Patent ID: 7963067

Claim:
A heat exchanger, comprising: a housing with a gas inlet and a gas outlet, for exchanging heat between at least one of a liquid-containing medium and a liquid-vapor mixture and a gas; a medium inlet manifold; a medium outlet manifold; and an intermediate inlet manifold and an intermediate outlet manifold fluidly connected to the medium inlet manifold and the medium outlet manifold; and at least one substantially flat heat exchanger mat fluidly connected to the medium inlet manifold and the medium outlet manifold, wherein the mat comprises: a plurality of capillaries of heat-conducting material disposed in mutually parallel and mutually equidistant relation; a plurality of wires of heat-conducting material, wherein the wires are attached in heat-conducting contact to the capillaries, extend in mutually equidistant relation in a transverse direction relative to the capillaries and have a mutual distance between each wire in the order of magnitude of the diameter of the wires; and a drive means for causing gas flow from the gas inlet to the gas outlet, such that gas flows longitudinally along the wires and transverse to the capillaries for heat exchange between the gas and the medium flowing through the capillaries via the walls of the capillaries and the wires; wherein the capillaries extend between the intermediate inlet manifold and the intermediate outlet manifold and wherein gas flows in a longitudinal direction of the wires along each mat and at least a substantial part of the gas is prevented from flowing through the mat.