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US 11,724,817 B2Granted
Aircraft and method of operating an aircraft comprising an air separation device
AssigneeAirbus Operations S.L.
InventorsPablo Manuel Calderon Gomez, Carlos Casado-Montero
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Abstract
An aircraft including a combustion engine with a combustion chamber an injection device for injecting fuel in the combustion chamber and an air separation device adapted to separate air into an oxygen-enriched gas mix and an nitrogen-enriched gas mix, wherein the oxygen-enriched gas mix is injected into the combustion chamber with the fuel while the nitrogen-enriched gas mix is used to inert at least some portions of the aircraft in the environment of said combustion engine.
Claims17
An aircraft comprising:
- a combustion engine including a combustion chamber, and an injection device including a fuel intake adapted to inject fuel in the combustion chamber and receive fuel through the fuel intake,
- an inerting circuit, and
- an air separation device including:
- an air intake adapted to intake an original gas mix comprising at least oxygen and nitrogen,
- an oxygen output from said air separation device is adapted to output an oxygen-enriched gas mix having an oxygen content higher than an oxygen content of the original gas mix, and
- a nitrogen output from which said air separation device is adapted to output a nitrogen-enriched gas mix having a nitrogen content higher than a nitrogen content of the original gas mix,
- wherein the nitrogen output of the air separation device is in fluid communication with the inerting circuit to provide the nitrogen-enriched gas mix to the inerting circuit,
- wherein the oxygen output of the air separation device is in fluid communication with the injection device to provide the oxygen-enriched gas mix to the injection device, and
- wherein the inerting circuit is in fluid communication with a peripheral channel around a fuel hose adapted to supply fuel to the fuel intake.
6 more elements
A method comprising
- producing an oxygen-enriched gas mix flow and a nitrogen-enriched gas mix from an air flow in an air separation device in an aircraft,
- injecting the oxygen-enriched gas mix and a fuel in a combustion chamber of a combustion engine generating power for the aircraft;
- and
- injecting the nitrogen-enriched gas mix in an inerting circuit channeling the
- nitrogen-enriched gas mix around a fuel pipe providing the fuel to the combustion chamber;
- wherein the channeling of the nitrogen-enriched gas mix includes flowing the nitrogen-enriched gas mix through a peripheral channel between a sleeve surrounding the fuel pipe and the fuel pipe.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.