灭菌对于防止COVID-19的传播和死灰复燃非常重要,但灭菌方法通常都是耗能的。蒸汽灭菌易于维护,可以在各种情况下使用,残留污染较少。然而,当前的蒸汽发生器(所谓的锅炉)带来了许多能源和环境问题。通过对蒸汽灭菌特性的调查,本研究提出了一种采用空气源热泵和水蒸气压缩机的清洁柔性蒸汽发生系统,通过与区域供热管道的结合,可以进一步简化系统。通过MATLAB仿真对系统的关键设计参数和仿真性能进行了评估和优化,并建立了一个原型与实验性能评估。结果表明,当环境温度在5°C至35°C之间变化且出口蒸汽温度高于110°C时,系统的平均锅炉效率超过170%。经营期限在3年以上时,经济效益最佳。此外,事实证明,空气源热泵锅炉系统能够有效地应对COVID-19大流行高峰期间激增的灭菌需求,并且与联合国可持续发展目标完全一致。
Sterilization is of great importance to prevent the spread and resurgence of the COVID-19, yet sterilization methods are all energy intensive in general. Steam sterilization is easily maintained and can be applied in various scenarios with less residual pollution. However, the current steam generator (so called boiler) has brought many energy and environmental concerns. With the investigation on steam sterilization\'s features, this study proposed a clean and flexible steam generation system with the air source heat pump and water vapor compressor, and the system can be further simplified through the combination with district heating pipeline. The critical design parameters and simulated performance of the system are evaluated and optimized through a MATLAB simulation, and a prototype was built with experimental performance assessing. The results show the system has an average boiler efficiency of over 170% when the ambient temperature varies from 5 °C to 35 °C and the temperature of outlet steam is above 110 °C, and has the best economic performance when the operating period is above 3 years. Furthermore, the air-source heat pump boiler system is proved to effectively respond to the surging sterilization demands during the peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic and is well consistent with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.