No loss fueling station for liquid natural gas vehicles

Abstract

The fueling station of the invention consists of a vacuum insulated storage tank for storing large quantities of LNG at low pressure. A delivery line connects the LNG in the storage tank with a fill line to engage the use device such as a vehicle's fuel tank at the fueling station. A meter is provided to deliver a metered amount of LNG to the vehicle. A pump is used to sub-cool the LNG and convey it from the storage tank to the delivery hose and an eductor is provided to gradually draw vaporized LNG from the storage tank into the delivery line. The fill line, pump, eductor and delivery hose are vacuum jacketed to prevent vaporization of the LNG. A circulation loop is provided to sub-cool the pump, eductor and meter prior to delivering LNG to the vehicle in order to ensure that vaporized natural gas is not delivered to the use device. In an alternate embodiment a heat exchanger using LN.sub.2 or other coolant can be used in place of the pump to sub-cool the LNG.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.