System and method for monitoring fuel additives
AssigneeRtx Corporation
InventorsZissis A Dardas, Haralambos Cordatos, Ying She
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for monitoring fuel additives on board a vehicle includes a fuel line carrying fuel from a fuel source to an engine; a fuel additive sensor configured to measure concentration of additives in fuel at a point along the fuel line; a fuel additive dispenser connected in parallel to the fuel line; at least one flow control device for controlling an amount of flow from the fuel line into the fuel additive dispenser; and a controller configured to receive input from the fuel additive sensor and to control the flow control device to adjust the amount of the flow from the fuel line into the fuel additive dispenser.
Claims7
A method for monitoring fuel additives on board a vehicle, comprising:
- flowing fuel from a fuel tank along a fuel line to an engine;
- sensing concentration of additives in the fuel at a point along the fuel line;
- comparing the concentration of the additive in the fuel to a fuel additive specification;
- determining that the concentration is less than the specification;
- operating a flow control device to divert a portion of the fuel from the fuel line along a parallel line to a fuel additive dispenser and back to the fuel line;
- determining that the concentration meets the specification;
- and
- operating the flow control device to bypass the fuel additive dispenser, wherein the fuel additive dispenser is a passive fuel additive dosing system which comprises a cartridge;
- a membrane-based contactor within the cartridge;
- a fuel inlet to the cartridge connected to receive diverted flow from the flow control device;
- a fuel outlet from the cartridge connected to return flow back to the fuel line;
- and an additive within the membrane-based contactor, the membrane-based contactor being arranged in the cartridge such that, with fuel in the cartridge, a fuel contact area with the membrane-based contactor is dependent on a fuel flow rate to passively dispense a proportional amount of the additive into the fuel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.