Natural gas home fast fill refueling station
A home-based, low-cost, self-contained, fast-fill natural gas refueling station for providing compress natural gas (CNG) fuel for motor vehicles. The station compresses utility supplied natural gas and stores the CNG in a CNG storage facility located inside the station. In preferred embodiments the refueling station is located adjacent to a driveway at a home. The compressor preferably is a multi-stage gas compressor having at least three stages of compression. Applicant estimates that savings based today prices for CNG as compared to gasoline, a typical family with only one car could pay for the station in three years. If the family has several cars the station could pay for itself much earlier.
1. A home based natural gas refueling station for providing natural gas fuel to a vehicle, comprising:
a natural gas fill line connected to said home;
a multi-stage gas compressor connected to said natural gas fill line;
a filter on the natural gas fill line, a first pressure transducer upstream of the filter, and a second pressure transducer downstream of the filter and upstream of the multi-stage gas compressor;
a first pressure relief valve between the second pressure transducer and the multi-stage compressor;
a natural gas storage tank array, said storage tank array comprising a plurality of natural gas storage tanks, said plurality of natural gas storage tanks further comprising a frontmost storage tank;
a water trap connected to the natural gas storage tank array, the water trap including two solenoid valves;
a pressurized natural gas storage tank exit line directly connected to said frontmost storage tank,
a second pressure relief valve on the pressurized natural gas storage tank exit line downstream of the natural gas storage tank array;
a drain valve downstream of the second pressure relieve valve;
a pressure selector switch downstream of the drain valve;
two pressure regulators arranged in parallel downstream of the pressure selector switch;
a fill nozzle connected to said exit line downstream of the two pressure regulators;
wherein as pressurized natural gas is depleted from said frontmost storage tank during fueling of a vehicle, said frontmost storage tank is simultaneously repressurized via other storage tanks in said natural gas storage tank array; and
wherein the multi-stage gas compressor and the storage tanks are disposed in a shed along a driveway of said home.
2. The natural gas refueling station of claim 1 , wherein said compressor is shut off during the refueling process.
3. The natural gas refueling station of claim 1 , wherein said plurality of natural gas storage tanks are connected in series.
4. The natural gas refueling station of claim 1 , wherein said plurality of natural gas storage tanks are connected in parallel.
5. The natural gas refueling station of claim 1 , wherein said plurality of natural gas storage tanks are connected in series and connected in parallel.
6. The natural gas refueling station of claim 1 , wherein the pressure selector switch is configured such that a user is able to select between 3000 psi and 3600 psi.
7. The natural gas refueling station of claim 1 , wherein the multi-stage gas compressor is capable of pumping at a rate of at least 0.5 gallons per hour.