Cryogenic Fuel Distribution Bypass for Hydrogen Delivery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional aircraft engines powered by aviation turbine fuel emit high levels of pollutants, and hydrogen fuel, while cleaner, is not efficiently distributed due to challenges in maintaining its low boiling point and low freezing point, leading to inefficiencies in fuel delivery systems.
Innovation Solution
A cryogenic fuel distribution system with a bypass pathway and vaporizer configuration is employed to manage hydrogen fuel, using high-pressure pumps and valves to maintain supercritical or gaseous phase, ensuring efficient delivery and preventing cavitation, stratification, and air bubbles, while regulating pressure and flow through feedback mechanisms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If hydrogen fuel is used to reduce emissions, then environmental performance is improved, but fuel delivery efficiency deteriorates due to challenges in maintaining low boiling point and low freezing point
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical state parameter of hydrogen fuel from gaseous to supercritical phase by controlling temperature and pressure parameters. This allows the fuel to maintain a consistent phase throughout delivery, eliminating efficiency losses from phase changes while enabling effective fuel injection and combustion.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes controlled phase transitions by heating the supercritical hydrogen fuel in the combustion chamber to transition it to gaseous phase for combustion. The system manages this phase change deliberately to achieve efficient fuel-air mixing and combustion while maintaining supercritical phase during storage and delivery.
2Ease of operation
If hydrogen fuel is distributed in gaseous form, then ease of handling is improved, but energy density deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical state of hydrogen from low-density gaseous form to high-density supercritical form by adjusting temperature and pressure parameters. This maintains high energy density while the fuel remains fluid and manageable, eliminating the need for complex high-pressure gas storage systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies hydraulic principles by treating supercritical hydrogen as a fluid that can be pumped and delivered through standard fuel delivery infrastructure. This enables efficient fuel metering and injection while maintaining high energy density, combining the benefits of liquid-like delivery with gaseous combustion properties.
3Device complexity
If conventional fuel delivery systems are used, then device complexity is reduced, but fuel phase stability deteriorates leading to cavitation and stratification
Solution Approach 1:
The patent modifies the temperature and pressure parameters of the fuel delivery system to maintain hydrogen in a supercritical state throughout the delivery pathway. This parameter control prevents phase separation, cavitation, and stratification that would otherwise occur in conventional systems, ensuring uniform fuel composition and stable combustion.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system ensures stable and efficient delivery of hydrogen fuel to aircraft engines, optimizing performance and reducing emissions by maintaining fuel in a supercritical or gaseous phase, thereby enhancing engine efficiency and reducing environmental impact.
Implementation Method 1
a vaporizer in communication with the fuel delivery assembly for heating the hydrogen fuel in the liquid phase to a gaseous phase
Implementation Method 2
a heat exchanger (also known as a vaporizer) in communication with the fuel delivery assembly for heating the hydrogen fuel
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems, apparatus, articles of manufacture, and methods are disclosed that include a fuel distribution system (200) for an engine, the fuel distribution system (200) comprising: a first pump (204) downstream of a fuel tank (202); a first motor (206) coupled to the first pump (204); a second pump (208) downstream of the first pump (204); a second motor (210) coupled to the second pump (208); a third pump (212) downstream of the second pump (208), the third pump (212) having an inlet and an outlet; a bypass pathway (215) from the outlet of the third pump (212) to the inlet of the third pump (212); and a recirculation valve (216), the recirculation valve (216) in line with the bypass pathway (215).