Patent ID: 7442230

Claim:
A method of generating inert gas on a vehicle for supplying the inert gas to a fuel tank, said method comprising: supplying a flow of gas having a nitrogen component and an oxygen component to a gas separating module; separating the flow of gas into a nitrogen-enriched gas flow and an oxygen-enriched gas flow using the gas separating module, wherein the nitrogen-enriched gas flow has an oxygen concentration low enough that the nitrogen-enriched gas flow is generally inert; and selectively delivering nitrogen-enriched gas flow from the gas separating module to the fuel tank without delivering the nitrogen-enriched gas through a fuel tank vent, and selectively delivering nitrogen-enriched gas from the nitrogen-enriched gas flow to the fuel tank vent, wherein the nitrogen-enriched gas is delivered to the fuel tank at a multiplicity of unique flow rates, each unique flow rate of said multiplicity of flow rates corresponding to a different operating condition of the aircraft.