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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Contaminated-vapor rotary-screw heat pump. Annual progress report, August 1983-August 1984

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5851050

In many industrial processes, large quantities of waste energy are often liberated in the form of low-pressure waste steam and low-grade waste heat, such as sensible heat of liquids or gases and latent heat of condensible gases. Economic recovery is often difficult due to such factors as low-temperature levels and contamination of the steam. In industrial processes that utilize steam directly, or as a mode of energy transport, waste low-grade energy can be efficiently recovered and upgraded in the form of high-pressure steam by means of a contaminated-steam heat-pump system. At Thermo Electron, a prototype gas-fired steam heat pump has been developed. The system utilizes a dry screw compressor driven by a 330-hp natural gas industrial engine. The system can recompress 4500 lb/hr of contaminated steam over a 4-to-1 pressure ratio. The fuel consumption of this system is approximately 50% that of a direct-fired boiler.

Research Organization:
Thermo Electron Corp., Waltham, MA (USA)
OSTI ID:
5851050
Report Number(s):
PB-85-174894/XAB; TE-4326-212-84
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English