Cryogenic fuel boil off powered fuel cell
AssigneeRtx Corporation
InventorsNeil J. Terwilliger, Marc J. Muldoon
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cryogenic fueled aircraft propulsion system includes a core engine where fuel is mixed with compressed air and ignited to generate a high energy exhaust gas flow, a fuel system that is configured to supply the fuel to the core engine, a cryogenic fuel tank for storing fuel cryogenically in a liquid phase, a gas collection system where boil off gas from the fuel system is collected, a fuel cell system where a flow of collected boil off gas is utilized to generate electric power, and an electrical coupling where electric power generated by the fuel cell is communicated to location outside of the aircraft.
Claims15
A cryogenic fueled aircraft propulsion system comprising:
- a core engine where fuel is mixed with compressed air and ignited to generate a high energy exhaust gas flow;
- a fuel system configured to supply the fuel to the core engine;
- a cryogenic fuel tank for storing the fuel cryogenically in a liquid phase;
- a gas collection system where boil off gas from the fuel system is collected;
- a fuel cell system where a flow of collected boil off gas is utilized to generate electric power;
- and
- a controller programmed to control generation of electric power by the fuel cell, wherein the controller is further programmed to communicate the electric power to a location outside of an aircraft including the fuel cell system.
An electric power generation system for an aircraft comprising:
- a fuel system configured to supply fuel to a core engine;
- a cryogenic fuel tank for storing the fuel cryogenically in a liquid phase;
- a gas collection system where boil off gas from the fuel system is collected;
- a fuel cell where a flow of collected boil off gas is utilized to generate electric power;
- a battery system electrically coupled to the fuel cell;
- an electrical coupling for communicating electric power generated from the fuel cell to a ground based electrical system during periods of aircraft inactivity;
- and
- a controller programmed for controlling operation of the fuel cell and communication of electric power generated in the fuel cell, wherein operation the controller is programmed to charge the battery system with electric power generated by the fuel cell and to communicate electric power to the ground based electrical system when a demand for electric power by the aircraft is below a predefined amount.
A method of generating electric power during periods of aircraft inactivity using boil off gas from a cryogenic fuel system, the method comprising:
- collecting boil off gases from an aircraft cryogenic fuel system;
- directing the collected boil off gases to a fuel cell onboard the aircraft when the aircraft is inactive;
- generating electric power with a fuel cell and a flow of the collected boil off gases;
- directing the generated electric power to an electrical device, wherein at least a portion of electric power is directed to an aircraft battery system to charge the aircraft battery system to a predefined level;
- and
- directing the generated electric power to a ground based electrical system in response to a power demand of the aircraft being below a predefined amount.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.