Marine absorption chillers

They've been discussed in a couple of threads, where some reasonable doubts were expressed about whether they could be marinized, so this might be of some interest to some people:

Absorption Chillers - Teknotherm Marine http://www.teknotherm.no/product/absorption-chillers/

Portable HVAC Thermal Climate Solutions from Rocky Research NV AL http://rockyresearch.com/technologies/environmental-control-units-hvac

This is a poorly edited draft written for the propane industry, but it includes a useful overview (beginning on page 3, which will show up as page 13 if your viewer counts the index pages):

http://www.propanecouncil.org/uploa..._Programs/11957_UofI_GasCool_Report_FINAL.pdf

 

Random Aside: many truck stops have made a brisk business -- and also saved a lot of fuel -- by having drive up AC and power stations so trucks don't have to idle at night.

 

The TL;DR version is that they can replace a refrigeration or A/C compressor without needing a generator or large bank of batteries, and without being at risk from a future ban on PFCs.

The simplest ones have no moving parts and will run on 60C/140F waste heat, but they're inefficient (CoP < 0.6).

You'd need those in Texas. A lot of Northern truckers also have diesel parking heaters.