Experimental investigation on the melting process using freezing concentration for heat source tower heat pump system

Facing with problem of the dilute antifreeze solution in winter, it is necessary for the heat source tower heat pump system to develop a new kind of regenerator to improve the utilization rate of waste liquid. In this article, a solution regenerator unit using freeze concentration with a heat pump system was tested to research variations in the melting process under different operation conditions. From the separation efficiency, the low valve opening degree and high freezing point enhanced the separation process. The maximum separation ratio was all at 50 % valve opening degree operation at each concentration group. As the inlet concentration increased, the separation ratio was downtrend at different opening degree operations. For the icing distribution, the low covering ice area shortened the running time of melting process. The average percentage slope can reflect the influence changes of the ice thickness, the ice covering area and the inlet concentration on the melting process. The average percentage slope was inversely linear with the mass of calculated melted ice. The increase in average percentage slope effectively reduced amount of melting ice.