Nonventing, Regenerable, Lightweight Heat Absorber

A lightweight, regenerable heat absorber (RHA), developed for rejecting metabolic heat from a space suit, may also be useful on Earth for short-term cooling of heavy protective garments. Unlike prior space-suit-cooling systems, a system that includes this RHA does not vent water. The closed system contains water reservoirs, tubes through which water is circulated to absorb heat, an evaporator, and an absorber/radiator. The radiator includes a solution of LiCl contained in a porous material in titanium tubes. The evaporator cools water that circulates through a liquid-cooled garment. Water vapor produced in the evaporator enters the radiator tubes where it is absorbed into the LiCl solution, releasing heat. Much of the heat of absorption is rejected to the environment via the radiator. After use, the RHA is regenerated by heating it to a temperature of 100 C for about 2 hours to drive the absorbed water back to the evaporator. A system including a prototype of the RHA was found to be capable of maintaining a temperature of 20 C while removing heat at a rate of 200 W for 6 hours.