Turbine engine for an aircraft including a contrail mitigation system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2026077878-A1
Application number	US-202519397344-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 21, 2025
Priority date	Mar 29, 2024
Publication date	Mar 19, 2026
Grant date	—

Abstract

A turbine engine for an aircraft includes a fuel delivery assembly for a hydrocarbon fuel to flow therethrough, a combustor combusting the fuel to generate combustion gases, and a core air exhaust nozzle exhausting the combustion gases from the turbine engine. The turbine engine also includes a contrail mitigation system having a heater and a fuel precipitate separator. The heater is selectively operable to heat the hydrocarbon fuel and to generate fuel precipitates in the hydrocarbon fuel, and the fuel precipitate separator separates the fuel precipitates generated by the heater from the fuel. A controller is coupled to the heater to operate the heater to heat the hydrocarbon fuel and to generate fuel precipitates in the hydrocarbon fuel in response to a contrail mitigation input.

First claim

1 . A turbine engine for an aircraft, the turbine engine comprising:
a fuel delivery assembly for a hydrocarbon fuel to flow therethrough; a core air flow path for core air to flow therethrough; a combustor positioned in the core air flow path to receive compressed air and fluidly coupled to the fuel delivery assembly to receive the hydrocarbon fuel, the hydrocarbon fuel being injected into the combustor to mix with the compressed air to generate a fuel and air mixture, the fuel and air mixture being combusted in the combustor to generate combustion gases; a core air exhaust nozzle located downstream of the combustor to receive the combustion gases and to exhaust the combustion gases from the turbine engine; a contrail mitigation system including:
a heater fluidly connected to the fuel delivery assembly upstream of the combustor and selectively operable to heat the hydrocarbon fuel and to generate fuel precipitates in the hydrocarbon fuel; and
a fuel precipitate separator fluidly connected to the fuel delivery assembly upstream of the combustor and downstream of the heater to separate the fuel precipitates generated by the heater from the fuel; and
a controller coupled to the heater, the controller configured to receive a contrail mitigation input and, based on the contrail mitigation input, to operate the heater to heat the hydrocarbon fuel and to generate fuel precipitates in the hydrocarbon fuel.

2 . The turbine engine of claim 1 , wherein the controller is coupled to a plurality of sensors to receive an input from each sensor of the plurality of sensors, the input from the plurality of sensors being the contrail mitigation input, and the controller is further configured to determine if contrail formation is likely based on the input from the plurality of sensors and to operate the heater to heat the hydrocarbon fuel and to generate fuel precipitates in the hydrocarbon fuel when the controller determines that contrail formation is likely.

3 . The turbine engine of claim 1 , wherein the hydrocarbon fuel supplied by the fuel delivery assembly includes aromatic hydrocarbons, a concentration of the aromatic hydrocarbons in the hydrocarbon fuel being from 10 percent by volume to 25 percent by volume.

4 . The turbine engine of claim 1 , wherein the heater heats the hydrocarbon fuel to a temperature from 400°F to 900°F.

5 . The turbine engine of claim 1 , wherein the heater is a heat exchanger to receive heat from a heat exchange fluid and to heat the hydrocarbon fuel.

6 . The turbine engine of claim 5 , wherein the heater is a heat exchanger thermally coupled to the core air flow path to receive heat from the core air and to heat the hydrocarbon fuel.

7 . The turbine engine of claim 1 , further comprising a de-oxygenation system fluidly connected to fuel delivery assembly upstream of the combustor, the de-oxygenation system selectively operable to reduce a concentration of oxygen in the hydrocarbon fuel from an input oxygen content to an output oxygen content.

8 . The turbine engine of claim 7 , wherein the controller is configured to operate the de-oxygenation system to increase the concentration of the oxygen in the output oxygen content when the controller receives the contrail mitigation input.

9 . The turbine engine of claim 8 , wherein the controller is configured to turn off the de-oxygenation system when the controller receives the contrail mitigation input.

10 . The turbine engine of claim 8 , wherein the controller is configured to operate the de-oxygenation system to obtain an output oxygen content of dissolved diatomic oxygen between 10 ppm and 70 ppm.

11 . The turbine engine of claim 1 , wherein the controller is coupled to a sensor to receive an input from the sensor, the input from the sensor being the contrail mitigation input, and the controller is further configured to determine if contrail formation is likely based on the input from the sensor and to operate the heater to heat the hydrocarbon fuel and to generate fuel precipitates in the hydrocarbon fuel when the controller determines that contrail formation is likely.

12 . The turbine engine of claim 11 , wherein the sensor is at least one of a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, or a humidity sensor.

13 . The turbine engine of claim 11 , further comprising:
a turbo-engine including the core air flow path, the combustor, and the core air exhaust nozzle; and a nacelle circumferentially surrounding the turbo-engine and defining a bypass airflow passage between the nacelle and the turbo-engine, the sensor being located on the nacelle.

14 . The turbine engine of claim 13 , wherein a volume of air entering the turbine engine is split and flows into the bypass airflow passage as bypass air and flows into the core air flow path as the core air, the sensor being located to measure a parameter of the air entering the turbine engine.

15 . The turbine engine of claim 11 , further comprising an air discharge nozzle, the sensor being positioned on the turbine engine to measure a parameter of the air being discharged from the air discharge nozzle.

16 . The turbine engine of claim 15 , wherein the air discharge nozzle is the core air exhaust nozzle and the sensor measures a parameter of the combustion gases exhausted from the core air exhaust nozzle.

17 . The turbine engine of claim 15 , further comprising:
a turbo-engine including the core air flow path, the combustor, and the core air exhaust nozzle; and a nacelle circumferentially surrounding the turbo-engine and defining a bypass airflow passage between the nacelle and the turbo-engine, a volume of air entering the turbine engine being split and flowing into the bypass airflow passage as bypass air and flowing into the core air flow path as the core air, wherein the air discharge nozzle is a discharge nozzle for the bypass air and the sensor measures a parameter of bypass air.

18 . The turbine engine of claim 11 , wherein the sensor is an image sensor positioned to capture an image of an environment aft of the engine, the sensor being coupled to an image processor configured to determine if a contrail is present in the image captured by the image sensor, and to generate the contrail mitigation input when the image processor determines a contrail is present in the image captured by the image sensor, and
wherein the controller is coupled to the image processor to receive the contrail mitigation input from the image processor.

19 . The turbine engine of claim 18 , further comprising the image sensor.

20 . An aircraft comprising the turbine engine of claim 18 , wherein the image sensor is located on the aircraft.

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Miller Brandon W
• Ostdiek David M

Classifications

• F02C7/224 Primary

  Heating fuel before feeding to the burner · CPC title

• F05D2270/08

  to produce clean exhaust gases · CPC title

• B64D37/34 Primary

  Conditioning fuel, e.g. heating (during filling B64D37/18) · CPC title

• Y02T50/60

  Efficient propulsion technologies, e.g. for aircraft · CPC title