Ammonia based hydrogen powered combined propulsion system
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsJeffrey D. Rambo, Scott G. Edens
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A propulsion system includes a turbine engine, and a ramjet engine arranged in parallel with the turbine engine, a fuel storage tank that stores a fuel, such as an ammonia-based fuel, a heat exchanger through which the fuel passes to obtain gaseous (or supercritical) fuel components of the fuel, and a separator that separates the gaseous fuel components into a first fuel component and a second fuel component. The first fuel component is provided to the ramjet engine for ramjet combustion and/or to the turbine engine for turbine combustion, in a high speed operating state of the propulsion system, while the second fuel component may be provided to an inlet of the turbine engine for the turbine combustion.
Claims20
A propulsion system comprising:
- a turbine engine having a turbine engine inlet including an inlet airflow restriction mechanism that controls an inlet airflow to the turbine engine inlet, and a turbine engine combustor;
- a ramjet engine having a ramjet inlet portion and a ramjet combustor;
- a fuel storage tank storing an ammonia-based fuel;
- a heat exchanger provided within the ramjet inlet portion, the ammonia-based fuel flowing through the heat exchanger to heat the ammonia-based fuel to obtain gaseous fuel components of the ammonia-based fuel;
- and
- a separator that separates the gaseous fuel components into a first fuel component substantially constituting hydrogen and a second fuel component substantially constituting nitrogen,
- wherein, in a first operating state of the propulsion system, the first fuel component substantially constituting hydrogen is provided to the ramjet combustor for ramjet combustion, and the second fuel component substantially constituting nitrogen is provided to the turbine engine inlet of the turbine engine.
A method of operating a propulsion system, the propulsion system including (a) a turbine engine having a turbine engine inlet including an inlet airflow restriction mechanism that controls an inlet airflow to the turbine engine inlet, and a turbine engine combustor, (b) a ramjet engine having a ramjet inlet portion and a ramjet combustor, (c) a fuel storage tank storing an ammonia-based fuel, (d) a heat exchanger arranged within the ramjet inlet portion, the ammonia-based fuel flowing through the heat exchanger to heat the ammonia-based fuel to obtain gaseous fuel components of the ammonia-based fuel, and (e) a separator that separates the gaseous fuel components into a first fuel component substantially constituting hydrogen and a second fuel component substantially constituting nitrogen, the method comprising:
- in a first operating state of the propulsion system:
- (i) restricting, via the airflow restriction mechanism, the inlet airflow to the turbine engine inlet of the turbine engine;
- (ii) providing a ramjet inlet airflow to the ramjet inlet portion of the ramjet engine;
- (iii) providing the ammonia-based fuel to the heat exchanger and heating the ammonia-based fuel by the heat exchanger to obtain the gaseous fuel components of the fuel;
- (iv) providing the gaseous fuel components from the heat exchanger to the separator to obtain the first fuel component substantially constituting hydrogen and the second fuel component substantially constituting nitrogen;
- (v) providing the first fuel component substantially constituting hydrogen to the ramjet combustor of the ramjet engine;
- (vi) providing the second fuel component substantially constituting nitrogen to the turbine engine inlet of the turbine engine;
- and
- (vii) burning the first fuel component substantially constituting hydrogen within the ramjet combustor to generate ramjet engine propulsion, and
- in a second operating state of the propulsion system:
- (viii) providing, via the airflow restriction mechanism, the inlet airflow to the turbine engine inlet of the turbine engine;
- (ix) providing the fuel from the fuel storage tank to the turbine engine combustor of the turbine engine;
- and
- (x) burning the fuel within the turbine engine combustor to generate turbine engine propulsion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.