Patent ID: 7461640

Claim:
A cooling system comprising: a cooler including a hot-side inlet, a hot-side outlet, and one or more hot-side passages extending between the hot-side inlet and the hot-side outlet, the cooler further comprising a cold-side inlet and a cold-side outlet and one or more cooling passages extending between the cold-side inlet and cold-side outlet, wherein a cooling medium is disposed within the one or more cooling passages and is in contact with the hot-side passage to reduce the temperature of hot gas or liquid passing through the one or more hot-side passages; and means for regulating the condition of the cooling medium within the cooler to reduce the occurrence of the cooling medium being in a transitional boiling state, wherein the means includes a controller that provides an output signal in response to a detected condition of the cooling medium, said detected condition being the transition boiling state of said cooling medium, and a device that receives the output signal and changes the operation of the cooling system in response to said detected condition to reduce the occurrence of cooling medium boiling within the cooler at the transitional boiling state and to increase the occurrence of cooling medium boiling within the cooler at a nucleate boiling mode, said change in the operation of the cooling system being selected from the group consisting of adjusting an amount of the hot gas or liquid directed to the hot-side passages of the cooler, changing flow direction of cooling medium within the cooling passages of the cooler from a direction toward a portion of said hot-side passages between said hot-side inlet and said hot-side outlet within the cooler to a direction toward said hot-side inlet, supplying an additional volume of cooling medium to enter and mix with the cooling medium already disposed in the cooler, and combinations thereof.