Refrigerant recovery device and refrigerant recovery method by use of the same

Abstract

There are provided a compact and portable refrigerant recovery device which can easily recover a refrigerant present in a refrigeration circuit of a used-up household refrigerator or an extra-low temperature freezer which uses a low boiling point refrigerant at low costs, and a method for recovering a refrigerant by using the refrigerant recovery device. In the refrigerant recovery device comprising a refrigerant recovery tank which stores an activated carbon for adsorbing the refrigerant, the recovery tank is equipped with a detachable cap, and the activated carbon is wrapped in unwoven cloth finer than a grain diameter of the activated carbon, and stored in the recovery tank. The refrigerant recovery device is connected to the refrigeration circuit, a gas in the refrigerant recovery tank is vacuumed to be discharged before the refrigerant of the refrigeration circuit is recovered, and then the refrigerant is adsorbed on the activated carbon to be recovered.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A refrigerant recovery device comprising: 
 a refrigerant recovery tank which stores an activated carbon for adsorbing a refrigerant,    wherein the recovery tank is equipped with a detachable cap, and the activated carbon is wrapped in unwoven cloth finer than a grain diameter of the activated carbon, and stored in the recovery tank.    
     
     
         2 . A refrigerant recovery method comprising: 
 connecting the refrigerant recovery device of  claim 1  to a refrigeration circuit; and    vacuuming a gas in a refrigerant recovery tank to discharge the gas before a refrigerant of the refrigeration circuit is recovered.    
     
     
         3 . The refrigerant recovery method according to  claim 2 , wherein a filter of unwoven cloth finer than a grain diameter of an activated carbon is arranged on a path of the vacuuming.  
     
     
         4 . The refrigerant recovery method according to  claim 2  or  3 , wherein a refrigerant is a low boiling point gas refrigerant or a mixture of a low boiling point gas refrigerant and a liquefied refrigerant which has a boiling point higher than that of the gas refrigerant.