Hydrogen dispensing system and method thereof
AssigneeShell Oil Company
InventorsNikunj GUPTA, Brad John SMITH
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention provides a hydrogen dispensing system comprising: a feed vessel for storing liquid hydrogen having an inlet and an outlet; a flash drum having an inlet and an outlet; a dispenser for dispensing gaseous hydrogen at a pressure of greater than 300 bar, having an inlet and an outlet wherein the feed vessel outlet is in fluid communication with the flash drum inlet, the flash drum outlet is in fluid communication with the dispenser inlet and there is no compression apparatus between the feed vessel outlet and the dispenser outlet. The invention also provides a method of providing gaseous hydrogen to a vehicle.
Claims8
A method of providing gaseous hydrogen to a vehicle comprising:
- a. storing a liquid hydrogen source in a feed vessel at a temperature of less than 30 K;
- b. passing a portion of the liquid hydrogen in the feed vessel to a first flash drum;
- c. passing a portion of the liquid hydrogen in the feed vessel to a second flash drum;
- d. providing sufficient heat to the first flash drum to convert at least a portion of the liquid hydrogen to gaseous hydrogen;
- e. passing the gaseous hydrogen from the first flash drum to a dispenser;
- f. when the pressure of the gaseous hydrogen from the first flash drum drops to below a first pressure, providing sufficient heat to the second flash drum filled with liquid hydrogen to convert at least a portion of the liquid hydrogen to gaseous hydrogen to provide gaseous hydrogen at or above the first pressure;
- g. passing the gaseous hydrogen from the second flash drum to the dispenser;
- and
- h. passing the gaseous hydrogen from the dispenser to the vehicle at a pressure of greater than 300 bar wherein no compression apparatus is used.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.