Fuel conditioning system
AssigneeAirbus Operations S.L.U.
InventorsCarlos Casado Montero, Pablo Manuel Calderón Gómez, María Cruz Zamarro Martín, Agustín Gómez Fernández, David Castaño De La Mota
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A conditioning system for an aircraft including a fuel conduit which receives a liquid fuel, an evaporator and a heater which heat the liquid fuel to convert the fuel to a gas fuel supplied to an engine on the aircraft, the evaporator transfers heat from a hot working fluid to the liquid fuel and the heater converts energy into heat applied to the liquid fuel, and a heat recovery circuit which circulates the working fluid through the evaporator and a heat exchanger in a hot exhaust gas stream generated by the engine.
Claims13
A conditioning system for an aircraft including a power unit wherein the power unit comprises:
- a conduit fuel inlet configured to supply a fuel to a fuel conduit, wherein the fuel at the conduit fuel inlet is in a liquid fuel phase or a supercritical fluid (SCF) phase,
- an engine including an engine fuel inlet in fluid communication with the fuel conduit and an engine exhaust gas outlet in fluid communication with a power unit outlet configured to exhaust combustion gases generated by the engine, wherein the power unit outlet includes a duct downstream of the engine exhaust outlet in the flow of the exhaust combustion gases;
- an evaporator including an evaporator fuel inlet and an evaporator fuel outlet each in fluid communication with the fuel conduit, wherein the evaporator is configured to supply heat to the fuel in the liquid fuel phase or the SCF phase flowing from the fuel conduit through the evaporator to convert the fuel in the liquid fuel phase or the SCF phase to a gaseous fuel phase and exhaust the fuel in the gaseous fuel phase through the evaporator fuel outlet into the fuel conduit and to the engine fuel inlet,
- a heater including a heater fuel inlet and a heater fuel outlet each in fluid communication with the fuel conduit, wherein the heater is configured to supply heat to the fuel flowing through the fuel conduit while a temperature of the fuel at the outlet of the evaporator or heater is below a first fuel temperature reference, continue to provide heat to the fuel while the temperature of the fuel at the outlet of the evaporator is below a second fuel temperature reference, which is hotter than the first fuel temperature reference, and cease heating the fuel while the temperature of the fuel at the outlet of the evaporator or heater is above the second fuel temperature reference, and
- a heat recovery circuit including a heat exchanger and working fluid conduits coupled to the heat exchanger and the evaporator, where a working fluid circulates between the evaporator and the heat exchanger via the working fluid conduits,
- wherein the heat exchanger is positioned in or adjacent the power unit outlet and is configured to transfer heat from the exhaust combustion gases to the working fluid,
- wherein the heat exchanger is configured to transfer heat from the working fluid to the fuel flowing through the fuel conduit while the temperature of the fuel at the outlet of the evaporator or heater is above the first fuel temperature reference,
- wherein the heater and the evaporator are configured to jointly supply heat to the fuel while the fuel temperature at the outlet of the evaporator or heater is above the first fuel temperature reference and below the second fuel temperature reference,
- wherein the evaporator is configured to continue to supply heat from the working fluid of the heat recovery circuit to the fuel flowing through the fuel conduit while the temperature of the fuel at the outlet of the evaporator or heater is above the second fuel temperature reference,
- wherein the heater includes an electric heater configured to receive electrical energy to apply the heat to the fuel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.