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US 12,674,577 B2Granted
Systems and methods for fuel selection for combustion devices
AssigneeRheem Manufacturing Company
InventorsJorge Miguel Gamboa Revilla, Troy Edward Trant, Amin Monfared, Bo Gao, Babak Bagheri, Sergio Fernando Montalgo Salazar
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A combustion system configured to receive fuel from a plurality of fuel sources, wherein the combustion system includes a burner, a shutter, a fuel selector, and an electronic controller configured to receive an indication of a selected fuel type from the fuel selector and output instructions for the shutter to adjust to a shutter position associated with the selected fuel type, the shutter position being configured to provide a predetermined supply of air to thereby effect an air-to-fuel ratio associated with combustion of the selected fuel type.
Claims20
A combustion system configured to receive fuel from a plurality of fuel sources, the combustion system comprising:
- a burner;
- a shutter;
- a fuel selector;
- and
- an electronic controller configured to:
- receive an indication of a selected fuel type from the fuel selector;
- receive fuel sample data of a detected fuel type from a fuel composition sensor:
- determine whether the fuel sample data is indicative of the selected fuel type:
- if the detected fuel type is indicative of the selected fuel type, output instructions for the shutter to adjust to a shutter position associated with the selected fuel type, the shutter position being configured to provide a predetermined supply of air to thereby effect an air-to-fuel ratio associated with combustion of the selected fuel type;
- and
- if the detected fuel type is not indicative of the selected fuel type, output instructions for the fuel sampling valve to open to perform a supplemental purge of fuel from the combustion system, wherein the supplemental purge of fuel discharges replacement fuel from the combustion system and intakes supplemental replacement fuel into the combustion system.
8 more elements
A combustion system configured to receive fuel from a plurality of fuel sources, the combustion system comprising:
- a burner;
- a shutter;
- a fuel selector;
- a fuel sample valve;
- a fuel composition sensor configured to determine a fuel type;
- and
- an electronic controller configured to:
- receive an indication of a selected fuel type from the fuel selector;
- output instructions for the shutter to adjust to a shutter position associated with the selected fuel type, the shutter position being configured to provide a predetermined supply of air to thereby effect an air-to-fuel ratio associated with combustion of the selected fuel type;
- output instructions for the fuel sampling valve to open to perform a purge of fuel from the combustion system, wherein the purge of fuel discharges initial fuel from the combustion system and intakes replacement fuel into the combustion system;
- receive fuel sample data from the fuel composition sensor;
- compare the fuel sample data to stored fuel data to determine whether the fuel sample data is indicative of the selected fuel type:
- determine that the fuel sample data is not indicative of the selected fuel type;
- output instructions for the fuel sampling valve to open to perform a supplemental purge of fuel from the combustion system, wherein the supplemental purge of fuel discharges the replacement fuel from the combustion system and intakes supplemental replacement fuel into the combustion system;
- receive supplemental fuel sample data from the fuel composition sensor;
- and
- compare the supplemental fuel sample data to stored fuel data to determine whether the supplemental fuel sample data is indicative of the selected fuel type.
14 more elements
A system configured to receive fuel from a plurality of fuel sources, the combustion system comprising:
- a plurality of energy producing apparatuses;
- a shutter;
- a fuel selector;
- a fuel sample valve;
- a fuel composition sensor configured to determine a fuel type;
- and
- an electronic controller configured to:
- receive an indication of a selected fuel type from the fuel selector;
- receive fuel sample data of a detected fuel type from a fuel composition sensor;
- determine that the fuel sample data is not indicative of the selected fuel type;
- output instructions to select one of the plurality of energy producing apparatus associated with the selected fuel type;
- output instructions for the shutter to adjust to a shutter position associated with the selected fuel type, the shutter position being configured to provide a predetermined supply of air associated with the selected fuel type to thereby effect an air-to-fuel ratio associated with combustion of the selected fuel type if the detected fuel type is the selected fuel type;
- and
- output instructions for the fuel sampling valve to open to perform a supplemental purge of fuel from the combustion system, wherein the supplemental purge of fuel discharges the replacement fuel from the combustion system and intakes supplemental replacement fuel into the combustion system if the detected fuel type is not the selected fuel type.
11 more elements
A method of tuning a combustion system configured to receive fuel from a plurality of fuel sources, the method comprising:
- actuating a fuel selector valve to permit a flow of fuel of a selected fuel type;
- adjusting a shutter to a shutter position associated with the selected fuel type, the shutter position being configured to provide a predetermined supply of air to thereby effect an air-to-fuel ratio associated with combustion of the selected fuel type;
- opening a fuel sampling valve;
- purging initial fuel from the combustion system, wherein purging initial fuel comprises discharging initial fuel from the combustion system and intaking replacement fuel into the combustion system;
- sampling the replacement fuel with a fuel composition sensor configured to determine a detected fuel type of the replacement fuel;
- and
- comparing the detected fuel type to the selected fuel type,
- wherein the fuel sampling valve is located downstream of a fuel valve and upstream of a burner, and wherein the fuel sampling valve is fluidically connected to a vent via a vent pipe.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.