Back to results
US 12,448,115 B2Granted
Fuel cell wastewater balancer
AssigneePipistrel d.o.o.
InventorsTine Tomažič, Blaž Močan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for having a fuel cell wastewater balancer. The wastewater balancer includes a hydrogen tank which stores hydrogen to be consumed by a fuel cell and a ballast tank which stores wastewater produced as a biproduct of the fuel cell reaction. A controller maintains the center of gravity of an aircraft by distributing wastewater to the ballast tank as hydrogen is consumed by the fuel cell.
Claims18
An aircraft comprising:
- a hydrogen tank having a center of mass located at a first distance from the center of gravity (CG) of the aircraft;
- a fuel cell configured to consume hydrogen from the hydrogen tank;
- a ballast tank located at a second distance from the CG of the aircraft;
- a conduit connecting the fuel cell and the ballast tank;
- wherein the conduit is configured to receive wastewater resulting from the fuel cell and deliver at least part of the wastewater to the ballast tank and at least part of the wastewater to an exterior of the aircraft;
- wherein the wastewater delivered to the ballast tank counterbalances a moment created by a depletion of hydrogen due to consumption of the fuel cell.
3 more elements
A system comprising:
- a hydrogen tank located a first distance from a center of gravity (CG) of an aircraft;
- a ballast tank located a second distance from the CG of the aircraft;
- a fuel cell configured to consume hydrogen received from the hydrogen tank and produce wastewater, the system configured to deliver wastewater to the ballast tank;
- a controller configured to cause the system to distribute at least part of the wastewater to the ballast tank and at least part of the wastewater to an exterior of the aircraft to restore an imbalance in the CG.
1 more element
A method for having a wastewater balancer, the method comprising:
- supplying hydrogen stored in a hydrogen tank to a fuel cell to generate power for use on an aircraft;
- distributing a wastewater biproduct created from the fuel cell to a first tank, a second tank, and an exterior of the aircraft, wherein an amount of wastewater is distributed to counterbalance a moment created from depletion of hydrogen in the hydrogen tank.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.