Process for producing heat and/or cold by means of a compression engine operating with a mixed working fluid

Claim 1

In a process for the extraction of heat from a first fluid to cool the fluid and for the addition of heat to a second fluid to heat the second fluid, wherein the process utilizes a working fluid; a compressor for compressing the working fluid; the compressor being in a hermetic container and having a suction zone and a discharge zone; a first heat exchanger for thermally contacting the first fluid with the working fluid to cool the first fluid and to add heat to the working fluid for vaporizing the working fluid; a second heat exchanger for thermally contacting the second fluid with the working fluid to heat the second fluid by removing the heat from the working fluid for condensing the working fluid, and an expansion valve for cooling the working fluid, the improvement comprising the steps of: (a) composing the working fluid of at least two non-azeotropic components: (b) passing the condensed working fluid through the first heat exchanger to partially vaporize said condensed working fluid and to produce a liquid-vapor mixture; (c) thermally contacting the liquid-vapor mixture of step (b) with the hermetic container surround the compressor at a point in proximity with the suction zone and circulating the mixture in a sealed path around the container while progressively flowing the mixture nearer to the discharge zone and discontinuing contact of the mixture with the container at a location relatively near the discharge zone to extract heat from the compressor and to continue vaporization of the liquid-vapor mixture to produce a finally vaporized mixture; (d) compressing the finally vaporized mixture of step (c) while extracting heat from the compressor as recited in step (c) to produce a compressed mixture; (e) thermally contacting the second fluid with the compressed vaporized mixture in the second heat exchanger to heat the second fluid and condense the compressed mixture so as to produce a condensed mixture; (f) expanding the condensed mixture, and (g) performing step (b)-(f) cyclically using the working fluid mixture of step (a).