Rolls-royce Corporation

Chloe J Palmer

Jacopo Tacconi

Ahmed My Razak

Nicholas Grech

Ian Michael Bunce

Jia Qing Alastair Milton Sim

Peter Swann

Stephen Mark Husband

Guy David Snowsill

Jonathan E Holt

Robert John Miller

Eric W Dean

John R Whurr

Philip D Butler

Ivan Popovic

Kalyani G Menon

Richard Harwood

Vladimir A Shirokov

Nathan Clark

Benjamin J Eastment

Jia Qing Alastair Mi Sim

A hydrogen-fuelled gas turbine engine has a fuel input path from a fuel input of the engine to a combustor, the engine further comprising a heat-exchanger located in the fuel input path and a fuel turbine located in the fuel input path between the heat-exchanger and the combustor. The heat-exchanger is arranged to receive waste heat from the engine core in order to heat hydrogen fuel introduced at the fuel input prior to input thereof to the combustor. The engine further comprises an air compressor arranged to be driven by the fuel turbine. The engine provides for most of the waste heat of combustion to be recovered and used without the need for heavy electrical or mechanical apparatus and is therefore particularly advantageous in aeronautical applications.

Hydrogen-fuelled gas turbine engine with fuel-to-air turbocharger

A combined cycle power generation and storage system is shown. A liquid air energy storage system uses excess power to liquefy air and stores it in a liquid state. A combustion engine produces power by combustion of a carbon-based fuel along with an exhaust stream containing carbon dioxide. A heat recovery system exchanges heat from the exhaust stream to air from the liquid air storage system, and thereby produce a cooled exhaust stream and heated air. An air expansion machine recovers power by expansion of heated air from the heat recovery system. A separation system separates carbon dioxide from ambient air prior to liquefaction during operation of the liquid air energy storage system, and separates carbon dioxide from the cooled exhaust stream during operation of the combustion engine prior to emission of the cooled exhaust stream to atmosphere.

Power generation and storage

A gas turbine engine fuel system includes a fuel offtake configured to divert a portion of hydrogen fuel from a main fuel conduit, a burner configured to burn the portion of hydrogen fuel diverted from the main fuel conduit, a heat exchanger configured to transfer heat from exhaust gasses produced by the burner to hydrogen fuel in the main fuel conduit and a power recovery device configured to extract power from exhaust gasses of the burner downstream of the heat-exchanger.

Gas turbine engine fuel system

A combined gas turbine engine and hydrogen fuel cell system includes a hydrogen fuelled gas turbine engine, a cryogenic liquid hydrogen fuel tank, a first fuel offtake configured and arranged to divert a portion of hydrogen fuel from a main fuel conduit, a burner configured and arranged to burn the portion of hydrogen fuel diverted from the main fuel conduit, a heat exchanger configured and arranged to transfer heat from exhaust gasses produced by the burner to hydrogen fuel in the main fuel conduit, a second fuel offtake arranged to divert a portion of hydrogen fuel from the main fuel conduit downstream of the heat exchanger, and a hydrogen fuel cell configured and arranged to produce electric power using hydrogen fuel diverted from the second fuel offtake.

Combined gas turbine engine and fuel cell

A trans-critical thermodynamic system includes an expansion device and a separator. The expansion device receives a supercritical fluid containing solutes. The expansion device is operable to expand the supercritical fluid to produce a sub-critical gas by reducing a temperature and/or a pressure of the supercritical fluid. The separator removes the solutes from the sub-critical gas.

Trans-critical thermodynamic system and method for removing solutes from fluid

A combined cycle engine is formed of a gas turbine cycle coupled with a fuel expansion cycle in which fuel for the gas turbine cycle is the working fluid of the fuel expansion cycle. The fuel expansion cycle comprises, in flow series, a fuel pump for pumping a cryogenic fuel for the gas turbine cycle, a first heat exchanger for heating the fuel, an expander to recover power by expansion of the fuel and to thereby drive a load, and a second heat exchanger to reheat the fuel. The gas turbine cycle comprises, in flow series, a compressor, a combustor for combustion of reheated fuel delivered from the second heat exchanger, and a turbine configured to drive the compressor. The first heat exchanger and the second heat exchanger are stationed downstream of the combustor and configured to transfer heat from combustion products to the fuel in the fuel expansion cycle.

Combined cycles

A hydrogen-fuelled aircraft power system incorporates a gas turbine engine and a fuel cell, in which air supply and cooling of the fuel cell is integrated with the gas turbine engine to improve overall efficiency of the power system. The system may be part of a turbofan, turboprop or electric propulsion system for an aircraft.

Hydrogen-fuelled aircraft power system

A complex cycle gas turbine engine for an aircraft with hydrogen fuel supply. The gas turbine engine comprises, in fluid flow series, a core gas turbine and a recuperator for heating hydrogen fuel prior to combustion by turbine exhaust products.

Fuel delivery system for delivering hydrogen fuel to a fuel injection system in a complex cycle gas turbine engine

A fuel delivery system () is shown for delivering the hydrogen fuel from a cryogenic storage system to a fuel injection system in a gas turbine engine. The fuel delivery system includes a pump (), a metering device (), and a fuel heating system () for heating the hydrogen fuel to an injection temperature for the fuel injection system.

Fuel delivery system for delivering hydrogen fuel to a fuel injection system in a gas turbine engine

A sensor assembly is shown for sensing a crossing of the critical point in a system utilising a working fluid in a transcritical cycle passing through the critical point. A first broadband acoustic sensor is located upstream of a component and a second broadband acoustic sensor is located downstream of the component, each of which are arranged to detect high-frequency and low-frequency sounds caused by the crossing of the critical point. A flow regulation device regulates flow of working fluid through the component in response to the output of one or both of the first broadband acoustic sensor and the second broadband acoustic sensor, thereby adjusting the location of the crossing of the critical point.

Sensor assembly

A fuel delivery system for a gas turbine engine comprises a cryogenic fuel tank, a first fuel line for connection to the cryogenic fuel tank, a fuel pump connected to receive fuel via the first fuel line, a plurality of fuel lines connecting the fuel pump to a combustor of the gas turbine engine, a controller configured to operate the fuel delivery system, a purge gas tank connected to the first fuel line and configured to store a purge gas for purging the plurality of fuel lines and a fuel gas tank connected to the first fuel line and configured to store a fuel gas for flushing purge gas from the plurality of fuel lines.

Fuel delivery system with purge gas step and fuel gas flushing step and method thereof

Turbomachinery comprising first and second sets of rotors configured to operate on a working fluid. The machinery further comprises first and second sets of electric machines coupled to the respective first and second rotors, and a coupling arrangement arranged to couple adjacent rotors of the first and second rotor sets to provide for fixed ratio, contra-rotation of the first and second rotor sets.

Electric turbomachine

A superconducting fault current limiter () is shown. It comprises a cryostatic cooling system () for containing a cooling medium (), a superconducting wire () immersed in the cooling medium () and configured to carry a current, the superconducting wire () becoming non-superconducting above a critical current density, and a plurality of heat dissipation elements spaced along and projecting from the superconducting wire (), wherein the heat dissipation elements have an electrically insulating coating, and whereby the heat dissipation elements transfer heat from the superconducting wire () into the cooling medium ().

Superconducting fault current limiter

A superconducting electrical power distribution network has a superconducting bus bar and superconducting cables electrically connected to the bus bar at respective joints distributed along the bus bar. The network further has a first coolant system for providing first cryogenic fluid and first circuits for circulating the first cryogenic fluid provided by the first coolant system. The first circuits comprise: a bus bar flow path which extends along and thereby cools the bus bar, cable flow paths which respectively extend along and thereby cool the cables, cooling junctions where the bus bar and cable flow paths meet at the electrical connection joints, inflow lines which send the first cryogenic fluid from the first coolant system to the flow paths, and outflow lines which remove the first cryogenic fluid from the flow paths.

Superconducting electrical power distribution network

The present disclosure concerns a heat exchanger, which may for example be utilised in a gas turbine engine or in other applications. Example embodiments include a heat exchanger comprising: an external surface for exchanging heat with an external fluid flow passing over the external surface; a first fluid passage extending through the heat exchanger from a first fluid inlet to a first fluid outlet, a first portion of the first fluid passage extending along the heat exchanger adjacent to the external surface for a first cooling fluid passing through the first fluid passage to exchange heat with the external fluid flow; and a second fluid passage extending through the heat exchanger from a second fluid inlet to a second fluid outlet located at the external surface for a second cooling fluid to pass from the second fluid inlet into the external fluid flow.

Growing community of inventors

Derby, United Kingdom

Chloe J Palmer