System useful in an aircraft, comprises an oxygen enrichment device for generating oxygen-enriched air, a fuel cell system with a fuel cell using the oxygen-enriched air, and a sensor that detects the oxygen in the oxygen-enriched air

摘要

The system useful in an aircraft, comprises an oxygen enrichment device for generating oxygen-enriched air, a fuel cell system (9) with a fuel cell (16) using the oxygen-enriched air as a reaction gas within the fuel cell, and a sensor detects the oxygen in the oxygen-enriched air and an oxygen drops below a predetermined threshold value, changes operation of zeolites from the one zeolite to other zeolite. The oxygen enrichment device is an on board oxygen generation system (OBOGS) (1), which is supplied with air by an air conditioning system. The system useful in an aircraft, comprises an oxygen enrichment device for generating oxygen-enriched air, a fuel cell system (9) with a fuel cell (16) using the oxygen-enriched air as a reaction gas within the fuel cell, and a sensor detects the oxygen in the oxygen-enriched air and an oxygen drops below a predetermined threshold value, changes operation of zeolites from the one zeolite to other zeolite. The oxygen enrichment device is an on board oxygen generation system (OBOGS) (1), which is supplied with air by an air conditioning system and by increasing the particle pressure of the oxygen in the air to supply the oxygen-enriched air to the fuel cell system. The air conditioning system supplies cooled bleed air from an engine of an aircraft to the OBOGS, outgoing air from a cabin to the OBOGS and an external air compressed by an electrical compressor to the OBOGS. The OBOGS comprises the zeolites for binding nitrogen and for letting oxygen pass with both nitrogen and oxygen present in the air supplied by an air supply source (10, 11, 12, 13) so that on a first outlet of the OBOGS the oxygen-enriched air is supplied. One of the zeolite binds the nitrogen and lets the oxygen pass to generate the oxygen-enriched air. The other zeolite uses the oxygen-enriched air for regeneration and supplies nitrogen-enriched air to a second outlet of the OBOGS. The oxygen-enriched air is used as an inert gas within a tank system and/or for nitrogen inerting the compartment in the fuel cell system. The oxygen-enriched air generated by the oxygen enrichment device is fed as an educt gas into a cathode inlet of the fuel cell. The OBOGS filters out impurities in the air supplied by the air supply source to prevent contamination of the fuel cell. An independent claim is included for an aircraft.