No loss single line fueling station for liquid natural gas vehicles

Abstract

A vacuum insulated storage vessel holds a quantity of LNG for delivery to a pressure building tank. The pressure building tank maintains a natural gas head over the LNG. The pressure in the pressure building tank is lowered using liquid nitrogen (LN.sub.2) to condense the natural gas head and is raised by vaporizing the LNG. A valve system connects the supply of LNG in the pressure building tank to the fuel tank of the vehicle being supplied to allow either LNG or natural gas to be delivered to the vehicle tank and allows natural gas in the tank to be vented back to the fueling station. The fueling station of the invention includes suitable controls for controlling the pressure and temperature of the LNG delivered to the vehicle, the pressure and temperature in the fueling station itself and the pressure and temperature in the vehicle fuel tank.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.