Abstract: The present invention provides a heat pump apparatus comprising a Rankine cycle and an Carnot cycle part when implemented for cooling. The Rankine cycle comprises an evaporator configured for evaporating by direct evaporation water received from an external water source. An expander receives steam from the evaporator and drives a compressor compressing the fluid of the Carnot cycle. The fluid is thereafter condensed in a condenser and evaporated in an absorber.

Abstract: In a method for performing a refractive index based measurement of a property of a fluid such as chemical composition or temperature, a chirp in the local spatial frequency of interference fringes of an interference pattern is reduced by mathematical manipulation of the recorded light intensity in the interference pattern or by the physical positioning and arrangement of a detector used for capturing the interference pattern.

Abstract: A refractive index based measurement of a property of a fluid is measured in an apparatus including a variable wavelength coherent light source, a sample chamber, a wavelength controller, a light sensor, a data recorder and a computation apparatus, by—directing coherent light having a wavelength along an input light path, —producing scattering of the light from each of a plurality of interfaces within the apparatus including interfaces between the fluid and a surface bounding the fluid, the scattering producing an interference pattern formed by the scattered light, —cyclically varying the wavelength of the light in the input light path over a 1 nm to 20 nm wide range of wavelengths a rate of from 10 Hz to 50 KHz, —recording variation of intensity of the interfering light with change in wavelength of the light at an angle of observation, and—calculating the property from the variation.

Abstract: In a method for performing a refractive index based measurement of a property of a fluid such as chemical composition or temperature by observing an apparent angular shift in an interference fringe pattern produced by back or forward scattering interferometry, ambiguities in the measurement caused by the apparent shift being consistent with one of a number of numerical possibilities for the real shift which differ by 2n are resolved by combining measurements performed on the same sample using light paths therethrough of differing lengths.