High-temperature thermal exchange process

Claim 1

A process for providing heat transfer between a pair of gas streams which comprises: providing a plurality of first and second confined horizontal flow passageways, said first passageways joined in a first series and said second passageways joined in a second series; providing a plurality of first and second pools at the bottom of each of said first and second passageways, respectively, containing liquid having a low viscosity and a low vapor pressure over the temperature range used and selected from the group consisting of molten metal and molten inorganic salt; generating a plurality of liquid droplets in each said first flow passageways by throwing droplets from each of said first pools of liquid in the bottom of said first passageways; passing a gas stream, at a higher temperature than the droplets in said first passageways, through the plurality of said first flow passageways in heat exchange relationship with the droplets cooling the gas stream and heating said droplets; recovering the heated droplets in each of said first pools thereby heating the liquid in each of said first pools; transferring said heated liquid from one of said first pools to one of said second pools; generating a plurality of liquid droplets in each said second flow passageways by throwing droplets from each of said second pools of liquids in the bottom of said second passageways; passing a gas stream, at a lower temperature than the droplets in said second passageways, through the plurality of said second flow passageways in heat exchange relationship with the droplets heating the gas stream and cooling said droplets; recovering the cooled droplets in each of said second pools thereby cooling the liquid in each of said second pools; and recycling said cooled liquid from one of said second pools to one of said first pools.