Safety control device for vapor generating and recovering apparatus

Claim 1

In A vapor generating and recovery apparatus for vaporizing a liquid in a liquid zone and condensing a vapor in a vapor zone above the liquid zone, including a housing having at least one compartment therein, said compartment having a liquid and a vapor therein, and a heating and cooling system to vaporize the liquid and condense the vapor, said system including a refrigerant compressor, a refrigerant condenser, expansion means, a refrigerant evaporator in heat exchange relation with the vapor, and a conduit means in flow communication with said condenser, said expansion means, and said evaporator, said system further including a heat transfer fluid therein, the improvement comprising: sensing means on the low pressure side of the heating and cooling system to monitor a physical characteristic of the heat transfer fluid flowing to the refrigerant compressor, said sensing means being in communication with said refrigerant compressor to deactivate said refrigerant compressor in response to preselected conditions of said heat transfer fluid which correspond to an unsafe vapor level in the compartment; means to transfer liquid from said liquid zone of said compartment and means to spray liquid from the means to transfer liquid; and, pump means operatively associated with said means to transfer liquid for moving liquid along said liquid transfer means from the liquid zone to said liquid spray means; and, said sensing means being in operative electrical communication with said pump means to de-activate said pump means in response to preselected conditions of said heat transfer fluid which correspond to an unsafe vapor level in the compartment.