Patents Examined by Brandon D Lee
  • Patent number: 11885253
    Abstract: A method of controlling light-off of a catalytic converter in an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine (ICE) includes identifying a start of the ICE requiring a light-off of the catalytic converter. The method also includes regulating an exhaust-flow control valve to increase exhaust gas backpressure in the exhaust system in response to the identified start of the ICE. The method additionally includes regulating combustion inside the ICE to increase enthalpy of the ICE. The method also includes detecting light-off of the catalytic converter. The method additionally includes regulating the exhaust-flow control valve to decrease the exhaust gas backpressure in the exhaust system in response to the catalytic converter light-off. Furthermore, the method includes regulating combustion inside the ICE to decrease ICE enthalpy in response to the catalytic converter light-off. The method may be embodied in an algorithm programmed in an electronic controller of a motor vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventors: Andrew A. Raftopoulos, Pratap S. Murthy, Vijay A. Ramappan
  • Patent number: 11885250
    Abstract: Vehicle systems and methods are provided for preheating an aftertreatment system prior to engine ignition. A method involves obtaining a first measurement indicative of a current temperature associated with the aftertreatment system, obtaining a second measurement indicative of a current state of an energy source coupled to a heating element integrated with the aftertreatment system, determining an amount of electrical energy to be applied to the heating element based at least in part on a difference between the current temperature associated with the aftertreatment system and a target temperature for the aftertreatment system, and automatically enabling current flow from the energy source to the heating element prior to ignition of the engine for a duration of time in a manner that is influenced by the amount of electrical energy to be applied to the heating element and the current state of the energy source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2023
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Vijay A. Ramappan, Rafat F. Hattar
  • Patent number: 11879428
    Abstract: A wind turbine blade includes an elongated blade body extending from a root to a tip with a trailing edge, whereby at least one beam-like reinforcement means is integrated in the blade body adjacent to the trailing edge for reinforcing the region of the trailing edge, with the reinforcement means extending partly over the length of the blade body, wherein the reinforcement means is a pre-casted carbon beam including carbon fibers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2024
    Assignee: SIEMENS GAMESA RENEWABLE ENERGY A/S
    Inventors: Lars Hedegaard, Allan Hurup, Jens Jørgen Østergaard Kristensen, Wei Sun
  • Patent number: 11879397
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention are shown in the figures, where a gas turbine engine for an aircraft includes: an engine core including a turbine, a compressor, and a core shaft connecting the turbine to the compressor; a fan including a plurality of fan blades; and a gearbox that receives an input from the core shaft and outputs drive to the fan so as to drive the fan about a rotational axis at a lower rotational speed than the core shaft, wherein the gearbox is an epicyclic gearbox with a plurality of planet gears arranged in first and second sets of planet gears, the planet gears of the first set being positioned displaced relative to the planet gears of the second set in a direction parallel to the rotational axis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2024
    Assignee: ROLLS-ROYCE DEUTSCHLAND LTD & CO KG
    Inventors: Greg Blake, Hannes Wüstenberg, Johannes Scobel
  • Patent number: 11879373
    Abstract: An exhaust after treatment system for a vehicle includes an exhaust outlet pipe, having a first end that is connectable to a vehicle engine, for receiving exhaust gases from said vehicle engine, and having an outlet opening at a second end, arranged to eject the outlet gases, a catalytic converter, connected to the exhaust outlet pipe; and an electric heater element which is in heat conducting contact with the catalytic converter and adapted for pre-heating the catalytic converter. The heater element is positioned downstream of the catalytic converter with respect to the first end. Upon the vehicle being started, the heater element is switched on and gases are flowed from the second end, in the direction of the first end of the exhaust outlet pipe, through the catalytic converter for a pre-set period of time prior to passing exhaust gases from the engine towards the outlet opening at the second end.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2024
    Assignee: Volvo Car Corporation
    Inventors: Peter Sandberg, Mats Laurell, Niklas Löfgren
  • Patent number: 11879430
    Abstract: A method for detecting a sensor malfunction of a load sensor of a wind power installation having a rotor and at least one rotor blade, wherein the load sensor is configured to detect a loading variable of one of the rotor blades, and the sensor malfunction involves the functional freezing of a sensor signal from the load sensor, such that it remains temporally constant, wherein at least one loading variable of the rotor blade is estimated and, in the event that the sensor signal is temporally constant, a comparability test is executed wherein, according to the at least one estimated loading variable, a check is executed as to whether a non-constant sensor signal is to be anticipated, and a sensor malfunction is identified by reference to the comparability test.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2023
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2024
    Assignee: Wobben Properties GmbH
    Inventors: Martin Flögel, Enno von Aswege
  • Patent number: 11867106
    Abstract: An aftertreatment system for reducing constituents of an exhaust gas having a sulfur content includes: an oxidation catalyst; a filter disposed downstream of the oxidation catalyst; and a controller configured to, in response to determining that the filter is to be regenerated and a desulfation condition being satisfied: cause a temperature of the oxidation catalyst to increase to a first regeneration temperature that is greater than or equal to 400 degrees Celsius and less than 550 degrees Celsius, cause the temperature of the oxidation catalyst to be maintained at the first regeneration temperature for a first time period, and after the first time period, cause the temperature of the oxidation catalyst to increase to a second regeneration temperature equal to or greater than 550 degrees Celsius.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2023
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignee: Cummins Emission Solutions Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Cunningham, Aleksey Yezerets, Junhui Li, James A. Cramer
  • Patent number: 11867108
    Abstract: Device for the abatement of pollutants of an internal combustion engine comprising an external casing in which a DOC and a bypass duct of the DOC is housed to define a bifurcation for the exhaust gases passing through the device, so that a first flow is intended to cross the DOC and a second flow is intended to bypass the DOC, an injector of urea-based reducing agent arranged at or at a point immediately downstream of the bifurcation and an electric heater arranged annularly with respect to the bypass duct and configured to heat the bypass duct and to be passed by the first exhaust gas flow.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignee: FPT INDUSTRIAL S.P.A.
    Inventors: Marco Federico Pidria, Edoardo Merlone Borla
  • Patent number: 11867091
    Abstract: A nozzle for a turbomachine turbine. The nozzle includes blades made of ceramic matrix composite material, and at least one metal liner passing through a respective blade. The liner is connected in a sealed manner to a metal internal shroud so as to guide a ventilation fluid through the blade. The nozzle can be configured to maintain effective sealing in spite of the different thermal expansions of the blade and of the internal shroud.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignees: SAFRAN AIRCRAFT ENGINES, SAFRAN CERAMICS
    Inventors: Clément Jarrossay, Sébastien Serge Francis Congratel, Aurélien Gaillard, David René Pierre Le Cair, Matthieu Arnaud Gimat
  • Patent number: 11852063
    Abstract: A method for operating an internal combustion engine includes combusting fuel and air within a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine, thereby forming an exhaust gas, passing the exhaust gas out of the combustion chamber, and performing a startup procedure, the startup procedure including passing the exhaust gas from the combustion chamber through a first aftertreatment system to a pollutant capture unit, capturing criteria pollutants of the exhaust gas with the pollutant capture unit, and heating the first aftertreatment system to a first activation temperature. Subsequent to heating the first aftertreatment system to the first activation temperature a secondary procedure is performed including passing the exhaust gas from the combustion chamber directly to a second aftertreatment system bypassing the pollutant capture unit to heat the second aftertreatment system to a second activation temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: SAUDI ARABIAN OIL COMPANY
    Inventors: Fethi Khaled, Fakhar Mehmood, Christos Kalamaras
  • Patent number: 11852064
    Abstract: An exhaust gas heater for an exhaust gas system of an internal combustion engine includes a carrier arrangement and a heating conductor arrangement. The heating conductor arrangement is carried on the carrier arrangement and exhaust gas can flow therethrough in a main exhaust gas flow direction. The heating conductor arrangement includes at least two heating conductors arranged following one another in the main exhaust gas flow direction. The carrier arrangement includes at least one carrier element having a fixing region lying radially on the outside relative to an exhaust gas heater center axis and is configured for fixing to an exhaust gas guidance housing. The fixing region at least partially does not radially overlap a radially outer lying conductor region of at least one heating conductor of the heating conductor arrangement in at least one, preferably several circumferential regions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: Purem GmbH
    Inventors: Fatih Uysal, Sandra Hoeckel, Dietmar Kuschel
  • Patent number: 11846224
    Abstract: A urea removing apparatus has: a determining section that determines whether or not a urea aqueous solution is injected from an injection nozzle when control is performed to inject the urea aqueous solution from the injection nozzle into an exhaust pipe where exhaust gas of an engine flows; a supply control section that controls a pump that supplies the urea aqueous solution to the injection nozzle from a tank that stores the urea aqueous solution, and causes the urea aqueous solution to be supplied from the tank to the injection nozzle in a case that it is determined that the urea aqueous solution is not injected from the injection nozzle; and a temperature control section that performs control to raise the temperature of exhaust gas in a state where the urea aqueous solution supplied from the tank has been poured into the injection nozzle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2023
    Assignee: ISUZU MOTORS LIMITED
    Inventors: Takashi Ikeda, Hikaru Ishii, Shinji Goto
  • Patent number: 11840951
    Abstract: An exhaust system for a vehicle having an internal combustion engine includes an exhaust pipe having a central axis and configured to receive an exhaust gas flow from the engine, a catalytic converter disposed within the exhaust pipe, and an exhaust gas burner assembly having a burner unit configured to generate and supply a heated burner flow to a supply pipe. An outlet end of the supply pipe is disposed within the exhaust pipe and extends substantially parallel to the exhaust pipe central axis such that the exhaust gas flows around the supply pipe outlet end. A plurality of mixing apertures are formed in the supply pipe outlet end and configured to promote mixing of the heated burner flow and the exhaust gas flow to disperse heat over the catalytic converter for rapid heating thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2023
    Assignee: FCA US LLC
    Inventor: Ronald A Reese, II
  • Patent number: 11840953
    Abstract: A selective catalytic reduction system control system (10) and method of its use include an ammonia (“NH3”) slip sensor (13) located within an interior space (27) of an exhaust stack (15) of a selective catalytic reactor (31), toward an inlet end (25) of the stack (15); a housing (17) located within the interior space of the exhaust stack; the housing including face panels 19; a nitrogen oxides (“NOx”) sensor (11) contained within an interior space (29) defined by the face panels of the housing, at least two of the face panels (19I, 19O) containing an oxidation catalyst; and a dosing controller (59) in communication with the NH3 and NOx sensors, the dosing controller including a microprocessor with dosing logic embedded thereon. The housing with oxidation catalyst acts as a linear box, isolating the NOx sensor from NH3 slip, linearizing the NOx sensor signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2023
    Assignee: Catalytic Combustion Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel R. Piche, Benjamin R. Paffel, D. Todd Jacobs
  • Patent number: 11834977
    Abstract: A method (200) for heating an exhaust system (120) downstream of an internal combustion engine (1) by means of an electric heating device (14, 15). In one example, the method includes determining a current temperature (t_EHC, t_EHC{circumflex over (?)}Us, t_Cat) in the exhaust system (120), determining a heating demand (t_EHC{circumflex over (?)}Des) based on the determined current temperature (t_Cat) and a target temperature, calculating a required amount of heat (Pwr{circumflex over (?)}Des) on the basis of the heating demand and an amount of energy required to heat the electric heating device (14, 15), and controlling (Pwr{circumflex over (?)}Req) the electric heating device (14, 15) to generate the calculated amount of heat.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Michael Bachner, Jonas Ernst, Rolf-Dieter Koch, Tahir Harman, Thomas Zein, Uwe Kossatz
  • Patent number: 11821347
    Abstract: A device for diagnosing a particulate filter suitable for: determining a measured pressure time profile, and a theoretical pressure time profile upstream of the filter, implementing, on each profile: low-pass filtering to obtain a first filtered time profile, second low-pass filtering of the first filtered time profile to obtain a second filtered time profile, calculating a difference between the second filtered time profile and the first filtered time profile, obtaining an absolute value of the calculated difference, and calculating an integral of the absolute value, and, from a comparison between the two integrals, a diagnosis of the particulate filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Inventor: Steven Maertens
  • Patent number: 11821358
    Abstract: A variable geometry turbocharger according to an embodiment includes a rotational shaft; a turbine wheel disposed on one end side of the rotational shaft; a compressor wheel disposed on another end side of the rotational shaft; a bearing housing for housing a bearing part for rotatably supporting the rotational shaft; a variable nozzle structure for controlling a flow rate of an exhaust gas flowing into the turbine wheel, the variable nozzle structure including a nozzle plate and nozzle mount that define an exhaust gas flow passage for allowing the exhaust gas to flow into the turbine wheel, a nozzle vane disposed rotatably about a support shaft in the exhaust gas flow passage, and a drive part for rotating the nozzle vane, the drive part being disposed in an internal space defined between the bearing housing and the nozzle mount; and a cooling gas passage for extracting compressed gas compressed by the compressor wheel and introducing the compressed gas into the internal space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES ENGINE & TURBOCHARGER, LTD.
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Kitamura, Hokuto Isoda, Yosuke Dammoto
  • Patent number: 11815044
    Abstract: Systems and methods for diagnosing an exhaust aftertreatment system are provided. A controller determines, for each sensor of a plurality of sensors, one or more performance parameters based on measurement data obtained from the sensor that is indicative of a performance of the sensor or a component of the exhaust aftertreatment system. The controller determines, for each performance parameter, a corresponding degradation level indicator indicative of a performance degradation of the corresponding sensor or the corresponding component of the exhaust aftertreatment system. The controller can determine, for each degradation level indicator, a corresponding diagnosis threshold value for detecting an operational state of the corresponding sensor or the corresponding component of the exhaust aftertreatment system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2023
    Assignee: Cummins Inc.
    Inventors: Rutika Kaustubh Gokhale, Adrian Adolfo Jarrin, Arun Shori Sundaravel Damotharan
  • Patent number: 11808191
    Abstract: A device for the aftertreatment of exhaust gases from an internal combustion engine has a tubular first flow section, a deflecting region and a annular second flow section, the second flow section being arranged between an inner wall delimiting the first flow section and an outer wall delimiting the second flow section. At least one annular honeycomb body is arranged in the second flow section, and at least one annular heating disk is arranged in the second flow section, the heating disk being electrically contactable by at least two electrical feedthroughs, which are arranged on the outer wall.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: VITESCO TECHNOLOGIES GMBH
    Inventors: Sebastian Dung, Peter Hirth
  • Patent number: 11808209
    Abstract: A turbine engine assembly includes a condenser that is at least partially disposed within the core flow path where water is extracted from the exhaust gas flow, an evaporator system that is at least partially disposed within the core flow path that is upstream of the condenser where thermal energy from the exhaust gas flow is utilized to generate a steam flow. An aftercooler provides a cooling flow that is selectively injected into the core flow path upstream of at least the condenser for cooling the exhaust gas flow in response to a parameter that is indicative of an engine operating parameter that exceeds a predefined condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2023
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: RTX CORPORATION
    Inventor: Jon Erik Sobanski