Background of the invention In vehicles air conditioning is normally based on compressor driven cooling devices.

Stationary cooling plants may instead be based on heat-driven absorption chillers, normally incorporating ammonia-water or water-LiBr pairs of substances. New types of absorptive chillers are continuously being developed, in particular in the US and Japan (such as by the Heat Pump Technology Centre of Japan in Tokyo).

A prior art type of heat-driven chiller, which was in wide use some decades ago, for instance on board ships, is the steam/water ejector chiller. Recently this type of apparatus has been suggested as a cooling device to be installed in buildings, driven by heat supplied by a district heating system.

Brief description of the invention The present invention defines a system and a method in which a heat-driven chiller, for instance an absorption chiller, converts engine exhaust heat energy into cooling, which is utilized for one or more useful purposes, such as cabin air conditioning for human comfort, and engine charge air cooling with the aim of improving engine performance. Use of heat energy derived from the engine exhaust gas flow can be added to the system.

Furthermore, exhaust and/or air intake heat exchangers can be designed to provide silencing and/or air/gas cleaning of engine intake/exhaust.

It can be foreseen that absorption chillers will soon be developed which are much more compact than conventional chillers, and which are capable of performing satisfactorily even when exposed to movements which occur in a vehicle installation. Such new types of absorption chillers may be based on less conventional pairs of substances, for instance organic media.

A steam/water ejector chiller may be incorporated in the system according to the invnetion or used in the method according to the invention. From an environmental point of view it appears attractive that such a chiller can work on pure steam/water. When adapted to mobile applications, as suggested in the present invention, this feature could prove particularly useful, since such application may imply a great number of vehicles, usually being operated and sometimes also being repaired by people who are not engineers. In addition, the very environmentally friendly medium may provide reduced risks in case of vehicle collisions.

The present invention is particularly useful when applied to vehicles such as trucks, busses or passenger cars in which the cooling provided may, e. g., be used for air conditioning cooling for human comfort or cooling of compressed air emerging from a supercharger.

Detailed description of the invention Fig. 1 describes a preferred embodiment of the invention in principle, as typically applied to a vehicle. Here, 1 is a piston engine prime mover with a turbo supercharger, 2. A waste heat recovery boiler or heat exchanger, 3, recovers part of the exhaust heat energy, thereby cooling the exhaust gas. This heat energy is transferred, either directly, as shown in the figure, or via an intermediate cooling loop, to a heat-driven chiller, 4. This chiller dumps heat to the environment via heat exchanger 5 and cooler 6. Via heat exchanger 7 cooling energy is extracted from a circuit 8, typically incorporating circulating water as a heat carrier. The forward water, for instance having a temperature of 5 degrees C, is distributed, both to a heat exchanger 9, being part of the ventilating system of the vehicle, and (via forward pipe 10) to a secondary charge air cooler, 11, performing cooling additional to the conventional sort of charge air cooling performed by cooling loop 13, extracting heat via heat exchanger 12 and cooler 14.

Depending on the type of heat-driven chiller 4, a small amount of mechanical pumping energy may be necessary to add to the chiller, to circulate the cycle medium. This is for instance so with standard absorption chillers. On the other hand, the cycle may incorporate a thermosiphon effect, which may eliminate the need for such mechanical input.

A three-way distributer valve 15 may direct cooling water, either entirely to one of heat exchangers 9 and 11, or to both in a desired proportion, depending on instantaneous demands and according to an optimal strategy, as determined by one or more control systems governing the cooling system, the engine, the ventilation system, etc. One example of such a strategy can be under summer conditions to give general priority to air conditioning, but interrupt air conditioning and increase charge air cooling when peak engine output is required, for instance when driving up-hill.

Further flexibility can be achieved by incorporating cooling storage capacity into one or more of the cooling circuits. Such storage can be used to limit the size of the heat-driven chiller.

From the point of view of engine fuel economy and power output it is attractive that the present system utilizes otherwise wasted heat which is converted into useful cooling. By comparison, a traditional compressor driven vehicle cooling system instead retracts from engine output and causes a significant increase in fuel consumption.

Turbo supercharging today is state of the art in diesel engines for trucks and buses in which it improves engine performance. Sometimes it is also used in gasoline engines for cars. Supercharging is often combined with charge air cooling to improve further on engine performance.

Secondary charge air cooler 11 will take engine performance another step forward.

Theoretically, charge air to engine cylinders may be brought down even below ambient temperature. Due to problems with condensed water it may be necessary to limit the total amount cooling. Another strategy could be to insert a dehumidifier into the charge air supply system.

The added cooling capacity will be particularly beneficial when the ambient air temperature is high, since such an operating condition is known to affect engine performance adversely.

When, as enabled by the invention, ample cooling capacity is available to the charge air cooling system, this reduction in performance can be greatly or completely offset.

The heat-driven chiller 4 may be an absorption chiller or a steam/water ejector chiller or any further type of device which performs essentially the same type of energy cycle, i. e.

has an input of heat at relatively high temperature, rejects heat at a lower temperature, and produces useful cooling.

A further number of variations and refinements of the described concept are given by various subclaims below.