Vapor suppressing fuel handling system
AssigneeGeneral Motors Corporation
InventorGrady D. Jones
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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AssigneeGeneral Motors Corporation
InventorGrady D. Jones
Estimating the term…
A fuel handling system incorporates a reservoir canister within the fuel tank that is enclosed, but for a float controlled vapor vent valve with a vent orifice of predetermined size. A second stage pump sends fuel to the engine, with unused fuel being returned to the canister through a bubble separator that removes the entrained fuel vapor bubbles and sends them into a vapor space just below the top of the canister. A first stage pump continually runs to send fuel into the canister, thereby maintaining the vapor space at a vapor suppressing elevated pressure. When the vapor space grows far enough that the float falls and opens the vapor space, fuel sent in by the first stage pump and vapor is expelled. The orifice is large enough to allow the vapor to be expelled, but small enough, relative to the first stage pump's capacity, that a vapor suppressing pressure is substantially maintained.
In a vehicle having a main fuel tank and an engine that creates a back flow of return fuel to said main tank that is elevated in temperature and therefore prone to increased vaporization, a fuel handling system, comprising,
In a vehicle having a main fuel tank and an engine that creates a back flow of return fuel to said main tank that is elevated in temperature and therefore prone to increased vaporization in addition to being mixed with entrained fuel vapor bubbles, a fuel handling system, comprising,
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.