HEAT PUMP WITH INTGERAL SOLAR COLLECTOR

• US 20110030404A1
• Filed: 08/04/2010
• Published: 02/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sol Xorce LLC
• Original Assignee: Sol Xorce LLC
• Inventors: Gurin, Michael H.
• Application Number:
  US12/849,841
• Publication Number:
  US 20110030404A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 62/235.1
• CPC Class Codes: F25B 27/002 using solar energy
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 30/272 Solar heating or cooling
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 10/20 Solar thermal

Abstract

The present invention generally relates to heat pumps that utilize at least one thermal source operating with the same working fluids. In one embodiment, the present invention relates to a hybrid solar heat pump comprised of at least one microchannel heat exchanger with integral solar absorber, at least one compression (i.e., mass flow regulator) device as the heat pump for concurrent compression to a higher pressure and mass flow regulator of the working fluid, and at least one working fluid accumulator with the entire system operating with the same working fluid. The present invention also generally relates to heat pump systems that utilize an inventory management system to provide both efficient and safe operation under a wide range of operating conditions.

Claims

1. A heat pump system comprising one working fluid in at least one thermodynamic cycle and one mass flow regulator circulating a working fluid selected from at least one heat transfer fluid of water, carbon dioxide, and ammonia;

both a high-side pressure circuit downstream of the one mass flow regulator and a low-side pressure circuit upstream of the one mass flow regulator; and

wherein the one mass flow regulator consumes mechanical or electrical power of greater than 20 watts.

2. The heat pump system of claim 1 further comprised of a microchannel solar collector having a microchannel diameter of less than 2.5 millimeters.

3. The heat pump system of claim 1 wherein the at least one mass flow regulator increases microchannel solar collector working fluid.

4. The heat pump system of claim 1 further comprised of at least two heat exchangers, wherein the at least one mass flow regulator is operable in a) power generation, b) heating, or c) cooling mode.

5. The heat pump system of claim 2 wherein the microchannel solar collector has at least two individually controlled circuits.

6. The heat pump system of claim 2 further comprised of a fluid accumulator tank and wherein the fluid accumulator tank is between the at least two individually controlled circuits.

7. The heat pump system of claim 2 wherein the microchannel solar collector is operable in either solar absorbing or thermal emitting mode.

8. The heat pump system of claim 1 further comprised of a power generating expander, a fluid accumulator, a thermodynamic cycle having a high-side and a low-side pressure with a high-side pressure having an operating pressure of at least 50 psi greater than a low-side pressure, wherein the one mass flow regulator is operable for both increasing the working fluid pressure from the low-side pressure to the high-side pressure and for removing or adding working fluid from the thermodynamic cycle into the fluid accumulator.

9. The heat pump system of claim 1 further comprised of at least one heat exchanger for independent control of sensible cooling and at least one heat exchanger for independent control of latent cooling.

10. The heat pump system of claim 9 wherein the at least one heat exchanger for independent control of sensible cooling and at least one heat exchanger for independent control of latent cooling designed to remove thermal energy from the thermodynamic cycle and to displace any heat exchangers between the low-side pressure and high-side pressure.

11. The heat pump system of claim 8 wherein the power generating expander and the one mass flow regulator are both contained within a hermetically sealed chamber.

12. The heat pump system of claim 11 wherein the one mass flow regulator is designed to increase the operating pressure of any working fluid leaking from the power generating expander.

13. The heat pump system of claim 12 having two overlapping thermodynamic cycles comprised of a power generating thermodynamic loop and a heat pump thermodynamic loop, wherein the any working fluid leaking from the power generating expander is increased to a pressure at least 5 psi greater than the low-side pressure of the power generating thermodynamic loop.

14. The heat pump system of claim 11 wherein the power generating expander is designed to provides all of the generated power in the form of mechanical shaft power and further designed for the mechanical shaft power to power the mass flow regulator.

15. The heat pump system of claim 14 further comprised of a back pressure regulator for the heat pump thermodynamic loop wherein the back pressure regulator is designed to vary the high-side pressure of the heat pump thermodynamic loop to consume all of the mechanical shaft power generated by the power generating expander.

16. The heat pump system of claim 11 further comprised of an electric motor wherein the electric motor is designed to generate mechanical shaft power to operate the one mass flow regulator.

17. The heat pump system of claim 16 further comprised of an electric motor decoupler designed to either electrically or magnetically decouple the electric motor or mechanically disconnect the electric motor from both the one mass flow regulator and the power generating expander.

18. The heat pump system of claim 16 further comprised of an electric motor coupled designed to either electrically or magnetically engage the electric motor or mechanically connected the electric motor to the one mass flow regulator.

19. The heat pump system of claim 1 further comprised of a fluid accumulator tank in fluid communication with both high-side pressure circuit and low-side pressure circuit, wherein the one mass flow regulator is designed to switch between a mode to remove working fluid from the high-side pressure circuit into the fluid accumulator and a mode to add working fluid from the fluid accumulator into the low-side pressure circuit, and wherein the fluid communication with the fluid accumulator is designed to be void of a second mass flow regulator consuming greater than 20 watts of mechanical or electrical power.

20. The heat pump system of claim 19 further comprised of a heat exchanger in thermal communication with the fluid accumulator tank, and wherein the working fluid is operable at a working fluid pressure having a decrease in density per 10 degrees Fahrenheit increase of at least one percent.

21. The heat pump system of claim 20 wherein the fluid accumulator is further comprised of at least one fluid inlet port and at least one fluid discharge port.

22. The heat pump system of claim 21 wherein the at least one fluid inlet port into the fluid accumulator is in fluid communication with the high-side pressure circuit and the at least one fluid discharge port from the fluid accumulator is in fluid communication with the low-side pressure circuit.

23. The heat pump system of claim 22 wherein the at least one fluid inlet port is at least one inch higher than the at least one fluid discharge port.

24. The heat pump system of claim 22 wherein the method of adding working fluid into the at least one thermodynamic cycle is designed to have volumetric displacement of working fluid in the fluid accumulator with working fluid from the high-pressure circuit side having a density of at least one percent lower than the working fluid within the fluid accumulator.

25. The heat pump system of claim 24 wherein the method of adding working fluid into the at least one thermodynamic cycle has an increased rate of fluid addition of at least 5 percent by preheating the temperature of the high-pressure circuit side by at least 10 degrees Fahrenheit greater than the working fluid temperature within the fluid accumulator.

26. The heat pump system of claim 24 further comprised of solar collectors downstream of the one mass flow regulator consuming at least 20 watts of power operable to increase the working fluid temperature by at least 5 degrees Fahrenheit for adding working fluid into the at least one thermodynamic cycle.

27. The heat pump system of claim 24 further comprised of solar collectors downstream of the one mass flow regulator consuming at least 20 watts of power operable to decrease the working fluid temperature by at least 5 degrees Fahrenheit for removing working fluid from the at least one thermodynamic cycle into the fluid accumulator, wherein the solar collector is operable in a thermal emitter mode.

28. The heat pump system of claim 24 further comprised of a thermal source downstream of the one mass flow regulator consuming at least 20 watts of power operable to increase the working fluid temperature by at least 5 degrees Fahrenheit for adding working fluid into the at least one thermodynamic cycle.

29. The heat pump system of claim 24 further comprised of at least one fluid valve control designed to add a circuit containing working fluid or to decrease the temperature of working fluid within the high-side circuit pressure and having a thermal sink downstream of the one mass flow regulator consuming at least 20 watts of power and operable to add working fluid into the at least one thermodynamic cycle high-side circuit pressure.

30. The heat pump system of claim 24 wherein the method of adding working fluid into the at least one thermodynamic cycle has an increased rate of fluid addition of at least 5 percent by cooling the working fluid temperature within the fluid accumulator by at least 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

31. The heat pump system of claim 22 wherein the method of removing working fluid from the at least one thermodynamic cycle is designed to have volumetric displacement of working fluid in the fluid accumulator with working fluid from the high-pressure circuit side having a density of at least one percent greater than the working fluid within the fluid accumulator.

32. The heat pump system of claim 1 further comprised of two overlapping thermodynamic cycles with a first thermodynamic cycle as a power generating thermodynamic loop having a low-side pressure circuit upstream of a power generating expander and a high-side pressure circuit downstream of a power generating expander and a second thermodynamic cycle having a low-side pressure circuit upstream of the one mass flow regulator and a high-side pressure circuit downstream of the one mass flow regulator, wherein the high-side pressure circuit of the second thermodynamic cycle is at least 5 psi greater than the low-side pressure circuit of the first thermodynamic cycle.

33. The heat pump system of claim 1 further comprised of a solid state conversion device including photovoltaic, thermophotovoltaic, thermoelectric, or thermionic cell having a maximum junction temperature;

and a backpressure regulator designed to modulate the operating pressure downstream of the one mass flow regulator wherein the operating pressure maintains a phase change working fluid temperature within 5 degrees Fahrenheit of the lesser of solid state conversion device maximum junction temperature or design temperature.

34. The heat pump system of claim 1 further comprising a second thermodynamic cycle having a power generating expander in mechanical communication with the one mass flow regulator circulating the working fluid, and a combustor having combustor exhaust, wherein the at least one thermodynamic cycle is the first thermodynamic cycle and both the first thermodynamic cycle and second thermodynamic cycle have the same working fluid, wherein the heat pump system has a coefficient of performance greater than 1.20, and wherein the combustor is at least one thermal source for the second thermodynamic cycle and the combustor exhaust is at least one thermal source for the first thermodynamic cycle.

35. The heat pump system of claim 34 further comprising a solar collector having the same working fluid as both the first thermodynamic cycle and the second thermodynamic cycle;

further comprising a heat exchanger from a low-pressure circuit side of the first thermodynamic cycle to a low-pressure circuit side of the second thermodynamic cycle and wherein the second thermodynamic cycle is void of any heat exchangers having thermal communication between a high-pressure circuit side of second thermodynamic cycle and low-pressure circuit side of second thermodynamic cycle.

36. The heat pump system of claim 35 wherein the working fluid is carbon dioxide, wherein the high-side circuit pressure of the second thermodynamic cycle is greater than 2000 psi, the high-side circuit pressure of the first thermodynamic cycle is greater than 800 psi.

37. The heat pump system of claim 35 wherein the working fluid is carbon dioxide, wherein the high-side circuit pressure of the second thermodynamic cycle is greater than 2700 psi, wherein the high-side circuit pressure of the first thermodynamic cycle is greater than 1200 psi, wherein the high-side circuit pressure of the second thermodynamic cycle is greater than 2.2 times the low-side circuit pressure of the second thermodynamic cycle, and wherein the high-side circuit pressure of the first thermodynamic cycle is at least 5 psi greater than the low-side circuit pressure of the second thermodynamic cycle.

38. The heat pump system of claim 35 further comprised of a heat exchanger to transfer thermal energy from the second thermodynamic cycle low-pressure circuit side to a regenerator of a dehumidification system operable to provide latent cooling, and a heat exchanger from the first thermodynamic cycle high-pressure circuit side operable as a condenser and wherein the first thermodynamic cycle is operable in a cooling mode and the second thermodynamic cycle is operable as a mechanically interconnected power source to the at least one mass flow regulator.