Air cooler for LPG vehicles

In apparatus having both a liquid petroleum gas internal combustion engine cooled by circulating liquid through a heat exchanger and a human-occupied compartment, a system for providing cooling to the compartment from the heat of vaporization of the liquid petroleum fuel being used, comprising the combination of:

• an air-fluid heat exchanger in the human-occupied compartment, and
• a converter in which liquid petroleum gas is expanded to the vapor phase and heated to above the ambient atmospheric dew point by fluid on its way to said air-fluid heat exchanger prior to being ducted to the internal combustion engine, the cooled fluid emerging from said converter being connected to said air-fluid heat exchanger inlet port, and
• a centrifugal pump moving the fluid from the outlet port of said air-fluid heat exchanger to said converter through a dual three-way valve discussed below, and
• an air-separator vessel located above said centrifugal pump, containing the fluid being pumped and connected to the inlet side of said centrifugal pump, and
• a dual three-way valve operated by a common rotary shaft, the first three-way valve being always connected to the fluid-inflow port of said converter and alternatively connected to either the discharge port of said centrifugal pump as a first alternative or to the higher-pressure portion of the engine coolant circulating system as a second alternative, and the second three-way valve being always connected to the fluid-outflow port of said air-fluid heat exchanger and alternatively connected to either the inlet side of said centrifugal pump as a first alternative or to the lower-pressure portion of the engine coolant circulating system as a second-alternative, the common rotary shaft ensuring that the both three-way valves are positioned toward either the first alternative given above or the second alternative given above.
• whereby when said dual three-way valve is in the first alternative position heat of vaporization is supplied only from the human-occupied compartment and when said valve is in the second alternative position the heat of vaporization is supplied in part from the liquid circulating within the engine-cooling system and in part from the human-occupied compartment, in both positions providing cooling to the compartment.