Patent ID: 7421849

Claim:
A method for cooling of onboard food carts on aircraft, comprising: providing an onboard food cart galley plenum for receiving an associated food cart; providing a galley plenum heat exchanger for transferring heat from onboard food cart galley plenum to a first working fluid for cooling said associated food cart; providing a valve for controlling the flow of said first working fluid through said galley plenum heat exchanger so as to control the cooling capacity of said galley plenum heat exchanger; providing a recirculation pump for circulating said first working fluid to said galley plenum heat exchanger to cool said galley plenum heat exchanger, said recirculation pump being located remotely with respect to said galley plenum heat exchanger; providing a blower for blowing air through said galley plenum heat exchanger to cool said air and for blowing said air through said onboard food cart galley plenum for cooling said onboard food cart galley plenum; providing a display indicating a status of said recirculation pump, said valve, and said blower, said display including an interface for controlling said recirculation pump, said valve, and said blower in order to control the temperature within said onboard food cart galley plenum; transferring heat from said food cart galley plenum to said circulating first working fluid; pumping said first working fluid to said galley plenum heat exchanger for transferring heat from said first working fluid to a second working fluid, said pumping taking place at a location remote from said food cart galley plenum, and said galley plenum heat exchanger being located remotely with respect to said food cart galley plenum; cycling said second working fluid between a liquid phase and a gaseous phase at a location remote from said food cart galley plenum and said pumping of said first working fluid; and removing heat from said second working fluid.