ESC energy recovery system for fuel-efficient aircraft

Abstract

The invention is an energy recovery system (20) which uses excess air emanating from an aircraft cabin (16) to drive a turbo-compressor unit (30). The outlet air from the compressor (26) of turbo-compressor unit (30) is optionally fed, either around or through heat exchanger (24), back into the aircraft cabin (16) inlet line, reducing the amount of bleed air required to power the aircraft ECS. Mass flow sensors (34) and (38) are used, via flow control valve (36) and flow control valve control unit (40), to monitor and control the amount of engine bleed air required at any point in time to satisfy overall ECS requirements. The energy recovery system (20") may be utilized in conjunction with a motor driven cabin compressor (42) to reduce the output air requirements of the compressor and thus the weight and horsepower requirements of the compressor motor. In another embodiment, the outlet of the compressor (26) is used to supercharge the inlet of the motor driven cabin compressor (42), reducing the weight and horsepower motor requirements of the ECS.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.