US-20260126012-A1 - METHODS AND APPARATUS TO PRODUCE HYDROGEN GAS TURBINE PROPULSION

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to produce hydrogen gas turbine propulsion are disclosed. An example method includes activating at least one heat exchanger operatively coupled to a fuel line, injecting hydrogen into the fuel line to distribute heat from the at least one heat exchanger in the fuel line, and in response to a temperature of the fuel line being greater than a liquification temperature of an inert gas: injecting the inert gas into the fuel line, terminating injecting the hydrogen into the fuel line, and capturing the inert gas in the fuel line.

Inventors

• David Justin Brady
• Mirko Gernone
• Nathan E. Gibson

Assignees

• GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
• GE AVIO S.R.L.

Dates

Publication Date

20260507

Application Date

20250516

Claims (20)

1. 1 . A method comprising: activating at least one heat exchanger operatively coupled to a fuel line; injecting hydrogen into the fuel line to distribute heat from the at least one heat exchanger in the fuel line; in response to a temperature of the fuel line being greater than a liquification temperature of an inert gas: injecting the inert gas into the fuel line; terminating injecting the hydrogen into the fuel line; and capturing the inert gas in the fuel line.
2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , further including opening a valve operatively coupled to the fuel line to cause the hydrogen to recirculate in the fuel line to distribute the heat from the at least one heat exchanger.
3. 3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the valve is a first valve, further including closing a second valve to capture the inert gas in the fuel line.
4. 4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein a first portion of the fuel line transports the hydrogen in a cryogenic state, wherein the fuel line is operatively coupled to nozzles that inject the hydrogen into a combustor, wherein opening the valve causes the hydrogen to flow from a second portion of the fuel line to the first portion of the fuel line, and wherein the second portion of the fuel line operatively couples the first portion to the nozzles.
5. 5 . The method of claim 4 , further including heating the hydrogen with engine heat after the hydrogen flows through the first portion of the fuel line and before recirculating the hydrogen to the first portion of the fuel line.
6. 6 . The method of claim 1 , further including: determining whether the hydrogen is emptied from the fuel line; and closing a valve to capture the inert gas in the fuel line after the hydrogen is emptied from the fuel line.
7. 7 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the valve is a first valve, wherein terminating injecting the hydrogen into the fuel line includes closing a second valve, further including determining that the hydrogen is emptied from the fuel line in response to the second valve being closed for a threshold period of time.
8. 8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein injecting the inert gas into the fuel line and terminating injecting the hydrogen into the fuel line causes the inert gas to move the hydrogen out of the fuel line in advance of capturing the inert gas in the fuel line.
9. 9 . A method to shut down an engine, the method comprising: causing fuel to distribute heat in a fuel line; in response to a temperature of the fuel line being greater than a liquification temperature of an inert gas: injecting the inert gas into the fuel line; terminating injecting the fuel into the fuel line; and capturing the inert gas in the fuel line.
10. 10 . The method of claim 9 , further including activating at least one heat exchanger operatively coupled to the fuel line to provide the heat.
11. 11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the heat is engine heat radiated by the engine.
12. 12 . The method of claim 9 , further including recirculating the fuel in the fuel line to distribute the heat.
13. 13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein a portion of the fuel line transports the fuel in a cryogenic state, and wherein recirculating the fuel in the fuel line includes causing the fuel to flow through the portion of the fuel line at least twice.
14. 14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the fuel flows through the portion of the fuel line at a first instance and a second instance, further including reheating the fuel between the first instance and the second instance.
15. 15 . The method of claim 14 , further including: injecting the fuel into the fuel line; and activating a first heat exchanger operatively coupled to the fuel line to provide the heat, wherein reheating the fuel causes the fuel to receive heat from a second heat exchanger different than the first heat exchanger.
16. 16 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the fuel includes hydrogen.
17. 17 . A method comprising: heating a fuel line in preparation for an engine shut down; injecting hydrogen into the fuel line; injecting inert gas into the fuel line to move the hydrogen out of the fuel line; and capturing the inert gas in the fuel line after the hydrogen is moved out of the fuel line.
18. 18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the inert gas is injected into the fuel line in response to a temperature of the fuel line being greater than a liquification temperature of the inert gas.
19. 19 . The method of claim 17 , further including opening a valve operatively coupled to the fuel line to cause the hydrogen to recirculate in the fuel line to distribute heat from at least one heat exchanger.
20. 20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein a first portion of the fuel line transports the hydrogen in a cryogenic state, wherein the fuel line is operatively coupled to nozzles that inject the hydrogen into a combustor, wherein opening the valve causes the hydrogen to flow from a second portion of the fuel line to the first portion of the fuel line, and wherein the second portion is positioned between the first portion and the nozzles.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION This patent arises from a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/592,194 (now U.S. Pat. No. ______), which was filed on Feb. 29, 2024. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/592,194 is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/678,824, which was filed on Feb. 23, 2022. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/678,824 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/592,194 are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/678,824 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/592,194 is hereby claimed. FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE This disclosure relates generally to gas turbine engines and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus to produce hydrogen gas turbine propulsion. BACKGROUND In recent years, gas turbine engines have utilized mixtures of hydrogen gas and conventional fuels because of the advantages hydrogen gas provides. Specifically, hydrogen is an abundantly available element that has beneficial properties for combustion in gas turbine engines, such as reduced carbon emissions, lower fuel consumption (pounds per hour (pph)), greater energy production, light weight, and high combustion rate and temperature. During combustion of the mixture of hydrogen gas and conventional fuels, chemical energy and thermal energy are converted into mechanical energy. The mechanical energy produced as a result of the combustion can drive downstream turbine blades and provide propulsion to an aircraft or drive a shaft of a generator that produces electric current. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic cross-sectional view of a prior art example of a turbofan engine. FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic cross-sectional view of an example turbofan engine in accordance with the teachings disclosed herein. FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of a fuel circuit of the turbofan engine of FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of fuel line circuitry associated with the fuel circuit of FIG. 3. FIG. 5 is a first flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions that may be executed by example processor circuitry to implement the fuel line circuitry of FIG. 4. FIG. 6 is a second flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions that may be executed by example processor circuitry to implement the fuel line circuitry of FIG. 4. FIG. 7 is a third flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions that may be executed by example processor circuitry to implement the fuel line circuitry of FIG. 4. FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an example processing platform including processor circuitry structured to execute the example machine readable instructions of FIGS. 5-7 to implement the fuel line circuitry of FIG. 4. The figures are not to scale. In general, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawing(s) and accompanying written description to refer to the same or like parts. DETAILED DESCRIPTION As used herein, connection references (e.g., attached, coupled, connected, and joined) may include intermediate members between the elements referenced by the connection reference and/or relative movement between those elements unless otherwise indicated. As such, connection references do not necessarily infer that two elements are directly connected and/or in fixed relation to each other. As used herein, stating that any part is in “contact” with another part is defined to mean that there is no intermediate part between the two parts. Unless specifically stated otherwise, descriptors such as “first,” “second,” “third,” etc., are used herein without imputing or otherwise indicating any meaning of priority, physical order, arrangement in a list, and/or ordering in any way, but are merely used as labels and/or arbitrary names to distinguish elements for ease of understanding the disclosed examples. In some examples, the descriptor “first” may be used to refer to an element in the detailed description, while the same element may be referred to in a claim with a different descriptor such as “second” or “third.” In such instances, it should be understood that such descriptors are used merely for identifying those elements distinctly that might, for example, otherwise share a same name. As used herein, the phrase “in communication,” including variations thereof, encompasses direct communication and/or indirect communication through one or more intermediary components, and does not require direct physical (e.g., wired) communication and/or constant communication, but rather additionally includes selective communication at periodic intervals, scheduled intervals, aperiodic intervals, and/or one-time events. As used herein, “processor circuitry” is defined to include (i) one or more special purpose electrical circuits structured to perform specific operation(s) and including one or more semiconductor-based logic devices (e.g., electrical hardware implemented by one or more transistors), and/or (