Foster Wheeler Energy Corporation

Fred Houghton

Paul Holmes

An absorber/solution pump for pumping strong concentration liquor up a pressure gradient to a vapor generator in a heat-pump system, said pump comprising a pump body defining a first vertically disposed cylinder and housing a first piston which reciprocates within said cylinder, dividing it into an upper pumping chamber and a lower working chamber, a header tank for the system strong concentration solution integral with said pump body and surmounting said pumping chamber, said header tank and said pump body being interconnected via a one-way valve which allows the strong-concentration solution to be drawn by suction and gravity into the pumping chamber, a second piston within a second cylinder which is connected to the first piston so as to reciprocate with it, said second cylinder opening at the bottom into the pumping chamber and opening at the top into the base of the header tank, and a third piston acting vertically in a third cylinder which is closed at the bottom from the atmosphere but is selectively connected to the heat pump system and opens at the top into the working chamber, said third piston acting through an extension so as to reduce the loading on the underside of the first piston when the latter undergoes a return stroke.

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Hartlepool, United Kingdom

Fred Houghton