Coldheat.energy
Sustainable heat from the air
Coldheat Energy is a start-up company that has developed a water reactor. A water reactor is a boiler that allows water to evaporate and condense again in the system.
A water reactor is an entirely new approach to sustainable heat supply and the provision of tap water up to 90°C. The technology used is totally unexpected and different from what has been common in central heating systems until now.
At the same time, its operation is physically simple, explained almost entirely with texts from Wikipedia. It is everyday physical and meteorological processes translated into a mechanical system that can be used in households.
It requires no modifications to the existing central heating systems. The boiler is replaced, but all other parts of the system such as pipes and radiators remain usable. The water reactor is similar to a heat pump in terms of complexity, but remarkably more efficient.
A water reactor from Coldheat Energy has another advantage over a heat pump or central heating boiler. The water reactor extracts heat from the air. This cools the air and can be used for air conditioning applications.
When compared to a heat pump, the following stands out:
The water reactor has a remarkably high COP of 40.
The water reactor has a much smaller electricity consumption.
The water reactor does not use fossil raw materials such as gas, oil or coal.
The water reactor's drain water has a temperature of 90 °C. Even in the coldest winter, the water reactor does not need support from a central heating system.
The water reactor does not have the disadvantages of a low temperature heating system.
Compared to a gas central heating system, the water reactor saves 2.5 tons of CO2 per average household.
A water reactor is a particularly sustainable, and cheaper, replacement for the central heating boiler than a heat pump. A water reactor extracts more than 95% of the required heat from the air, which makes it not only extremely efficient but also very sustainable. Unlike the name water reactor suggests, the water reactor does not consume water. During installation, a certain amount of water is introduced. That water is continuously evaporated and condensed. Of course, electricity is required, but for an average household, that only averages €160.00 per year. Unlikely. Read: How Coldheat's central heating works.
The investment costs are approximately two-thirds of the purchase cost of a heat pump and half of that of a gas-fired central heating boiler.
The amount of heat of evaporation required by one liter of water to evaporate is 2256 kJ. One cubic meter of natural gas contains a net of 31,600 kJ. Evaporating 14 liters of water therefore has evaporation heat with an equal energy yield to 1 m3 of natural gas. In the cold Dutch winter months, the consumption of gas per household averages 10 m3. This corresponds to the evaporation value of (10*14=) 140 liters of water per day, or 6 liters per hour, which is not a problem for the water reactor. The water reactor is powered by electrical devices such as a vacuum pump and other facilities. The total consumption of these is 80 watts. With a loss factor of 15% this results in a COP of 40. In order to keep replenishing the desired heat for evaporation, 3000 m3 of air is needed per hour, which has dropped by 5 °C when leaving the installation. For comparison; a PC fan already delivers 250 m3 of air per hour.
A water reactor can be made for any situation because it can be made in any size. In addition, the system can operate on air from inside or outside. This makes it possible to place the fan part outside if necessary.
The water reactor basically consists of a heat unit, an evaporation unit and a condenser unit and a vacuum generator.
The heat unit, with the help of a fan, extracts heat from the outside air and transmits it to the evaporation heat vessel in the evaporation unit. Because it is necessary for the water to be able to absorb the heat from the air, the temperature of that water must be lower than the air itself. To ensure this under all conditions, an antifreeze is added to the heat unit. How much is added depends on the location of the heat unit. Whether the heat unit is placed inside or outside is in principle not decisive. In fact, it is possible for the water reactor to still be operating at -20 °C.
In the evaporation unit, the water is evaporated and the evaporation heat is extracted from the evaporation heat vessel. The condenser unit then allows the water vapor to condense and captures the heat released as condensation heat. This heats up the heat vessel. This heat reservoir can be considered as a boiler from which the radiators can be fed and from which tap water for the taps and the bathroom can be heated.
The heat vessel also serves as a storage for the heat extracted from the air. Because the heat vessel stores water at 90 °C, it can be smaller than usual.
The water reactor uses the heat unit to heat the water to be evaporated once. At the same time a vacuum is created. The hot water is then applied with a nebulizer to the evaporation surface where evaporation takes place. The water vapor is then sucked, through the vacuum, into the condenser where a cooling tube takes care of the condensation. The water vapor becomes water again and the heat is given off through the condenser to the hot water tank that is part of the condenser. Since the water is still the same temperature as before evaporation, the cycle can begin again. Since heat is extracted from the air using a fan in the heat unit, this process can also continue indefinitely.
1.Ambient air intake
Outflow of spent ambient air
3. Evaporation heat release
4. Transition to condensation heat
Hot water take-off point
6.Input for electricity and control signals
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
The process of heating in the water reactor is similar to that of a heat pump. The major difference is that a heat pump uses a refrigerant to force condensation. This is done by first pressurizing the refrigerant and then reducing the pressure to allow it to condense. Thus, the refrigerant must be reheated again and again which costs electricity. A water reactor also uses an evaporation and a condensation process. However, the difference is that the water reactor forces this process by using a vacuum. This vacuum has the great advantage that the water being evaporated needs to be heated to the desired evaporation temperature only at start-up. This effect, that evaporating water keeps the original temperature is a property of water. The water reactor makes maximum use of this property. The heat extraction process thus becomes significantly more efficient.
A water reactor works on extracting heat from air. This means that this sucked in air becomes colder. When using a water reactor, a standard household needs 3000 m3 of air per hour. This air is 5 °C cooler than the air used and can therefore be reused for air conditioning purposes.
We must first understand the concept of heat to understand the concept of heat transfer. Thermal energy, or heat, is a form of internal energy of a system. Thermal energy is the reason for the temperature of a system. It occurs because of the random movements of the molecules of the system. Any system with a temperature above absolute zero has positive thermal energy. The atoms themselves do not contain thermal energy. But atoms have kinetic energies. When these atoms collide with each other and the walls of the system, they emit thermal energy as photons. Heating such a system will increase the thermal energy of the system. The higher the thermal energy of the system, the higher the randomness of the system.
The above illustration shows the four main methods of heat transfer: evaporation, conduction, convection, radiation. Heat transfer is the movement of heat from one place to another. When two systems, brought into thermal contact, have different temperatures, heat will flow from the object with the higher temperature to the object with a lower temperature until the temperatures are equal. A temperature gradient is necessary for spontaneous heat transfer. We measure the rate of heat transfer in watts while the amount of heat is measured in joules. The unit watt is equivalent to "joules per unit time".
The water reactor works as follows, noting that not all details are included.
In the water tank 1, the water is heated to the desired temperature. The temperature depends on the vacuum that exists in the vacuum vessel 2. This vacuum is created by the vacuum pump 3. When the vacuum and the negative pressure are in equilibrium, a certain amount of water is forced into the vacuum vessel by the pressure pump 4 through the nebulizer 5. The nebulizer then sprays the water over the evaporation surface 6. The water will begin to evaporate due to the vacuum pressure present. In order for water to evaporate, evaporation heat is required in addition to evaporation temperature. This heat of evaporation is extracted from the surface of the evaporation. This will cause it to cool down and at some point it will no longer be able to dissipate its heat of evaporation. To keep the evaporation process constant, the water vapor must not condense in front of the condenser. To prevent this, a supplementary heating wire 7 is fitted. However, the evaporator surface is in contact with the heat reservoir 8. The heat in this reservoir will be transferred to the evaporator surface. The water will retain its evaporating temperature because the absorbed evaporating heat is latent heat, not sensible heat. At some point, this heat reservoir will also no longer be able to transfer heat because it will freeze. However, since the outside air contains about 1 KJ of heat per degree Celsius, a fan 9 provides the supply of heat from the outside air. The heat reservoir with the fan together form the heat unit. In effect, it is an inverted car radiator operating according to Newton's Inverse Cooling Law. The reason why water evaporates and thereby extracts heat from a colder surface seems to contradict the 2 law of thermodynamics. However, it does not work in natural conditions because a vacuum is created using a vacuum pump.
When water evaporates it absorbs heat. This heat of evaporation is needed to give the liquid water enough energy to evaporate. During the evaporation process, the volume grows about 1600 times. 1 Liter of water becomes 1600 dm3 of vapor. This water vapor is drawn into the condenser 10 by the vacuum. There, a cooling tube 11 is placed that causes the water vapor to condense. The cold water required for the cooling tube is pumped around from the heat reservoir 8 by the circulation pump 12. This is because, partly due to the extraction of the heat of evaporation, it has a low temperature. In addition, this temperature must be lower than the temperature of the outside or inside air. Otherwise it is entirely contrary to the 2 law of thermodynamics. During this condensation process, the water vapor turns back into liquid water. The present heat of evaporation, the latent heat, is now superfluous and is given off as heat of condensation, which is perceptible heat. This release increases the temperature of the condenser. This condenser in turn heats up the heating vessel 13. The hot water can then be distributed via the connection to the CH 14. During this condensation process the volume of water vapor becomes smaller again. 1600 dm3 becomes 1 liter of water again. This creates a natural vacuum. The re-liquefied water has kept its original temperature. (A loss of 0.5 % is taken into account). The vacuum pump is a diaphragm pump that is also suitable for moving liquids. The re-fluidized water is pressed back into the fluid reservoir.
The evaporation process is a natural process. Water naturally evaporates when it has sufficient energy. Just as the water in lakes and ponds also evaporates naturally. Condensation also occurs practically free of charge. Calculated for a standard household, about 13500 Kj per hour is needed to heat a house. To achieve this, 6 liters of water per hour must evaporate since one liter of evaporated water yields 2240 Kj. The energy cost for this is diaphragm pump7, pressure pump 3. Circulation pump 5, fan 25 watts and the supplementary heating wire 35 watts per hour. This equates to 75 watts which is 0.075 KWh. 13500 KJ is converted to 3.78 KW.
Therefore, the COP is 3.78/0.075 = 55. For the sake of safety, a COP of 40 is assumed.
There is more energy to be gained from the heat in the air than from the petroleum that can be pumped. The only question is how to extract this energy.
To do that, a central heating boiler has been developed that allows heat present in air to be utilized for heating and cooling systems in homes and buildings. The system is based on the natural phenomenon of evaporation evaporation process.
Water that evaporates requires a very significant amount of heat to evaporate. This heat can be extracted from the outside or inside air. After the water has evaporated it is condensed. The latent heat extracted from the outside air is then released as sensible heat into the condenser. This produces hot water that is useful for heating buildings. Since the heat is extracted from the outside air, a cold air flow is created at the same time, which can be used for air conditioning.
The system is called a water reactor and is no more complicated than a central heating boiler and significantly simpler than a heat pump. Because the required heat is extracted from the outside air through the evaporation process, the COP is 40. The temperature of the outside air is not important because even air of minus 50 degrees Celsius still contains heat.
Copyright © Alle rechten voorbehouden
