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Can you use steam for cooling? 2

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Jonas82

Jonas82

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A heat pump used for cooling uses electricity to run the compressor that compresses the gas. But is there any technical solution where you instead of electricity use steam as a source of energy for running a heat pump and cooling a medium?

I'm very thankfull for any answers!
 
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You can make electricity with steam, then use the electricty to run the compressor.
You can use a steam turbine to directly run the compressor.
You can use steam to drive an absorption refrigeration cooling system.

 
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dcasto lists out a good summary of what one can do with steam. There is one more, well-used and reliable cooling method he left out:

Using low pressure (waste) steam as the motive force to draw a vacuum and induce cooling of a closed water-cooling system. I have produced 50 oF cooling water with remarkable consistancy and reliability (and also saved a lot of waste steam in he process) with this method. The part I love best about this method is that it has no moving mechanical parts. If designed and constructed well, it has minimal maintenance.

 
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Steam jet cooling
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Steam jet cooling is a method of cooling water by using a high-pressure jet of steam. Typically, it is used at industrial sites where a suitable steam supply already exists for other purposes or, historically, for air conditioning on passenger trains where steam is also used for carriage heating.

Principle
Steam is passed through a vacuum ejector of high efficiency to exhaust a separate, closed flask which forms part of a cooling water circuit. The depression in the flask causes some of the water to evaporate, thus giving up heat. The chilled water is pumped through the circuit to air coolers, while the evaporated water from the ejector is recovered in separate condensers and returned to the cooling circuit.
Click to expand...

 
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Simple answer: Yes, if the steam is colder than the stream you trying to cool.
 
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Also, you can use steam in a absorbtion chiller to regenerate the refrigerant.
 
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