JP5366617B2 - Moisture removal apparatus and moisture removal method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device and a method for effectively removing moisture from coolant containing the moisture. <P>SOLUTION: An antifreeze liquid circulating device 7 is operated to cool antifreeze liquid housed in the device 7 to around -10&deg;C, for example. The antifreeze liquid is circulated between a tank 6 and the antifreeze liquid circulating device 7 through a conduit 8 and a conduit 10. After temperature of the antifreeze liquid in the tank 6 is stabilized to desired low temperature, a processed medium flows out from a conduit 4 to outside C via a conduit 1 and a coiling conduit part 3. When the processed medium passes through the coiling conduit part 3, moisture contained in the medium is effectively exposed, freezed, and separated on an inner wall surface of the coiling conduit part 3. In this way, the processed medium from which the moisture is removed flows out from the conduit 4 to the outside C and retrieved by a medium recovery device (not shown in the figure), for example. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a moisture removing apparatus and a moisture removing method, and more particularly to a moisture removing apparatus and a moisture removing method suitable for removing moisture from a refrigerant containing moisture.

  When recovering refrigerating machine oil from the refrigerant circuit provided in refrigerating and air-conditioning equipment such as refrigerators, showcases, air conditioners, etc. for reasons such as failure or use, the recovered refrigerating machine oil contains fluorocarbons such as chlorofluorocarbons. -The refrigerant | coolant which consists of Bonn has melt | dissolved, and when it is left, the said refrigerant | coolant will evaporate in air | atmosphere and there exists a problem which has a bad influence on an environment. In addition, when these refrigerants are incinerated, they are decomposed by heating and generate harmful substances such as hydrochloric acid and hydrofluoric acid, so that complicated processing such as detoxification of these products is essential. was there.

  For this reason, a method for removing the refrigerant mainly composed of Freon from the recovered refrigeration oil has been proposed. For example, a method for evaporating and separating the refrigerant by heating the recovered refrigeration oil is proposed in Patent Document 1 below. Further, Patent Document 2 below proposes a method of preventing a decrease in evaporation rate by mixing an upper layer portion and a lower layer portion by excitation with ultrasonic waves and suppressing a decrease in the concentration of refrigerant. Further, a method for separating and recovering oil, moisture and refrigerant by boiling the moisture of the refrigerating machine oil in a vacuum is proposed in Patent Document 3 below. In many cases, the recovered refrigerant contains water. As a method of removing the water, the refrigerant is gradually brought into contact with a heat sink cooled to below the freezing point using the Peltier effect in a sealed container. A method for freezing and removing moisture in the refrigerant is proposed in Patent Document 4 below. Further, Patent Document 5 below proposes a method of removing moisture in the refrigerant by allowing the refrigerant to pass through the moisture holding member.

  By the way, in the method using the Peltier effect of Patent Document 4, the efficiency of water freezing and removal is poor, and as a result, as described in paragraph No. 0030 of the same document, it takes a long time to leave for several days. There is a big problem.

JP 2007-24337 A JP 2000-130894 A JP 2005-201562 A Japanese Patent No. 3555428 JP-A-6-201231

  By the way, the refrigerant collected as described above is stored in a predetermined cylinder after liquefaction using a Freon recovery device or the like. However, the refrigerant separated from the recovered refrigeration machine oil contains a lot of water, and the conventional method cannot efficiently remove the water as described above. However, there were problems such as causing poor insulation. Moreover, in the conventional method, in order to maintain a vacuum state, a vacuum pump or a sealed container is required to prevent the refrigerant from being released into the atmosphere. The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides a method for effectively removing moisture contained in a refrigerant.

The moisture removing device according to the present invention is a channel device that is made of a highly heat conductive metal and flows a refrigerant containing moisture, a channel housing tank that houses the channel device, and the refrigerant is not frozen but the moisture is not flowed. A low-temperature fluid supply device for supplying a low-temperature fluid for cooling to a temperature that freezes on the inner wall of the passage device to the flow path storage tank, a buffer tank for temporarily storing the low-temperature fluid in the flow path storage tank, and the low temperature A bi-directional transfer device for transferring fluid from the flow path storage tank to the buffer tank or in the opposite direction; and a heating device for heating the flow path device to melt the frozen matter on the inner wall. is there.
The water removal method according to the present invention includes a flow path device that is made of a highly heat-conductive metal and that flows a refrigerant containing water, a flow path storage tank that houses the flow path device, and the refrigerant does not freeze, but the water flows through the flow path. A low-temperature fluid supply device that supplies a low-temperature fluid for cooling to a temperature that freezes on the inner wall of the passage device to the flow passage storage tank, and a heating device that heats the flow passage device and melts the frozen matter on the inner wall A first step of flowing a refrigerant to be treated to flow into the flow path device, a second step of cooling the flow path device to a temperature at which the refrigerant does not freeze but the water is frozen. And after the third step of thawing the frozen product by heating the flow path device by the heating device and the second step, a buffer tank temporarily storing substantially the entire amount of the low-temperature fluid in the flow path storage tank 4th process to transfer, flow path after the above 4th process By introducing hot air or hot air of at least 20 ° C. in Description tank by heating the flow path unit it is intended to include fifth thawing the frost.

  According to the moisture removing device and the moisture removing method of the present invention, it is possible to efficiently remove moisture in the refrigerant in a short time, and the effect that the failure problem of the device for collecting the refrigerant does not actually occur. Have In addition, the moisture removing device of the present invention has a simple structure because it does not use a sealed container or a moisture retaining member, for example, silica gel or molecular sieve, so that there is no deterioration during use and no vacuum pump is used. Thus, moisture in the refrigerant can be effectively removed with certainty.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the first embodiment and is a configuration diagram of a moisture removing device in refrigerant. It is a figure which shows Embodiment 2, and is a block diagram of the moisture removal apparatus in a refrigerant | coolant.

  In the following, the same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof may be omitted.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a moisture removing apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the moisture removing apparatus includes a pipe 1, a three-way valve 2 provided in the pipe 1, a coiled pipe part 3, a pipe 4, a three-way valve 5 provided in the pipe 4, and a tank 6. , Antifreeze circulating device 7, pipe 8, three-way valve 9 provided in pipe 8, pipe 10, three-way valve 11 provided in pipe 10, pipe 12, heating unit 13, and temperature sensor 14, It is composed of Of these, the coil-wound pipe section 3 is an example of the flow path device in the present invention, and the tank 6 to the temperature sensor 14 are examples of the cooling / heating device in the present invention. The pipe line part 3 is made of copper, aluminum, or other good heat conductive metal.

  The antifreeze circulating device 7 contains an antifreeze that exhibits a low-viscosity liquid in a temperature range of at least about −20 ° C. to 100 ° C., for example, an ethylene glycol aqueous solution, a propylene glycol aqueous solution, and the like. A cooling / heating device that maintains the desired temperature in the inside and a pump that circulates the antifreeze liquid between the tank 6 and the antifreeze liquid circulation device 7 through the pipe line 8 and the pipe line 10 (both not shown). Each part other than the coil-wound pipe line part 3 may be formed of the above-described highly heat-conductive metal if necessary, but in many cases, the same material as that of the conventional moisture removing device, for example, an iron-based material , An aluminum alloy, a resin material, or the like.

  Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be described. First, the antifreeze circulating device 7 is operated to cool the antifreeze contained in the device 7 to about −10 ° C., for example, the three-way valve 9 and the three-way valve 11 are operated, and the built-in pump is operated to remove the antifreeze liquid. It is circulated between the tank 6 and the antifreeze circulating device 7 through the pipe line 8 and the pipe line 10. After the temperature of the antifreeze liquid in the tank 6 is stabilized at a desired low temperature, the three-way valve 2 and the three-way valve 5 are operated so that the medium to be treated passes through the pipe line 1 and the coiled pipe line part 3 from the pipe line 4 to the outside C. Spill into. When the medium to be treated passes through the coiled duct portion 3, the moisture contained therein is effectively exposed to freezing and separated on the inner wall surface of the coiled duct portion 3 and thus the moisture is removed. The treated medium flows out from the pipe line 4 to the outside C and is collected by, for example, a medium collecting device (not shown). At that time, the end of the conduit 4 is preferably connected to the entrance of the medium recovery device.

  If the amount of icing on the inner wall surface of the coiled pipe line section 3 becomes excessive, there is a problem of blocking the inside of the pipe line. Therefore, the three-way valve 2 and the three-way valve 5 are opened to the outside, for example, the atmosphere at an appropriate time. In this way, the direction of A and B shown in the figure is switched to stop the supply of the medium to be processed into the coil-wound pipe section 3, and the three-way valve 9 and the three-way valve 11 are operated to operate the antifreeze liquid circulation device 7. The operation is switched to the circulation operation in which the antifreeze liquid exits from the antifreeze liquid circulation device 7 and returns to the antifreeze liquid circulation device 7 through the pipe 8, the three-way valve 9, the pipe 12, the three-way valve 11, and the pipe 10 or in the opposite direction. .

  Thereafter, the antifreezing liquid in the tank 6 is increased to a temperature at which the water can be thawed by the heating unit 13, for example, about 5 to 20 ° C., and the three-way valve 2 is opened in the A direction and the three-way valve 5 is opened in the B direction. Atmosphere is introduced into the coiled conduit 3 so that the introduced atmosphere passes through the coiled conduit 3 and exits from the three-way valve 5 to the outside. As a result, the icing matter on the inner wall of the coiled duct section 3 is melted and discharged from the three-way valve 5 to the outside as water vapor or drain. After the icing matter on the inner wall of the coiled conduit 3 is sufficiently removed, the three-way valve 2 and the three-way valve 5 are switched to cool the coiled conduit 3 again and introduce the medium to be treated. Repeat the operation and the removal operation by thawing the frozen matter.

  In the present invention, the medium may be a medium conventionally used in the technical field. For example, various fluorocarbons having a freezing point of −1 ° C. or lower, preferably −10 ° C. or lower and gaseous at room temperature. It is kind. Examples thereof include trifluoromethane, tetrafluoromethane, trifluoroethane, pentafluoroethane, hexafluoroethane, pentafluoropropane, hexafluoropropane, etc., fluorocarbons, monochloro-monofluoro-methane, monochloro-trifluoro-methane Chlorofluorocarbons such as dichloro-difluoro-methane, trichloro-monofluoro-methane, monochloro-monofluoro-ethane, dichloro-trifluoro-ethane, monochloro-tetrafluoro-ethane, dichloro-pentafluoro-propane, etc. .

  As an example of the medium to be treated, refrigerant R12 obtained by recovering from 20 liters of refrigeration oil (synthetic oil: general saturated water content is 50 to 100 ppm) in which refrigerant R12 (dichlorodifluoromethane) is dissolved is covered. Specimen gas was used. In order to remove the moisture mixed in the analyte gas, freezing and thawing were performed under the same conditions as in the first embodiment. As a result, the detected water mass was 1.47 g. When the saturated water content of the refrigerating machine oil was set to 100 ppm, the degree of coincidence of the detected water amount was 82%, and it was confirmed that the coincidence was good industrially.

  As an example of the medium to be treated, the refrigerant R134a (1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane) is dissolved from 20 liters of refrigerating machine oil (ester oil: a general saturated water content is about 500 ppm). The refrigerant R134a obtained above was used. When freezing and thawing were performed under the same conditions as in Example 1 except that the water content of the refrigerator oil measured by the Karl Fischer method was 170 ppm, the mass of detected water was 2.20 g. And the coincidence degree of the detected water content was 72%.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the moisture removing apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention. In FIG. 2, in the moisture removing apparatus, each part of reference numerals 1 to 14 is the same as those in the first embodiment and has the same function. However, the heating unit 13 in the first embodiment is not provided, and is provided in the buffer tank 15, the pipeline 16, the pipeline 17, the pipeline 18, the pump 19 provided in the pipeline 18, and the pipeline 16. The two two-way valves 20 and 21 and the two two-way valves 22 and 23 provided in the pipe 17 are different from the apparatus of the first embodiment.

  In the second embodiment, the process of freezing and removing moisture in the refrigerant is the same as in the first embodiment. In order to remove the water frozen on the inner wall of the coiled duct 3, the introduction of the refrigerant gas is blocked by the three-way valve 5, and the tank 6 and the antifreeze liquid circulation device 7 are formed by the three-way valve 9 and the three-way valve 11. Is switched to the circulation operation in the closed circuit of the pipeline 8, the pipeline 12, the pipeline 11, and the antifreeze liquid circulation device 7. Thereafter, the four two-way valves 20 to 23 are switched, the pump 19 is operated, the cold water in the tank 6 is transferred into the buffer tank 15, and the cold water in the tank 6 is drained. Next, hot air is introduced from A of the three-way valve 2, supplied to the tank 6 to heat the tank 6, and discharged from B of the three-way valve 5 to the outside. By the above heating and exhaust, the frozen matter in the coiled duct 3 is thawed and released into the atmosphere as water vapor or drain. Thereafter, the two-way valves 20 to 23 are switched, the pump 19 is operated, and the cold water in the buffer tank 15 is returned to the tank 6. Next, the three-way valve 9 and the three-way valve 11 are switched to allow the tank 6 and the antifreeze circulating device 7 to communicate with each other, and switching to the cold water circulation in the tank 6 is performed again. Therefore, in the second embodiment, since cold water is not heated, there are advantages such as saving energy required for heating and shortening the time until the cooling in the tank 6 is resumed.

  The present invention has been described in detail in the first and second embodiments. However, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various implementations in accordance with the problem to be solved and the spirit of the solution means of the present invention. Of the form. The tube length that substantially contributes to the cooling of the refrigerant in the coiled winding line portion 3 described in the embodiment is the temperature and flow rate of the introduced refrigerant gas, and the cross-sectional area of the cooling pipe in the coiled winding line portion 3. Since it is determined by factors such as the cold water temperature, specific heat, thermal conductivity, and Prandtl number, it can be shortened by providing a protrusion in the cooling pipe to increase the cross-sectional area. Of course, all the operations can be automated by using the two-way valve or the three-way valve used in the first and second embodiments as a solenoid valve.

  The present invention is highly likely to be used for recovering refrigerant from refrigerating machine oil used in a refrigerant circuit provided in a refrigerating and air-conditioning apparatus such as a refrigerator, a showcase, and an air conditioner.

1 pipe, 2 three-way valve, 3 coil winding pipe, 4 pipe, 5 three-way valve, 6 tank, 7 antifreeze circulating device, 8 pipe, 9 three-way valve, 10 pipe, 11 three-way valve, 12 pipe Path, 13 heating section, 14 temperature sensor, 15 buffer tank, 16 pipe line, 17 pipe line,
18 pipes, 19 pipe pumps, 20 two-way valves, 21 two-way valves, 22 two-way valves,
23 Two-way valve

Claims (7)

A flow channel device made of a highly heat-conductive metal and flowing a refrigerant containing moisture, a channel housing tank for accommodating the channel device, and a temperature at which the moisture does not freeze but the moisture freezes on the inner wall of the channel device A low-temperature fluid supply device for supplying a low-temperature fluid for cooling to the flow path storage tank, a buffer tank for temporarily storing the low-temperature fluid in the flow path storage tank, and the low-temperature fluid from the flow path storage tank A moisture removing device comprising: a bidirectional transfer device for transferring to a buffer tank or in the opposite direction; and a heating device for heating the flow path device to melt the frozen matter on the inner wall.   The flow path device has a coiled duct portion, and the low-temperature fluid supply device and the heating device cool and heat the coiled duct portion, respectively. Item 2. A moisture removing apparatus according to Item 1.   The moisture removing device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising gas blowing means for discharging water generated by melting the frozen matter in the flow channel device to the outside of the flow channel device. Between the flow path storage tank and the low temperature fluid supply device, a pipe for supplying a low temperature fluid from the low temperature fluid supply apparatus to the flow path storage tank, and the low temperature fluid flowing out from the low temperature fluid supply apparatus moisture removal device according to any one of claims 1-3, characterized in that it comprises a circulation pipe for circulating to the cryogenic fluid supply apparatus without supplying the flow path containing tank. The flow path unit, the flow path containing tank, and moisture removal device according to any one of claim 1 to 4 having water eliminator part two or more pairs including the heating device. A flow channel device made of a highly heat-conductive metal and flowing a refrigerant containing moisture, a channel housing tank for accommodating the channel device, and a temperature at which the moisture does not freeze but the moisture freezes on the inner wall of the channel device Using a moisture removing device provided with a low-temperature fluid supply device that supplies a low-temperature fluid for cooling to the flow passage housing tank, and a heating device that heats the flow passage device and melts the frozen matter on the inner wall, A first step of flowing a refrigerant to be treated to flow through the flow path device; a second step of cooling the flow path device to a temperature at which the refrigerant does not freeze, but the water freezes; The fourth step of heating the lyophilized product and the second step, the fourth step of transferring substantially the entire amount of the low-temperature fluid in the flow path storage tank to the buffer tank, and the fourth step After the process, at least 20 ° C. in the flow path storage tank Water removal method characterized by introducing the air or hot air by heating the flow path unit includes a fifth step of thawing the frost. A plurality of moisture removing devices having two or more pairs of moisture removing devices including the channel device, the channel housing tank, and the heating device are operated alternately. Item 7. A method for removing moisture according to Item 6 .

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