Safety markers for a hydrogen fuel system
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsArthur W. Sibbach, Michael A. Benjamin, Paul Burchell Glaser
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A hydrogen fuel including a safety marker and a method and apparatus for adding the safety marker to the hydrogen fuel. The hydrogen fuel may be stored in a tank in a liquid phase and then heated to at least one of a gaseous phase and a supercritical phase. The safety marker may be added to the hydrogen fuel when the hydrogen fuel is in the at least one of the gaseous phase and the supercritical phase after heating the hydrogen fuel. The hydrogen fuel may be delivered in the at least one of the gaseous phase and the supercritical phase to a power generator, such as a gas turbine engine. The safety marker may be a visual safety marker, such as a noble gas, or an odorant.
Claims20
A fuel comprising hydrogen and a visual safety marker, the visual safety marker being a noble gas.
A fuel system for a vehicle having a power generator, the fuel system comprising:
- a fuel tank for holding a hydrogen fuel in a liquid phase;
- a fuel delivery assembly extending from the fuel tank to a power generator, the fuel delivery assembly being configured to provide the hydrogen fuel from the fuel tank to the power generator;
- a vaporizer in communication with the fuel delivery assembly for heating the hydrogen fuel in the liquid phase to at least one of a gaseous phase and a supercritical phase, the vaporizer being located between the fuel tank and the power generator;
- a safety marker tank for holding a safety marker;
- and
- a safety marker delivery assembly extending from the safety marker tank to the fuel delivery assembly, the safety marker delivery assembly being (i) connected to the fuel delivery assembly at a safety marker introduction position and (ii) configured to add a safety marker into the hydrogen fuel when the hydrogen fuel is in the at least one of the gaseous phase and the supercritical phase, the safety marker introduction position being the vaporizer or a position upstream of the vaporizer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.