Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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ICE MaRING AND COOL 8TORAGE
APPARATU8 OF ~PRAY ~YPE
~echnical Fiel~
The invention relates to an ice making and cool
storage apparatus which can be widely utilized for various
services including air-conditioning of buildings and
industrial cooling.
Ba~ground Art
Heat storage (cool storage) utilizing ice made by
bringing a refrigerant and water into direct contact with
each other is already known. In such a prior art method,
a liquid refrigerant was directly discharged into water
for heat exchange with the water.
However, a first problem encountered by the prior
art method described above is that masses of ice made by
heat exchange between the refrigerant and the water float
up to the surface level of water thereby obstructing later
ice making. With a view to solving such a problem,
vertically extending pipes may be employed. In spite of
the above arrangement, a new problem arises in that masses
of ice tend to clog the outlets of the upstanding pipes.
In an attempt to solve this problem of clogging
the pipe outlets with the masses of iC8, a proposal has
been made in which a fluidizing agent or a surface active
agent such as ethylene glycol or propyrene glycol is added
to water to enhance the fluidity. However, in order to
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enhance the fluidity, the fluidizing agent is required in
a large amount (about 10% of the amount of water), and
various secondary problems including the material cost and
disposal of wastes additionally arise.
S Further, because of the tendency of vaporization
of the refrigerant in the water, a pressure loss
corresponding to the depth of water is inevitable, and the
compressor suction pressure is lowered, thereby adversely
affecting the coefficient of performance. This leads to
various disadvantages, and one of the disadvantages is
that a water tank having a large depth cannot be utilized.
æummary of the Invention
The present invention solves and obviates the
prior art problems and defects pointed out above by
providing an ice making and cool storage apparatus of
spray type comprising: a gastight water tank containing
therein water and a refrigerant substantially insoluble in
water; a refrigerant circulating system recovering the
refrigerant in gas form from the top of the water tank,
liquefying the refrigerant gas and spraying the liquefied
refrigerant into an upper space of the water tank; a water
circulating system recovering the water from the bottom of
the water tank and spraying the water into the upper space
of the water tank; and water nozzles connected to the
water circulating system and refrigerant nozzles connected
to the refrigerant circulating system
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disposed in the upper space of the water tank,
so that the water sprayed from the water nozzles and
the refrigerant sprayed from the refrigerant nozzles
are brought into direct contact with each other while
falling in the upper space of the water tank and on
the surface of the water in the water tank.
According to the present invention, the sprayed
water makes direct contact with the similarly sprayed
refrigerant in the upper space of the water tank to
form drops of ice, and the falling ice drops accumulate
on the water surface and gradually migrate toward the
lower part of the water tank.
Other objects and advantages of the present
invention will become apparent when the specification
is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.
Brief_Description of the Drawin~
The single figure is a schematic vertical sectional
of a preferred embodiment of the ice making and cool
storage apparatus according to the present invention.
Description of the Preferred Embodiment
Referring to the drawing showing a preferred
, ~ embodiment of the present inventiQn~ water and a re-
frigerant substantially insoluble~erwater are contained
in a gastight heat-insulated water tank 1 made of steel.
The reference numeral 2 generally designates the water
(together with ice in sherbet form)l and 2' designates
the surface of the water. The reference numeral 3
designates an upper space of the water tank 1 above
the water level 2', and this upper space 3 is filled
with the refrigerant in gas form.
A water conduit 14 extends to the outside from
the bottom of the water tank 1 to return to the interior
of the water tank 1 through a water circulating pump
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17 and a chilled water heat exchanger 15 and terminates
in water nozzles 5 disposed in the upper space 3 of
the water tank 1. The above members constitute a water
circulating system.
On the other hand, an eliminator 13 is located
at the top, that is t above the upper space 3, of the
water tank 1, and the refrigerant in gas form passing
though this eliminator 13 flows through a refrigerant
gas suction conduit 6, a refrigerant compressor 7,
a refrigerant condenser 9, an expansion unit 11 such
as a gas trap, and a liquid refrigerant con~uit 12
which terminates in refrigerant nozzles 4 disposed
in the upper space 3 of the water tank 1, the above
members constitute a refrigerant circulating system.
The water nozzles 5 and the refrigerant nozzles
4 are preferably provided in a plurality of pairs so
that the sprayed water and the sprayed refrigerant
can be thoroughly mixed with each other while falling
in the upper space 3 and also on the water surface
2' in the water tank 1.
The operation of the apparatus will now be de-
scribed.
The chilled water in~the water tank 1 is pumped
out from the bottom of the water tank 1 by the water
circulating pump 17 to be seat into the chilled water
heat exchanger 15. This chilled water heat exchanger
15 has a chilled water conduit 16 for supplying chilled
water to various service facilities including air
conditioner coils. The water whose temperature is
elevated as a result of heat exchange in the heat ex-
changer 15 is fed through the water conduit 14 and
sprayed from the water nozzles 5 into the upper space
3 of the water tank 1.
On the other hand, the refrigerant gas warmed
in the upper space 3 of the water tank 1 is fed through
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the eliminator 13 and the refrigerant gas suction conduit
6 into the refrigerant compressor 7. The refrigerant
gas compressed and having its temperature elevated
in the compressor 7 is cooled in the refrigerant con-
denser 9 by cooling water supplied through a cooling
water conduit 10. The cooled refrigerant gas is then
subjected to adiabatic expansion and liquefied in the
expansion unit 11, and the liquefied refrigerant is
fed through the refrigerant conduit 12 to the refrigerant
nozzles 4 to be sprayed into the upper space 3 of the
water tank 1.
As a result, the water sprayed from the water
nozzles 5 makes direct contact with the liquefied
refrigerant sprayed from the refrigerant nozzles 4
to form drops of ice, and these ice drops fall to accumu-
late on the water surface 2' in the water tank 1.
Ice turns into the form of sherbet and migrates gradually
downward to provide the mixture 2 of the water and
the ice sherbet.
The chilled water heat exchanger 15 is provided
in the illustrated embodiment. However, when so desired,
this heat exchanger 15 may be eliminated, and the chilled
water in the water tank 1 may be directly circulated
to the air conditioner coils. Further, although the
water tank 1 of a vertical type is shown, it may be
of a horizontal type. Further, the chilled water system
leading to the air conditioner coils and the water
spraying system may have independent water pumps respec-
tively.
Meritorious effects of the apparatus of the
present invention will be enumerated as follows:
1) Ice formed by direct contact between the
water and the refrigerant accumulates on the
water surface from above and merely gradually
migrates downward. Therefore, no clogging
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occurs from the structural aspect.
2) Because of the freedom from the problem of
clogging, there is almost no necessity for
fluidization. Thus, a fluidizing agent ~such
as ethylene glycol) may be required in a very
small amount even if such an agent is used.
Such an agent may be utterly unnecessary.
3) Because the ice is made on the surface of
water contained in the water tank, there is
no restriction on the depth of water in the
water tank, and the water tank may have a large
dimension in its vertical direction.
While a preferred embodiment of the present
invention has been described in detail, it is apparent
that the present invention is in no way limited to
such a specific embodiment, and various changes and
modifications may be made therein without departing
from the spirit of the present invention~
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