WO-2026094056-A1 - TWO-PHASE ISOTHERMAL COMPRESSOR AND CONDENSER NOZZLE

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a nozzle design that allows compression and/or condensation of gas or vapors presence in a liquid entering the nozzle. In the nozzle configuration of the present disclosure, the stream that flows through the nozzle is a two-phase steam and it reaches a supersonic flow before the suction of the additional vapors begins. By the end of the first narrowing section, the flow within the nozzle is supersonic, followed by a first expanding section that further reduces the pressure of the stream and increases the Mach number before the suction section that follows it, which maintains the pressure and the supersonic conditions.

Inventors

• MIRON, Dror
• NEUMANN, Yuval
• FEINTUCH, Nir
• ROTSCHILD, CARMEL

Assignees

• LAVA ENERGY LTD
• TECHNION RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION LIMITED

Dates

Publication Date

20260507

Application Date

20251103

Priority Date

20241104

Claims (20)

1. 1. A nozzle for pressurizing fluid, comprising: a nozzle inlet for receiving a two-phase liquid-gas stream into the nozzle, the two- phase liquid-gas stream entering the nozzle inlet comprises (1) a gas portion of either a heat transfer liquid (HTL), a working fluid (WF) or a combination of HTL and WF, and (2) a liquid portion of said HTL; an outlet; a suction fluid inlet; and an arrangement of fluid manipulation sections arranged in fluid communication in a cascaded fashion and defining a flow path of said two-phase stream; wherein the arrangement comprises: a second fluid manipulation section downstream the nozzle inlet and having an expanding configuration in the direction of said flow path for reducing the two- phase stream pressure below a pressure of a suction fluid while maintaining a supersonic flow of the two-phase stream, the suction fluid is same material as the WF; a third fluid manipulation section downstream the second fluid manipulation section having an expanding configuration and is configured for receiving the two- phase stream flowing from the second fluid manipulation section at a pressure below the pressure of the suction fluid, wherein said suction fluid inlet is configured for allowing suction fluid communication between a suction fluid source, that comprises said suction fluid, and said third fluid manipulation section to be mixed with the two- phase stream to thereby obtain two-phase flow at higher gas fraction while maintaining the two-phase supersonic flow at about constant pressure; a fourth fluid manipulation section downstream the third fluid manipulation section having a narrowing configuration in the direction of said flow path for increasing the pressure and reducing the Mach number of the two-phase stream; a fifth fluid manipulation section downstream the fourth fluid manipulation section and having an expanding configuration in the direction of said flow path and configured for increasing pressure of the two-phase stream to a pressure above the suction fluid source, wherein the two-phase stream is either maintained in a two-phase state or transitions to a single-phase state at the end of the fifth fluid manipulation section; wherein said outlet is downstream the fifth fluid manipulation section or is constituted by a distal end thereof and is for discharging the two-phase flow received from the fifth fluid manipulation section, wherein the fluid mixture discharged from the outlet comprises pressurized suction fluid.
2. 2. The nozzle of claim 1, further comprising a first fluid manipulation section downstream to the nozzle inlet and upstream the second fluid manipulation section having a narrowing configuration in a direction of said flow path for reducing pressure of the two-phase stream streamed thereinto while accelerating it until reaching supersonic flow of said two-phase stream.
3. 3. The nozzle according to claim 2, wherein the suction fluid streamed into the first fluid manipulation section has a subsonic velocity.
4. 4. The nozzle according to claim 1, or 2 wherein the HTL comprises at least one of water, molten salt, thermal oil, ethylene glycol, molten metal, hydro-carbonate liquids, anti-freezing liquids, liquified gases, or any combination thereof.
5. 5. The nozzle according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the suction fluid is gas or vapor.
6. 6. The nozzle according to claim 4, wherein the WF comprises at least one of air, argon, CO2, hydrogen, natural gas, nitrogen, organic vapors, steam, refrigerant gases, gases used in organic Rankine cycle (ORC), or any combination thereof.
7. 7. The nozzle according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the suction fluid inlet comprises at least one conduit extending from an exterior thereof into the third fluid manipulation section and configured for channeling the suction fluid into the third fluid manipulation section.
8. 8. The nozzle according to claim 6, wherein the at least one conduit is connectable to an external suction fluid source.
9. 9. The nozzle according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said nozzle inlet is configured to be in fluid communication with a two-phase stream source for receiving said two-phase stream in a pressure greater than ambient pressure.
10. 10. The nozzle according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the HTL and the WF are the same material.
11. 11. The nozzle according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the geometrical profile of any one of the second, third and fourth fluid manipulation sections is controllable; wherein the geometrical profile of any one of the first, second, third and fourth fluid manipulation sections is controlled to maintain about Mach=l along at least one of the second, third and fourth fluid manipulation sections.
12. 12. The nozzle according to claim 11, wherein the geometrical profile is controlled based on temperature of the suction fluid or sink.
13. 13. The nozzle according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the second fluid manipulation section comprises a different expanding configuration profile than the third manipulation section.
14. 14. A system for pressurizing fluid, comprising: a pump unit for pressurizing two-phase stream above ambient pressure; at least one nozzle according to any one of claims 1-13 positioned downstream said pump unit for receiving the pressurized two-phase stream through the nozzle inlet.
15. 15. The system of claim 14, further comprising: a pressurized fluid outlet; and a separation zone configured to receive the two-phase stream discharged from said at least one nozzle and separate gaseous phase from liquid phase of the two-phase stream, wherein said pressurized suction fluid, in the form of gaseous phase of the two-phase stream, is directed to said pressurized fluid outlet to be discharged therethrough.
16. 16. The system of claim 14 or 15, wherein the nozzle outlet is configured for allowing discharge of the two-phase flow into the separation zone.
17. 17. The system according to any one of claims 14-16, wherein the gas of the two- phase stream condenses at the nozzle outlet.
18. 18. The system according to any one of claims 14-17, being a closed loop system for the HTL or the two-phase stream.
19. 19. The system according to any one of claims 14-18, wherein the pump unit is controllable to result in a selected pressure of the two-phase stream in at least one of the second, third and fourth fluid manipulation sections.
20. 20. The system according to claim 19, wherein the pump unit is controllable in response to a suction fluid temperature data indicative of a temperature of the suction fluid.

Description

TWO-PHASE ISOTHERMAL COMPRESSOR AND CONDENSER NOZZLE TECHNOLOGICAL FIELD The present disclosure is generally in the field of pressurization devices, and more specifically relates to a two-phase nozzle for pressurization of compressible fluids. BACKGROUND A conventional compressing element for a two-phase media flow may, for example be a Venturi nozzle which is a type of a converging-diverging passive compression device with no moving parts. A self-entrainment venturi nozzle has the same operating principle as a regular venturi nozzle but is also equipped with one or more gas inlets. Typically, a self-entrainment venturi nozzle features a convergent inlet section, a divergent outlet section and possibly a constricted throat therebetween. Generally, Venturi nozzles use a fast-flowing liquid to entrain a nearly quiescent suction compressible fluid (e.g., gas). In a self-entrainment venturi nozzle, the motive stream is accelerated by flowing through the converging section while the pressure of the motive stream is reduced at the end of the converging section beyond ambient pressure, with the highest velocity achieved at the throat of the nozzle. The high velocity of the liquid creates a region of low static pressure and therefore a pressure difference between the liquid at the throat of the nozzle and the suction fluid. The pressure difference draws the suction fluid flow into the nozzle through the gas inlets(s), where the suction and motive streams mix to form a two-phase media, typically in the constricted throat section. A following diverging section may increase the pressure of the gas/liquid mixture. Due to the high volumetric heat capacity of the liquid, the increase in pressure is isothermal or quasiisothermal. However, in such nozzles, the flow velocity of the two-phase media is limited to sub-sonic flow, relevant to low pressure levels of compression. Aiming to higher pressures of compression requires higher flow velocities at the suction area, which easily reaches supersonic velocity at high gas/liquid mixture flow rates. This may induce shock waves, which may reduce suction efficiency, output pressure, and total efficiency. WO20222/234554, WO2024/062465 and W02024/100669 describe fluid pressurization devices and techniques for an efficient isothermal or quasi-isothermal pressurization of fluids and compression of gas such as atmospheric air or other gases and vapors, which are the working fluid (WF). In that prior art, pressurized Heat Transfer Liquid (HTL) flows in a converging nozzle reducing the pressure to below ambient, sucking vapors or gasses into a diverging mixing chamber, creating a supersonic 2-phase nozzle. Following a reversed De-Laval geometry where the supersonic converging section increases pressure and reduces Mach number to unity, following a diverging subsonic section that retrieves the high-pressure minus head losses and minus the invested work. The mixture is compressed, and the vapor optionally condenses. The compression, and optionally, condensation lead to heat transfer from the WF to the HTL, maintaining A quasi-isothermal compression and condensation. Next, the mixture is separated, resulting in a separated compressed or condensed WF. The HTL passes through a heat exchanger to remove the compression heat and continues to circulate back into the nozzle. Figs. 1A-1B show the prior art of two-phase supersonic reversed De-Laval nozzle and a compressor device, respectively. Optionally, such a compressor is used as part of a heat pump (as exemplified in Fig. 2), where the liquid-phase WF flows into a recuperator and cools, next to a vaporizer as depicted in the following figure. As teaches the prior art, optionally such a heat pump is part of an isothermal Carnot battery. Separating the two fluid mixtures exiting the compressor is challenging and costly. Optionally, the condenser is maintained at a temperature below the saturation temperature (sub-cold), where the compressed WF is at the vapor phase at the compressor. This reduces the separation challenge by separating two different phases. The vapors flow to a condenser for condensation at a lower temperature than the compressor. However, a two-phase separator is a large and costly device. Also, the condenser is a costly device. Another challenge is a non-ideal separation, which results in a small amount of WF that circulates and reaches the inlet of the nozzle, arrests pressure drops (the inlet converging section in Figure 1) and reduces the compression efficiency. Finally, also the condenser is a large and costly component. Here we describe a method and apparatus for a two- phase isothermal compressor, heat pump, and Carnot battery, that doesn’t require a separator and condenser. GENERAL DESCRIPTION The present disclosure provides a design of a two-phase nozzle that can be used in compressor, heat pump, or Carnot battery that maintains high efficiency while a portion of vapors or gas phase reaches the inlet converging sect