Patent ID: 8459044

Claim:
Thermochemical reactor for a cooling and/or heating apparatus comprising: a tank for containing a gas, at least one reagent unit capable of absorbing, by chemical combination, a gas flow coming from the tank and of desorbing the gas flow by reverse chemical reaction, under the action of a rise in temperature, so that the gas flow reintegrates into said tank, a container connected to said tank through a pipe, said reagent unit being arranged in said container, said container having walls, at least some of which include diffuser means permitting to distribute the gas flow in one direction or in the other one between the reagent unit and the tank, heating means to which said reagent unit is connected, wherein said reagent unit is formed of a material that expands during the absorption of the gas flow and retracts during the desorption of the gas flow, wherein the walls of the container include (i) a tube within which the reagent unit is introduced without radial play in a radial direction of the tube, an outer radial surface of the reagent unit being in close contact with an inner radial surface of the tube in a radial direction of the tube, so that the reagent unit performs movements in a longitudinal direction of the tube during its expansion and its retraction inside said container, and (ii) movable walls between which the reagent unit is sandwiched, wherein each of the movable walls has an internal face oriented transversally with respect to the longitudinal direction of the tube and is movable within the tube along a longitudinal direction of the tube, the respective internal faces of the movable walls being applied against and integral with respective opposite end faces of the reagent unit in a longitudinal direction of the tube, so that the movable walls move in the longitudinal direction of the tube following the movements performed by the reagent unit in the longitudinal direction of the tube during its expansion and its retraction inside said container, so as to enable the successive deformation phenomena by expansion and restoring to the initial shape by retraction of said reagent unit.