This invention generically relates to a high efficiency thermo-refrigerating generator and, in particular, to a self-adaptive and system-centric thermo- refrigerating generator, since the generator considers what happens in the system (plant, building, industrial process) from an energy point of view and becomes part of it.

There are prior art heat pumps designed to heat or cool the water of a system (plant, building, industrial process) by means of heat exchange with an available external source (such as air, water, ground).

However, generally, the prior art heat pumps currently used in civil contexts, residential premises, hotels, retirement homes, hospitals, industries, etc., do not produce cooling and heating simultaneously and use only a single renewable source (for example, air/water heat pumps use only air, water/water heat pumps use water, geothermal heat pumps use heat exchangers in the ground), whilst the need for a thermo-refrigerating generator is increasingly felt which can produce cooling and heating simultaneously and which can exploit any of the renewable energy sources available in the place of installation or the combination of at least two of them.

The aim of the invention is, therefore, to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks and, in particular, to provide a high efficiency thermo refrigerating generator which allows the needs of environmental air conditioning to be met, which recently requires, more and more frequently and in any case for most of the year, in relation to changed climatic conditions, cooling and heating simultaneously.

Another aim of the invention is to provide a thermo-refrigerating generator which allows thermal and/or cooling efficiencies to be obtained which are more twice that of the solutions currently available, in order to consequently achieve a very important improvement in terms of energy saving and protection of the environmental.

Another aim of the invention is to provide a high efficiency thermo refrigerating generator which comprises the use of renewable energy and which can be integrated with systems for the production of electricity from renewable sources.

Another aim of the invention is to provide a high efficiency thermo refrigerating generator which is an integral part of the system from an energy point of view (system-centric) and which is designed to use as a priority the system itself as an available source for the transfer of energy. This allows the total use of the intrinsic available energy in the system by the thermo-refrigerating generator, which, only after having exhausted the internal availability, accesses the outside.

A further aim of the invention is that of providing a high efficiency thermo refrigerating generator which is intrinsically self-adaptive to the plant requirements or designed to self-regulate on the real power level (thermal, cooling or the combination of the two) required by the system at all times. Not least, the aim of the invention is that of providing a high efficiency thermo-refrigerating generator which is able to exploit the most suitable renewable source available at the installation site or the combination of two of them (only after having used all the energy inside the system where it is installed).

These and other aims according to the invention are achieved by providing a high efficiency thermo-refrigerating generator according to the appended claim 1 ; further detailed technical features are provided in the appended dependent claims.

Advantageously, the thermo-refrigerating generator according to the invention is able to produce hot and cooled water for any use (industrial, cooling, heating, domestic hot water, process water, etc.) simultaneously and on system requirements (with prevalence on the hot side or on the cold side or simultaneously on both sides). The power supply is electric and can be combined with systems for the production of electricity from renewable sources.

The generator uses as external sources (hot and cold) parts of the system (plant, building, industrial process) in which it is installed.

Only after having used everything available inside the system will it continue to produce hot or cooled water (to meet plant requirements), transferring energy from an external renewable source (air, water, ground, hybrid systems); in fact, one of the peculiarities of the generator consists precisely in making the most of the energy at the various temperature levels available within the systems (buildings or plants in general), before resorting to an external source.

The consequence is that the thermo-refrigerating generator in question has an efficiency that is equal to the sum of the cold energy efficiency ratio (EER) and the hot coefficient of performance (COP), whilst any traditional heat pump always uses the external source and therefore the efficiency is at the maximum characterised by one of the two coefficients (COP or EER). There are many fields of application of the invention; in fact, in addition to the environmental air conditioning sector, it can be used for industrial processes (for example in the pharmaceutical and chemical fields), for processes that require heating in some processing phases and cooling in others, during operation in the various process reactors or in the plastic material production sector and/or in general where it is necessary to cool, dehumidify and heat, even simultaneously.

In practice, the thermo-refrigerating generator according to the invention can effectively replace the heat pumps currently used in the civil and/or residential sector and in all cases in which it is necessary to have a cold thermo-vector fluid and a hot thermo-vector fluid.

Further aims and advantages of a high efficiency thermo-refrigerating generator, according to the invention, will become more evident from the following description, relating to example and preferred, but not limiting, embodiments, and referring to the accompanying schematic drawings, in which:

- Figure 1 shows an example block diagram of a first embodiment of the high efficiency thermo-refrigerating generator, according to the invention;

- Figure 2 shows an example block diagram of a second embodiment of the high efficiency thermo-refrigerating generator, according to the invention;

- Figure 3 shows an example block diagram of a further embodiment of the high efficiency thermo-refrigerating generator, according to the invention.

With reference to the above-mentioned drawings, the thermo-refrigerating generator according to the invention contains inside it one or more power units 10, that is, steam compression refrigerating machines, and, specifically, unlike the refrigerating machines currently used, which usually comprise two heat exchangers (an evaporator and a condenser), the power units 10 can contain up to three heat exchangers and, in particular, preferably have a condenser and two evaporators.

With particular reference to Figure 1 , which shows a first embodiment of a thermo-refrigerating generator 100 according to the invention, the generator 100 is advantageously connected to one or more air modules 11 for the disposal of the heat and/or cold, wherein the external source is air, or to a geothermal field 12, wherein the external source of disposal is the ground. The thermo-refrigerating generator 100 comprises one or more power units 10 (which, if there are at least two, are connected in parallel), a tank 13 which is always hot, equipped with delivery 32 and return 33 to hot users, a tank 14 which is always cold, equipped with delivery 34 and return 35 to cold users, a hot disposal exchanger 15, various electronic circulation pumps, such as a disposal pump 16 of a primary heating circuit, a disposal pump 17 of a secondary heating circuit and other pumps inside the power unit 10, and a microprocessor control system 18, which controls and manages all the functions of the generator 100.

The power unit 10 has a double evaporator and, in particular, a first evaporator 19 (which can be a plate or tube bundle type) serving the system or plant to which the generator 100 is connected and a second evaporator 20 (also plate or tube bundle type) connected to the disposal circuit, by means of a filtering element 30 and an electronic expansion valve 31 .

Each power unit 10, which, as mentioned, is a cooling unit with refrigerating compressor 21 (screw, centrifugal, scroll, rotary or reciprocating type) controlled by the control system 18, heats, by means of a condenser 22 and a relative pump 23 of the primary heating circuit, the hot tank 13.

At the same time, each power unit 10 cools the tank 14, by means of an evaporator 19 and a relative pump 24 of a primary cooling circuit.

In each of the two hot 13 and cold 14 tanks a temperature probe is inserted, respectively 25, 26, and two setting values are also defined for these probes, one for the hot tank 13 and one for the cold tank 14; the power delivered by each power unit 10 is defined by the temperature value of the tank 13, 14 furthest away from the respective setting value.

Once the set temperature value of one of the two tanks 13, 14 has been reached, the power unit 10 continues to operate, in a first phase, bringing the temperature of the tank 13, 14, which has reached the set value, above or below this value (depending on whether it is the hot tank 13 or the cold tank 14) of a parameter defined by the electronic control system 18 and only when this condition is reached is the well water disposal system activated, that is to say the fans of the air modules 11 and/or the geothermal field 12. In particular, if it is the hot tank 13 which reaches the set temperature value, the pumps 16 and 17 are activated, which, through the exchanger 15, keep the temperature of the above-mentioned hot tank 13 controlled.

If, on the other hand, it is the cold tank 14 that reaches the set temperature value, the solenoid or motorised ball valve 27 is closed, the pump 24 is turned off, the solenoid or motorised ball valve 28 is opened and the disposal pump 29 of the cooling circuit is turned on. In this way, the cooling energy, which would be in excess for the system or for the plant, is diverted to the disposal circuit.

The carrier fluid of the disposal circuit, at least in the case wherein an external air source is used, is glycoled water, since, during winter operation, temperatures can drop below 0°C.

Moreover, in the winter operation and with an external air source, it may be necessary to defrost the batteries of the modules 11 , by drawing energy from the hot tank 13 or by activating the pumps 16, 17; the defrosting modes are defined by the electronic control system 18.

Figure 2 shows an example block diagram of a second embodiment of a thermo-refrigerating generator 101 , according to the invention, equipped with one or more power units 102 (which, if there are at least two, are connected in parallel); it should also be noted that in the attached Figure 2 the elements and/or devices having the same technical-functional characteristics of Figure 1 are indicated with the same reference numerals. In this case, each power unit 102 uses well water as an external source and the thermo-refrigerating generator 101 comprises, in addition to the power unit 102, a tank 13 which is always hot, equipped with delivery 32 and return

33 to the hot users, a tank 14 which is always cold, equipped with delivery

34 and return 35 to the cold users, a disposal exchanger 40 of a primary heating circuit, connected to the delivery 36 to the well and to the return 37 from the well, and a relative disposal pump 41 , various electronic circulation pumps inside the power unit 102 and a microprocessor electronic control system 18, which manages all the functions of the generator 101 .

Each power unit 102 has a single evaporator 19 (plate or tube bundle), serving the system or plant.

Moreover, each power unit 102, which is a cooling unit with refrigerating compressor 21 (screw, centrifugal, scroll, rotary or reciprocating type) controlled by the control system 18, heats, by means of the condenser 22 and the relative pump 23 of the primary heating circuit, the hot tank 13. Simultaneously, each power unit 102 cools the tank 14, by means of the evaporator 19 and the relative pump 24 of a primary cooling circuit.

In each of the two hot 13 and cold 14 tanks a temperature probe is inserted, respectively 25, 26, and two setting values are also defined for these probes, one for the hot tank 13 and one for the cold tank 14; the power delivered by each power unit 102 is defined by the temperature value of the tank 13, 14 furthest away from the respective setting value.

Once the set temperature value of one of the two tanks 13, 14 has been reached, the power unit 102 continues to operate, in a first phase, bringing the temperature of the tank 13, 14, which has reached the set value, above or below this value (depending on whether it is the hot tank 13 or the cold tank 14) of a parameter defined by the electronic control system 18 and only when this condition is reached is the well water disposal system activated. In particular, if it is the hot tank 13 that reaches the set temperature value, a three-way disposal valve 42 is suitably positioned, the pump 41 is activated and consent is given to start a well activation pump (not shown in Figure 2 attached), in order to control the temperature of the tank 13.

If, on the other hand, it is the cold tank 14 that reaches the set temperature value, the same procedure described above is carried out with the only difference being the different positioning of the three-way valve 42.

Figure 3 shows an example block diagram of a third embodiment of a thermo-refrigerating generator 103, according to the invention, alternative to the solution shown in Figure 2; also in this case, it should be noted that in Figure 3 the elements and/or devices having the same technical- functional characteristics of Figures 1 and 2 are indicated with the same reference numerals.

As mentioned above, the thermo-refrigerating generator 103 is a variant of the thermo-refrigerating generator 101 and includes one or more power units 102, possibly connected in parallel; moreover, like the generator 101 , it uses well water as an external source.

The only difference with the generator 101 lies in the configuration of the disposal system, since in the case of figure 3 a disposal exchanger 38 and a disposal pump 39 are used for each of the hot 13 and cold 14 tanks.

In practice it has been found that the thermo-refrigerating generator according to the invention is particularly innovative and advantageous by virtue of the efficiency obtained, as well as with regard to the possibility of producing cooling and heating simultaneously and of exploiting one or more of the renewable energy sources available at the installation site.

The characteristics of the high efficiency thermo-refrigerating generator, according to the invention, clearly emerge from the description, as do the advantages thereof.

Lastly, it is clear that numerous other variants might be made to the thermo refrigerating generator in question, without thereby departing from the scope of the invention as expressed in the accompanying claims.