System for efficient heat recovery and method thereof

Abstract

Recovery of heat from a variable thermal load application and the delivery and spreading of this heat at a controllable temperature range to the target application such as a thermoelectric generator by a heat spreader located between a hot source heat exchanger and a target application which uses liquid-vapour phase change to lower temperature and spread heat along the target application, thereby avoiding the risk of overheating under high loads and thermal dilution under low loads. Variable conductance heat pipes, thermosiphons or vapour chambers are embedded in the spreader within the heat path which absorb heat by vaporization whenever this heat is above the phase change temperature. This phase change temperature is regulated via a non-condensable gas inside the chambers of the heat spreader. One application is for an automobile exhaust pipe, another is as an inlet to an industrial process. Other applications are disclosed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.