Abstract
A new type of absorption heat pump is proposed, in which a rectification column (fractional distillation column) and a “reverse-rectification” column are combined. The two components of a working pair are separated in the first column and re-mixed in the second. The heat-pump effect is due to upgrading the heat flux supplied to the evaporator and extracted, at a higher temperature, from the heat exchanger incorporated into the reverse-rectification column. This new absorption heat pump can operate as a type I, a type II, or a refrigerator. It can use any mixture, even an ideal mixture, as the working pair. The paper presents an example of type II-AHP (=heat transformer) working with the pair pentane + octane for upgrading heat from about 413.2 K (140°C) to about 493.2 K (220°C). The AHP is modelled with graphical methods derived from the classical methods of McCabe–Thiele and Ponchon–Savarit, commonly used for distillation columns.
