Fuel gas heating system
AssigneeHanwha Ocean Co., Ltd.
InventorsJong Hyun Kim, Jung Soo Lee, Young Jin Jung
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fuel gas heating system includes: an engine unit; a fuel supply unit supplying fuel gas to the engine unit; a fuel heating unit heating fuel gas to be supplied to the engine unit; a gas valve unit placed in a gas valve unit room and controlling a pressure and flow rate of fuel gas to be supplied to the engine unit; a ventilation unit discharging air received from outside atmosphere and circulated in the gas valve unit room to outside atmosphere; a nitrogen gas supply unit pressurizing nitrogen gas generated by a nitrogen generator and supplying the pressurized nitrogen gas to the fuel heating unit; and a controller controlling the fuel gas heating system.
Claims8
A fuel gas heating system comprising:
- an engine unit;
- a fuel supply unit configured to supply fuel gas to the engine unit;
- a fuel heating unit configured to heat fuel gas to be supplied to the engine unit;
- a gas valve unit placed in a gas valve unit room and configured to control a pressure and flow rate of fuel gas to be supplied to the engine unit;
- a ventilation unit configured to discharge air received from outside atmosphere and circulated in the gas valve unit room to the outside atmosphere;
- a nitrogen gas supply unit configured to pressurize nitrogen gas and supply the pressurized nitrogen gas to the fuel heating unit;
- and
- a controller configured to control the fuel gas heating system,
- wherein the fuel heating unit comprises an electric gas heater and is placed in the gas valve unit room, and
- wherein the electric gas heater comprises:
- a double-walled pipe;
- an electric coil disposed in an inner pipe of the double-walled pipe;
- and
- thermal gap fillers packed in the inner pipe containing the electric coil and between the inner pipe and an outer pipe of the double-walled pipe to transfer heat from the electric coil in the inner pipe,
- wherein the electric gas heater further comprises:
- an air circulation fan configured to circulate air between the double-walled pipe and the electric coil;
- an air circulation line along which air is circulated from one end of the electric gas heater to the other end thereof;
- and
- a gas sensor configured to detect leakage of the fuel gas;
- wherein an air circulation flow of the air circulation line is periodically changed;
- and
- wherein, during heating of the fuel gas, leakage or backflow of the fuel gas is detected by either nitrogen supply from the nitrogen gas supply unit into the inner pipe of the double-walled pipe or by air circulation within the inner pipe of the double-walled pipe.
A fuel gas heating system operation method comprising:
- a first fuel supply step in which fuel gas is supplied from a fuel supply unit to a fuel heating unit;
- a fuel gas heating step in which the supplied fuel gas is heated by the fuel heating unit;
- and
- a second fuel supply step in which the fuel gas heated by the fuel heating unit is supplied to an engine unit,
- wherein the fuel gas heating step comprises supplying the fuel gas into an electric gas heater comprising a double-walled pipe, the fuel gas being supplied to an outer pipe of the double-walled pipe and heated by heat from an electric coil disposed in an inner pipe of the double-walled pipe,
- wherein the fuel gas heating step further comprises a leakage monitoring step in which leakage or backflow of the fuel gas is monitored during heating of the fuel gas,
- wherein the leakage monitoring step comprises:
- a nitrogen gas supply step;
- and
- an air circulation step in which air in the inner pipe is circulated,
- the air circulation step comprising periodically changing a direction of the air circulation,
- the leakage monitoring step being performed by one selected from the nitrogen gas supply step and the air circulation step.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.