Internal combustion engine system, movable body, and method of supplying fuel to fuel consumption apparatus
AssigneeKawasaki Motors, Ltd.
InventorsYoshimoto Matsuda, Satoaki Ichi, Hiromitsu Kiyose, Yutaka Suzuki, Tomohide Hattori, Makoto Ninomiya
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Processing circuitry of an internal combustion engine system is configured to perform: first control in which a valve system and a compressor are controlled such that while a fuel gas from a fuel storing source is being supplied to an internal combustion engine, the fuel gas from the fuel storing source is pressurized and filled in a charge tank; and second control in which the valve system is controlled such that the fuel gas from the charge tank is supplied to the internal combustion engine.
Claims13
An internal combustion engine system comprising:
- a fuel storing source including at least one fuel tank that stores a fuel gas in a compressed state;
- a main channel that connects the fuel storing source to an internal combustion engine;
- a charge tank;
- a charge channel that connects the fuel storing source to the charge tank;
- a compressor that pressurizes the fuel gas of the charge channel toward the charge tank;
- a sub-channel that connects the charge tank to the internal combustion engine;
- a valve system that opens and closes the main channel, the charge channel, and the sub-channel;
- and
- processing circuitry configured to control the valve system and the compressor, wherein
- the processing circuitry is configured to
- execute a first control in which the valve system and the compressor are controlled such that while the fuel gas from the fuel storing source is being supplied to the internal combustion engine, the fuel gas from the fuel storing source is pressurized and filled in the charge tank,
- after the charge tank is filled with the fuel gas by the first control, execute a second control in which the valve system is controlled such that the fuel gas from the charge tank is supplied to the internal combustion engine, the second control being executed instead of the first control,
- when a pressure of the fuel gas in the charge tank lowers to a predetermined pressure value by the execution of the second control, execute the next first control instead of the second control, and
- after the charge tank is filled with the fuel gas by the next first control, execute the next second control, in which the valve system is controlled such that the fuel gas from the charge tank is supplied to the internal combustion engine, instead of the next first control.
A method of supplying a fuel gas to a fuel consumption apparatus,
- the method comprising:
- executing a first supply operation of, while supplying the fuel gas from a fuel storing source to a fuel consumption apparatus, pressurizing the fuel gas from the fuel storing source by a compressor and filling the fuel gas in a charge tank;
- executing a second supply operation of, when a pressure of the fuel gas in the charge tank reaches a predetermined upper limit pressure value, stopping the supply of the fuel gas from the fuel storing source to the fuel consumption apparatus and supplying the fuel gas from the charge tank to the fuel consumption apparatus until the pressure of the fuel gas in the charge tank reaches a predetermined lower limit pressure value;
- when the pressure of the fuel gas in the charge tank lowers by the second supply operation to reach the lower limit pressure value, executing the next first supply operation instead of the second supply operation;
- and
- when the pressure of the fuel gas in the charge tank increases by the next first supply operation to reach the upper limit pressure value, executing the next second supply operation instead of the next first supply operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.