Systems and methods for purging fuel in a combustion engine
AssigneeCaterpillar Inc.
InventorsMichael David Gerstner, Arnold Myoungjin Kim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An internal combustion engine system is described herein. The system uses compressed air from a compressor to purge at least a portion of a fuel from an internal combustion engine. During a purge operation, a controller opens and closes an injector of the fuel to be purged to allow the compressed air from the compressor to push at least a portion of the fuel back into a fuel tank through the injector. The controller deenergizes a fuel pump that pumps the fuel to be purged, allowing the pressure of the fuel that is to be purged to reduce to a pressure that allows the compressed air to flow into the injector.
Claims20
An internal combustion engine system, comprising:
- an internal combustion engine configured to combust diesel fuel and a second fuel;
- a compressor configured to provide a compressed intake air to an intake manifold of the internal combustion engine as part of combustion within a cylinder of the internal combustion engine;
- a first fuel pump configured to pump a first fuel from a first fuel tank to a first fuel injector for providing the first fuel, when the first fuel injector is open, to the cylinder;
- a second fuel pump configured to pump a second fuel from a second fuel tank to a second fuel injector for providing the second fuel, when the second fuel injector is open, to the intake manifold and into the cylinder for combustion;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- receive a purge event notice;
- and
- upon receiving the purge event notice, detect when a differential pressure between the second fuel and the compressed intake air is at or below a value, wherein the value is calculated as a difference between a pressure of the second fuel prior to the second fuel injector and a pressure of the compressed intake air;
- and
- open the second fuel injector when the differential pressure between the second fuel and the compressed intake air is at or below a value to allow the compressed intake air to perform a purge operation to purge at least a portion of the second fuel from the internal combustion engine into the second fuel tank.
A controller for controlling a purge operation of an internal combustion engine, the controller comprising:
- a memory storing computer-executable instructions;
- and
- a processor in communication with the memory, the computer-executable instructions causing the processor to perform acts comprising:
- receiving a purge event notice of the internal combustion engine configured to combust a first fuel, a second fuel, or mixtures thereof, wherein the purge event notice is an indication to the controller to cause the purging of at least a portion of the second fuel from the internal combustion engine;
- determining a differential pressure between the second fuel and a compressed intake air is at or below a value, wherein the value is calculated as a difference between a pressure of the second fuel prior to a second fuel injector and a pressure of the compressed intake air;
- and
- upon determining that the differential pressure is at or below the value, performing a purge operation by opening a second fuel injector to allow the compressed intake air to purge at least a portion of the second fuel from the internal combustion engine into a second fuel tank.
A method of purging an internal combustion engine, comprising:
- receiving a purge event notice of the internal combustion engine configured to combust a first fuel, a second fuel, or mixtures thereof, wherein the purge event notice is an indication to a controller to cause the purging of at least a portion of the second fuel from the internal combustion engine;
- determining a differential pressure between the second fuel and a compressed intake air is at or below a value, wherein the value is calculated as a difference between a pressure of the second fuel prior to a second fuel injector and a pressure of the compressed intake air;
- and
- upon determining that the differential pressure is at or below the value, performing a purge operation by opening a second fuel injector to allow the compressed intake air to purge at least a portion of the second fuel from the internal combustion engine into a second fuel tank.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.