Claims
- 1. A no loss fueling station for delivery of liquid natural gas (LNG) to a motor vehicle having a tank mounted thereon, comprising:
- a) at least one fuel conditioning tank;
- b) means for supplying a quantity of LNG to said at least one fuel conditioning tank;
- c) means for pressurizing the LNG in the at least one fuel conditioning tank including a compressor and CNG storage bank for creating and storing compressed natural gas and delivering the compressed natural gas to the at least one fuel conditioning tank to obtain a desired minimum pressure thereby to subcool the LNG for efficient delivery to the vehicle mounted tank; and
- d) means for delivering LNG from the at least one fuel conditioning tank to the vehicle mounted tank.
- 2. The fueling station according to claim 1, further including means for saturating the LNG in the fuel conditioning tank to prevent collapse of the pressure head in the vehicle mounted tank when the LNG is delivered thereto.
- 3. The fueling station according to claim 2, wherein the means for pressurizing includes means for delivering the high pressure natural gas to the at least one fuel conditioning tank thereby to increase the pressure therein.
- 4. The fueling station according to claim 1, further including means for selectively reducing the pressure in the fuel conditioning tank.
- 5. The fueling station according to claim 4, wherein said means for selectively reducing the pressure includes means for venting natural gas from the at least one fuel conditioning tank to the means for supplying.
- 6. The fueling station according to claim 1, wherein the means for saturating includes means for delivering high pressure natural gas to the LNG in the at least one fuel conditioning tank.
- 7. The fueling station according to claim 1, further including means for delivering LNG and natural gas to the use device and for first delivering natural gas from the vehicle mounted tank to the fueling station if necessary to create a pressure differential to permit refilling.
- 8. The fueling station according to claim 1, wherein a microprocessor controls the operation of the fueling station.
- 9. A no loss fueling station for delivery of liquid natural gas (LNG) to a fuel tank of a use device such as a motor vehicle, comprising:
- a) a fuel conditioning tank holding a quantity of LNG and a gas head;
- b) means for delivering LNG to the fuel conditioning tank;
- c) means for pressurizing the LNG in the fuel conditioning tank including a compressor and CNG storage bank for creating and storing compressed natural gas and for delivering the natural gas to the fuel conditioning tank to deliver LNG to the fuel tank;
- d) means for controlling the means for creating and storing and the means for pressurizing to maintain a desired pressure and temperature in the fuel conditioning tank without venting natural gas to the atmosphere; and
- e) means for delivering the LNG from the pressure building means to the fuel tank of the use device.
- 10. The fueling station according to claim 9, further including means for saturating the LNG in the fuel conditioning tank to prevent collapse of the pressure head in the fuel tank after the LNG is delivered thereto.
- 11. The fueling station according to claim 9, further including means for reducing the temperature and pressure of the LNG in the fuel conditioning tank.
- 12. The fueling station according to claim 11, further including means for communicating the gas head in the fuel conditioning tank with the gas head in said storage tank.
- 13. The fueling station according to claim 11, wherein the means for reducing pressure includes means for venting the natural gas head in the fuel conditioning tank to the storage tank.
- 14. The fueling station according to claim 9, wherein said delivering means includes a storage tank holding a quantity of LNG greater than that in said fuel conditioning tank and a gas head.
- 15. A no loss fueling station for delivering liquid natural gas (LNG) to a use device, comprising:
- a) at least one fuel conditioning tank holding a supply of LNG and a gas head;
- b) means for supplying a quantity of LNG to said at least one fuel conditioning tank including a relatively large volume storage tank;
- c) means for saturating the LNG in the at least one fuel conditioning tank including a CNG storage bank for storing compressed natural gas at high pressure and means for delivering the compressed natural gas to the LNG in the at least one fuel conditioning tank;
- d) means for pressurizing the LNG in the at least one fuel conditioning tank including means for delivering compressed natural gas from the CNG storage bank to the gas head;
- e) means for delivering LNG from the at least one fuel conditioning tank to the use device.
- 16. The fueling station according to claim 15, further including means for venting natural gas from the at least one fuel conditioning tank to the storage tank.
- 17. The fueling station according to claim 15, wherein the means for saturating further includes means for delivering LNG from the storage tank to the CNG storage bank including means for vaporizing the LNG.
- 18. The fueling station according to claim 15, wherein the means for saturating further includes means for delivering natural gas from the storage tank to the CNG storage bank.
- 19. The fueling station according to claim 15, wherein the compressed natural gas is created by a compressor.
- 20. The fueling station according to claim 15, wherein the operation of the fueling station is microprocessor controlled.
- 21. A no loss fueling station for delivery of liquid natural gas (LNG) to a motor vehicle having a tank mounted thereon, comprising:
- a) at least one fuel conditioning tank;
- b) means for supplying a quantity of LNG to said at least one fuel conditioning tank;
- c) means for pressurizing the LNG in at least one fuel conditioning tank including a liquid pump and vaporizer and CNG storage bank for creating and storing compressed natural gas and delivering the compressed natural gas to at least one fuel conditioning tank to obtain a desired minimum pressure thereby to subcool the LNG for efficient delivery to the vehicle mounted tank; and
- d) means for delivering LNG from at least one fuel conditioning tank to the vehicle mounted tank.
- 22. The fueling station according to claim 21, further including means for saturating the LNG in the fuel conditioning tank to prevent collapse of the pressure head in the vehicle mounted tank when the LNG is delivered thereto.
- 23. A no loss fueling station for delivery of liquid natural gas (LNG) to the tank of a motor vehicle, comprising:
- a) at least one fuel conditioning tank;
- b) means for supplying a quantity of LNG to said at least one fuel conditioning tank;
- c) means for pressurizing the LNG in at least one fuel conditioning tank including a source of LNG, means for delivering LNG from the source of LNG to a vaporizer, said vaporizer vaporizing the LNG and pressurizing the vaporized LNG and means for delivering the vaporized LNG to at least one fuel conditioning tank to obtain a desired minimum pressure therein thereby to subcool the LNG for efficient delivery to the vehicle mounted tank; and
- d) means for delivering LNG from the at least one fuel conditioning tank to the vehicle mounted tank.
- 24. The fueling station according to claim 23, further including means for saturating the LNG in the fuel conditioning tank to prevent collapse of the pressure head in the vehicle mounted tank when the LNG is delivered thereto.
Parent Case Info
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/036,176 filed Mar. 23, 1993 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,160
US Referenced Citations (11)
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
36176 |
Mar 1993 |
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