Patent ID: 7900472

Claim:
A heat exchange and heat transfer device comprising: an evaporator/absorber assembly connected to a binary mixture flow circuit containing a refrigerant fluid and an absorbing fluid, the refrigerant fluid being evaporated from a liquid in an evaporator portion of the assembly, and absorbed in an absorber portion of the assembly by an absorbing fluid-enriched mixture, wherein the evaporator/absorber assembly includes: two masses forming an evaporator unit and an absorber unit, respectively, said evaporator unit being delimited by an evaporator reference surface and said absorber unit being delimited by an absorber reference surface, wherein the evaporator reference surface and the absorber reference surface face each other so that the evaporator unit is in fluid communication with the absorber unit through the evaporator reference surface and the absorber reference surface, means for supplying the refrigerant fluid in liquid form to the evaporator reference surface of the evaporator unit, and means for supplying the absorbing fluid-enriched mixture to the absorber reference surface of the absorber unit, wherein at least one unit selected from the evaporator unit and the absorber unit consists of a porous material permeable to the refrigerant fluid between the reference surface of the at least one unit and a surface of the at least one unit opposite this reference surface, so that the opposite surface and the reference surface of the at least one unit are porous unsealed surfaces in fluid communication with each other through the porous material, so that liquid refrigerant fluid is evaporated in the evaporator portion, transferred from the evaporator reference surface to the absorber reference surface, and absorbed by the absorbing fluid-enriched mixture in the absorber portion.