LUBRICATION AND COOLING SYSTEM

摘要

A system for reducing the refrigerant pressure in an oil sump (10) or in a cavity (352) of a housing. The invention is particularly useful for reducing pressure in a compressor (23) for heat pump applications that has been validated for water chiller operations or in turbine and generator systems in ORC systems generating electricity using refrigerant, the ORC systems essentially being a heat pump application operating in reverse. An auxiliary compressor (509), an auxiliary condenser (709) or an ejector pump (609) may be used to reduce pressure in the oil sump (10), to separate refrigerant from oil. The auxiliary compressor (509), the auxiliary condenser (709) or the ejector pump (609) may also be used to reduce the pressure of refrigerant in the housing of a compressor in heat pump applications at temperatures and pressures at which the compressor was validated for water chiller applications and of the turbine and generator in ORC applications.

主权项

1. Apparatus for separating refrigerant from oil in a refrigeration or heat pump system including a refrigeration circuit having a compressor (23) that raises a pressure of a refrigerant gas, a condenser (25) in fluid communication with the compressor that condenses the refrigerant gas into a high pressure liquid, an expansion valve (31) in fluid communication with the condenser, the expansion valve converting the high pressure liquid into a mist of liquid entrained in gas, an evaporator (27) in communication with the expansion valve and with the compressor, the evaporator changing the state of liquid refrigerant to refrigerant gas, the compressor further including components requiring lubrication, and a lubricant mixing with the refrigerant in the compressor, wherein the improvement is characterized by:
a sump (10) that receives the lubricant, refrigerant and combinations thereof from the compressor; means for providing the lubricant from the sump to portions of the compressor requiring lubrication; and a refrigerant pressure reducing device (409) between the sump and a low pressure region of the system reducing an amount of refrigerant mixed with the lubricant, the pressure reducing device lowering refrigerant gas pressure below that of the low pressure region of the system, thereby removing refrigerant gas from the sump to the low pressure region of the system before the lubricant is returned from the sump to lubricate the compressor components.