Gaseous hydrogen storage system with cryogenic supply

A method for storing and dispensing hydrogen fuel, the method comprising:

• providing a supply of liquid hydrogen between 1 bar and 5 bar;
• pre-cooling a vaporizer to a temperature below ambient temperature;
• pressuring the supply of liquid hydrogen and filling the vaporizer to between 20% and 100%, inclusive, of its full volumetric capacity;
• vaporizing the supply of liquid hydrogen to gaseous hydrogen by raising the temperature of the supply liquid hydrogen within the vaporizer, the gaseous hydrogen having a pressure of between 200 bar and 1200 bar;
• transferring the gaseous hydrogen to and storing the gaseous hydrogen in a storage system at ambient temperature without use of a compressor, the storage system including a plurality of gas storage tanks having a different pressure capacity rating and that are adapted to be independently filled with gaseous hydrogen from the vaporizer;
• wherein the step of pressurizing the supply of liquid hydrogen and filling the vaporizer includes pressurizing the supply of liquid hydrogen up to 50 bar above the lowest pressure capacity rating of the plurality of gas storage tanks;
• wherein the gas storage tank from among the plurality of gas storage tanks having the lowest pressure capacity rating receives boil-off gases from the vaporizer during filling of the vaporizer with liquid hydrogen;
• and
• dispensing the gaseous hydrogen to a vehicle fuel tank serially from the gas storage tank of the plurality of gas storage tanks having the lowest usable pressure first followed by the gas storage tank of the plurality of gas storage tanks having the next lowest useable pressure;
• wherein filling the vaporizer includes pressuring the supply of liquid hydrogen in the vaporizer to no more than 20% of the pressure capacity rating of the gas storage tank from among the plurality of gas storage tanks having the highest pressure capacity rating.