Method and apparatus for liquefying and/or heating a fluid
OwnerJocelyn Pierardinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for liquefying a liquid fuel in a fuel supply circuit comprising a filter member, is characterized in that the fuel is heated in the circuit immediately upstream of the filter member. The method and apparatus have particular application in liquefying diesel oil before injection or heating a fuel before metering in a diesel engine.
Claims8
In a fuel system for diesel internal combustion engine of a vehicle having a storage battery and an alternator supplying current to said battery, said system comprising fuel injection nozzles, pump means for supplying liquid fuel under pressure to said injection nozzles, fuel filter means immediately upstream of said pump means for filtering fuel supplied to said pump means, a fuel tank and a fuel line connecting said fuel tank with said filter means, the improvement comprising an electric heating element for heating fuel in said fuel line immediately upstream of said filter means to a temperature below the vaporization point to avoid filter-clogging deposits in said filter means, means for sensing the the temperature of fuel in said fuel tank, and an electric circuit supplying current from said alternator and battery to said heating element, said circuit including first switch means controlled by said temperature sensing means and second switch means connected in series with said first switch means and controlled by contact means controlling operation of the engine means to supply electricity to the electric heating element to heat the fuel only when said engine is in operation and when the temperature of fuel in said fuel tank is below a predetermined value.
In a fuel system for a diesel internal combustion engine of a vehicle having a storage battery and an alternator supplying current to said battery, said system comprising fuel injection nozzles, pump means for supplying liquid fuel under pressure to said injection nozzles, fuel filter means upstream of said pump means for filtering fuel supplied to said pump means, a fuel tank and a fuel line connecting said fuel tank with said filter means, the improvement comprising an electric heating element for heating fuel in said fuel line immediately upstream of said filter means to a temperature below the vaporization point to avoid filter-clogging deposits in said filter means, means for sensing the temperature of fuel in said fuel tank, and an electric circuit supplying current from said battery and alternator to said heating element, said circuit including first switch means controlled by said temperature sensing means, manually controllable second switch means connected in series with said first switch means and third switch means connected in parallel with second switch means and controlled by said alternator to be closed when said alternator is producing voltage to supply current to said electric heating element to heat the fuel only when the temperature of fuel in said fuel tank is below a predetermined value and at least one of said second switch means and third switch means is closed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.