Development of the Chemical/Mechanical Heat Pump for More Electric Aircraft Thermal Control Systems

This proposal addresses the development of a hybrid chemical/mechanical heat pump, using environmentally acceptable absorbent/refrigerant pairs, for more electric aircraft thermal control systems. Mainstream's chemical/mechanical heat pump incorporates the advantages of both the chemical and mechanical vapor compression systems. The chemical/mechanical heat pump has the potential of meeting the technological needs of more electric aircraft thermal control systems. The system has the capability of using environmentally acceptable working fluids (i.e. non-ozone-depleting substances) and is lubrication-free, eliminating the expensive and time-consuming task of finding suitable lubricants. Preliminary experimental tests have shown that the chemical/mechanical heat pump has higher performance than comparable vapor-compression performances, high-reliability, environmentally acceptable thermal control system for more electric aircraft, resulting in significant energy and system weight savings over other thermal control systems.