Fuel conditioning system
AssigneeAirbus Operations S.L.U.
InventorsCarlos CASADO MONTERO, Pablo Manuel CALDERÓN GÓMEZ, María Cruz ZAMARRO MARTÍN, Agustín GÓMEZ FERNÁNDEZ, David CASTAÑO DE LA MOTA
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A conditioning system for an aircraft including a fuel conduit which receives a liquid fuel, an evaporator and a heater which heat the liquid fuel to convert the fuel to a gas fuel supplied to an engine on the aircraft, the evaporator transfers heat from a hot working fluid to the liquid fuel and the heater converts energy into heat applied to the liquid fuel, and a heat recovery circuit which circulates the working fluid through the evaporator and a heat exchanger in a hot exhaust gas stream generated by the engine.
Claims18
A conditioning system for an aircraft including a power unit wherein the power unit comprises:
- a fuel inlet configured to supply a liquid fuel or a supercritical fluid (SCF) to a fuel conduit,
- an engine including an inlet in fluid communication with the fuel conduit and an outlet in fluid communication with a power unit outlet configured to exhaust gases generated by the engine,
- an evaporator including a fuel inlet and a fuel outlet each in fluid communication with the fuel conduit, wherein the evaporator is configured to supply heat to the liquid fuel or the SCF flowing from the fuel conduit through the evaporator to convert the liquid fuel or the SCF to a low temperature gas exhausted through the fuel outlet into the fuel conduit,
- a heater including a fuel inlet and a fuel outlet each in fluid communication with the fuel conduit, wherein the heater is in fluid communication with the evaporator and the heater is configured to supply heat to the fuel flowing through the fuel conduit, and
- a heat recovery circuit including a heat exchanger and working fluid conduits coupled to the heat exchanger and the evaporator, where a working fluid circulates between the evaporator and the heat exchanger via the working fluid conduits,
- wherein the heat exchanger is positioned at or in the power unit outlet and is configured to transfer heat from the exhaust gases to the working fluid,
- wherein the heat recovery circuit is configured to supply heat from the heat exchanger to the evaporator through the working fluid, and
- wherein the evaporator is configured to supply heat from the working fluid of the heat recovery circuit to the fuel in the fuel conduit.
A method for conditioning fuel in a fuel conditioning system in an aircraft, the method comprising:
- supplying a liquid fuel or a supercritical fluid (SCF) fuel to a fuel conduit in the conditioning system,
- converting the liquid fuel or the SCF fuel to a gaseous fuel by providing heat to the liquid fuel or the SCF fuel with an electrically powered heater and with an evaporator,
- using the gaseous fuel to power an engine on the aircraft, wherein the engine generates hot exhaust gases,
- heating a working fluid with the hot exhaust gases as the working fluid circulates through a heat recovery circuit,
- reducing an amount of the heat provided by the electrically powered heater and increasing an amount of the heat provided by working fluid in response to an increase in a speed of the engine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.