilibrium in a container and that do not suffer from heat chemical transformations.

3. The process according to claim 2 characterized by the working fluid can be a pure fluid, a mixture of fluids, an azeotropic fluid, a zeotropic fluid, a solution in any proportion, a variable solution, or a mixture with adjuvants , among them, lubricants, sealants, leak detectors, etc ... that facilitate the operation of the circuit.

4. The process according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the loading chamber (200) of step (b) may be a chamber that presents a surface that yields to the pressure of the fluid from the reservoir in a processing device by batches, or the first volume of a continuous processing device.

5. The process according to claims 1 and 2 characterized in that the variation in volume or pressure in nucleation step (c) can be zero.

6. The process in accordance with any of the preceding claims, characterized in that in step (d) the evaporation of the fluid produced accumulates in the portion of the volume of the chamber (200) with the rest of the steam, increasing the pressure, said portion of the volume thermally isolated from the environment.