Method and device for supplying cool fluid
AssigneeInhaletech LLC
InventorJoseph Hadash
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The invention provides a compact and self-sustained refrigeration system for medical uses, including in hospitals, in clinics and in home uses, including rescue and field emergency situations, independent of external power supply, based on small amounts of liquid carbon dioxide.
Claims18
An autonomous cooling device providing a stream of cool fluid, without a compressor and without an external power supply, employing liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) as a coolant, comprising:
- a) a pressurized chamber for containing liquid CO2;
- b) an expansion chamber for accepting an amount of liquid CO2 from said pressurized chamber;
- c) a first valve for releasing an amount of CO2 from said pressurized chamber to said expansion chamber;
- d) a heat exchanger chamber in heat conductive contact with said pressurized and expansion chamber, for accepting a fluid to be cooled, provided with a first inlet and a first outlet;
- e) a first pump for pumping said fluid through said heat exchanger chamber;
- f) a first temperature sensor measuring the temperature of said fluid at said first outlet;
- g) a first flowrate sensor measuring the flowrate of said fluid at said first outlet;
- h) a CO2 absorption unit containing a material for absorbing gaseous CO2 and being in gaseous contact with said expansion chamber;
- i) a microprocessor unit comprising stored data and suitable software, receiving information signals at least from said sensors and sending instruction signals at least to said first valve and to said first pump, and receiving instructions from the operation board;
- j) a battery for supplying energy to at least said first valve, pumps, sensors, and microprocessor;
- k) a heat-insulating outer coat for containing the above device elements;
- l) an operation board for regulating the temperature and the flowrate at said first outlet;
- and
- m) a switch for manually starting the cooling activity of the device by initiating said first valve and said pump;
- wherein said amount of liquid CO2 expands and forms solid CO2 and gas CO2, said solid CO2 subliming and further cooling said heat exchanger and said fluid, while said CO2 absorption unit absorbs a part of said gaseous CO2, while said first valve is managed by said microprocessor and repeatedly releases amounts of liquid CO2 in order to keep the temperature and the flowrate at said first outlet at predetermined values.
A method for providing a stream of cool fluid and for cooling a volume or surface to a regulated low temperature, without employing a closed refrigeration cycle or using a compressor, and without external power supply, comprising
- a) providing at least three chambers, a first chamber with an amount of liquid CO2, expanding said liquid CO2 to a second chamber via a micro valve, and driving by a blower said fluid to be cooled through said third chamber with an outlet;
- b) measuring by a sensor the temperature of said fluid at said outlet;
- c) providing a microprocessor with data and software, receiving signals at least from said sensor and sending instructions at least to said valve and said blower;
- thereby providing the stream of cool fluid for cooling medical instruments or a biological item selected from sample, tissue, organ, or body, wherein the cooling may be performed once during an interrupted event or more times during several separate independent events, comprising starting and ending the cooling activity at different times or sites according to a need, while lowering the temperature of said item from ambient temperature by 20-90° C., and the stream of said fluid when being air, may have a flowrate of between 0.1-100 l/min.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.