Patent ID: 7204868

Claim:
An inert gas generating system for generating inert gas on a vehicle having a fuel tank and a fuel tank vent, said system comprising: an inlet for receiving a flow of gas having a nitrogen component and an oxygen component from a gas source; a heat exchanger downstream from the inlet and in fluid communication with the inlet for cooling gas received from the inlet; a gas separation module downstream from the heat exchanger and in fluid communication with the heat exchanger for separating gas received from the heat exchanger into a nitrogen-enriched gas flow and an oxygen-enriched gas flow; and valving operatively connected to the gas separation module selectively delivering nitrogen-enriched gas from the nitrogen-enriched gas flow to the fuel tank without delivering the nitrogen-enriched gas through the fuel tank vent, and selectively delivering nitrogen-enriched gas from the nitrogen-enriched gas flow to the fuel tank vent.