A gas supply systemincludes a compressor unit, an accumulator unit, a pre-cooling system and a housing. In the gas supply system, the compressor unit is vertically arranged and the pre-cooling system is arranged above the accumulator unit in the housing. The compressor unit and the accumulator unit are covered by one rectangular parallelepiped housing.

The present invention provides a monitoring apparatus for an outlet of a vessel storing gas under pressure. The monitoring apparatus comprises a flow control valve movable to a position between a fully open position and a fully closed position to adjust a flow of gas from the outlet of the vessel, a valve position detector connected to the flow control valve to detect the position of the flow control valve, an internal pressure sensor to sense an internal pressure P.sub.int(t) of the gas in the vessel at different times, a processor, a memory and an alarm. The processor calculates an actual rate of change in pressure dP.sub.int/dt of the gas in the vessel over time, and compares dP.sub.int/dt with an expected rate of change.

An inflator of a vacuum atmosphere conversion chamber is provided. The inflator comprises a first charging pipe including a first valve body, a second charging pipe including a second valve body, a pressure monitoring and judging module, an oxygen concentration monitoring and judging module and a control module. The pressure monitoring and judging module is connected separately to the vacuum atmosphere conversion chamber and the control module, the oxygen concentration monitoring and judging module is connected separately to the vacuum atmosphere conversion chamber and the control module, and the control module is connected separately to the first valve body and the second valve body. An inflation method of vacuum atmosphere conversion chamber and a vacuum sputtering equipment are also provided. The inflator, the inflation method and the vacuum sputtering equipment can switch the charging gases, for eliminating the safety hazard on the basis of solving the oxidation issue effectively.

Disclosed is a liquefied natural gas storage apparatus. The apparatus includes a heat insulated tank and liquefied natural gas contained in the tank. The tank has heat insulation sufficient to maintain liquefied natural gas therein such that most of the liquefied natural gas stays in liquid. The contained liquefied natural gas has a vapor pressure from about 0.3 bar to about 2 bar. The apparatus further includes a safety valve configured to release a part of liquefied natural gas contained in the tank when a vapor pressure of liquefied natural gas within the tank becomes higher than a cut-off pressure. The cut-off pressure is from about 0.3 bar to about 2 bar.

The present invention relates to a pneumatically, high pressure gas powered emergency release coupling control and monitoring system (S) comprising a powered emergency released coupling (1) arranged in a fluid-supply line (32) for conveying hazardous fluids, said powered emergency released coupling (1) comprising a couple of coupling members (10, 11) provided with mating faces (10A, 11A) for sealing engagement of the coupling members (10, 11) and formation of a pressurizable chamber (12) between said coupling members (10, 11), said system (S) comprising an actuation line (7) connected at its one end to the pressurizable chamber (12) and at its other end to a source (C) of high pressure gaseous media (G.sub.H), preferably high pressure nitrogen gas, an first actuating device (4A, 4B) arranged in the actuation line (7), wherein said system (S) provides a gaseous media at a pilot pressure level to said pressurizable chamber (12) and to said actuation line (7) in a position downstream the first actuation device (4A, 4B) or via said pressurizable chamber (12) for detection of any leakage of gas in the control and monitoring system (S), said pilot pressure gaseous media preferably being low pressure nitrogen gas. The invention further relates to a pneumatically, high pressure gas powered emergency release coupling (1) and a control and monitoring method for such a system (S).

Disclosed is a liquefied natural gas storage apparatus. The apparatus includes a heat insulated tank and liquefied natural gas contained in the tank. The tank has heat insulation sufficient to maintain liquefied natural gas therein such that most of the liquefied natural gas stays in liquid. The contained liquefied natural gas has a vapor pressure from about 0.3 bar to about 2 bar. The apparatus further includes a safety valve configured to release a part of liquefied natural gas contained in the tank when a vapor pressure of liquefied natural gas within the tank becomes higher than a cut-off pressure. The cut-off pressure is from about 0.3 bar to about 2 bar.

A method is provided for filling a fuel storage system of a motor vehicle with fuel at a relatively high pressure. The fuel storage system has a main tank, which can be filled by way of a main filling line until a limit pressure has been reached, and an auxiliary storage device. If the filling line is connected to a supply station, which provides fuel at a pressure exceeding the tank limit pressure, a tank shut-off valve provided in the filling line will be closed in time before the limit pressure is reached in the main tank and an auxiliary tanking valve is opened in an auxiliary storage device filling line branching off from the main filling line upstream of the tank shut-off valve and leading to the auxiliary storage device. The auxiliary storage device is configured to receive fuel at a higher pressure than the above-mentioned tank limit pressure. The auxiliary storage device is connected downstream of a shutoff valve, which is provided in a supply line leading to a consuming device and which is closed during a filling operation of the main tank, to the supply line such that the consuming device can be operated from the auxiliary storage device even when the shut-off valve is closed.

A road vehicle having: a frame; four wheels, which are mounted on the frame in a rotary manner; a body, which covers the frame; a compressor, which produces a compressed gas; and at least one tank, which receives the compressed gas from the compressor and has a containing chamber, which is delimited by a wall. The wall of the tank includes: an inner panel, which directly delimits the containing chamber and is in contact with the compressed gas; and an outer panel, which completely surrounds the inner panel and is arranged parallel to the inner panel and at a constant distance from the inner panel.

Control system and method for controlling state of hydrogen charge in hydrogen storage system in a vehicle to prevent hydrogen boil-off losses. The control system obtains information about predetermined stop duration and location for vehicle; obtains information on required hydrogen usage for reaching predetermined stop location from a current location of the vehicle; obtains information on a maximum hydrogen level of the hydrogen storage system to prevent hydrogen boil-off losses when the vehicle reaches the predetermined stop location and the stop duration starts; and generates a control signal for controlling the state of hydrogen charge of the hydrogen storage system based on a current hydrogen level in the hydrogen storage system when the vehicle is at the current location, the required hydrogen usage for reaching the predetermined stop location and the maximum hydrogen level of the hydrogen storage system to prevent hydrogen boil-off losses.

Disclosed herein is a system for storing gas at almost constant pressure, which involves the injection and withdrawal of a liquid in a process known as hydraulic compensation. This disclosure teaches a way to minimize that dissolution by ensuring that, as the gas containment is charged up, the hydraulic compensation liquid emerges from the containment at the gas storage pressure and the pressure of that liquid is caused to fall in a number of discrete steps with settling volumes present at the nodes between these steps. These settling volumes enable some gas to come out of solution at each node having lost relatively small amounts of pressure. The gas is compressed back up to storage pressure and re-injected into the main storage containment without significant use of energy.