Hydrogen fuelled gas turbine engine
AssigneeROLLS-ROYCE plc
InventorMartin K Yates
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fuel system for a gas turbine engine configured to combust hydrogen fuel. The fuel system includes a main fuel conduit, a fuel pump configured to operate on hydrogen within the fuel conduit to provide pressurised fuel to a core combustor of the gas turbine engine, an auxiliary combustor downstream in fuel flow of the fuel pump, and configured to combust a portion of fuel diverted from the main fuel conduit and to heat a remainder of fuel in the main fuel conduit, and a fuel turbine downstream in fuel flow of the auxiliary combustor. The fuel turbine is configured to be driven by the heated fuel from the auxiliary combustor and configured to power the fuel pump. The fuel system includes a turbine bypass conduit configured to selectively bypass fuel around the fuel turbine. A method of operation is also described.
Claims22
A fuel system for a gas turbine engine configured to combust a hydrogen fuel, the fuel system comprising:
- a main fuel conduit;
- a fuel pump configured to operate on the hydrogen fuel within the fuel conduit to provide a pressurized fuel to a core combustor of the gas turbine engine;
- an auxiliary combustor downstream in a fuel flow of the fuel pump, configured to combust a portion of the hydrogen fuel directly routed from the main fuel conduit to the auxiliary combustor, by a fuel flow valve, to heat a remainder of the hydrogen fuel in the main fuel conduit;
- a fuel turbine downstream in a fuel flow of the auxiliary combustor, the fuel turbine being configured to be driven by the heated fuel from the auxiliary combustor and configured to power the fuel pump;
- a turbine bypass conduit configured to selectively bypass the fuel around the fuel turbine, wherein;
- one end the turbine bypass conduit is connected to both (1) a point on the main conduit between the fuel pump and the fuel turbine and (2) the auxiliary combustor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.