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US 11,300,083 B1Granted
Methods and systems for operating a vehicle with two fuel tanks
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorAed Dudar
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods for operating a fuel system that includes two separate fuel tanks are disclosed. In one example, fuel may be purged from a fuel rail in response to Reid vapor pressure of a fuel so that engine starting may be improved. A fuel with a higher Reid vapor pressure may be pumped into the fuel rail when the engine is expected to be cold started.
Claims19
A method for operating a fuel system, comprising:
- in response to an indication of an impending engine start and an estimated Reid vapor pressure of a first fuel exceeding an estimated Reid vapor pressure of a second fuel, flushing the second fuel from a fuel rail to a second fuel tank with the first fuel supplied from a first fuel tank via a controller.
A system, comprising:
- a first fuel tank;
- a second fuel tank;
- a first valve coupled to the first fuel tank and the second fuel tank;
- a second valve coupled to the first fuel tank and the second fuel tank;
- an internal combustion engine including a fuel rail;
- and
- a controller including executable instructions stored in non-transitory memory that cause the controller to route a first fuel from the first fuel tank through the first valve to the fuel rail and route a second fuel from the fuel rail through the second valve to the second fuel tank in response to an indication of an impending start of the internal combustion engine, and additional instructions to estimate a Reid vapor pressure of the first fuel and a Reid vapor pressure of the second fuel.
4 more elements
A method for operating a fuel system, comprising:
- in response to a Reid vapor pressure, flushing a second fuel from a fuel rail to a second fuel tank with a first fuel supplied from a first fuel tank via a controller;
- and
- pumping the first fuel from the first fuel tank to the second fuel tank in response to a length of time the second fuel has been in the second fuel tank.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.