A method and apparatus for compressing gases and supplying compressed gaseous fuel to a consuming device, such as a gaseous fueled vehicle or the like. One embodiment includes a gas compressor for compressing the gaseous fuel to an array of tanks having predetermined initial set points which are increasing for tanks in the array. One embodiment provides a selecting valve having first and second families of ports wherein the valve can be operated to select a plurality of ports from the first family to be fluidly connected with a plurality of ports with the second family, and such fluid connections can be changed by operation of the valve.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for diagnosing failure in a pressure gauge of a hydrogen filling system includes filling a fuel cell vehicle powered by hydrogen fuel with the hydrogen fuel from an accumulator, in which the hydrogen fuel is accumulated, via a dispenser; and acquiring pressure values measured by a plurality of pressure gauges disposed at different positions in a flow passage of the hydrogen fuel between the accumulator and an outlet of the dispenser at timing when a flow rate of the hydrogen fuel to be filled at a stage close to an end of the filling becomes a threshold value or less, determining whether or not a deviation between the pressure values is within a threshold value on the basis of acquired pressure values, and outputting a determination result.

A container for pressurized fluid, in particular a gas cylinder, having a given internal volume, having a fluid distribution valve having a member for selecting the flow rate, which can be manipulated by a user, a position sensor configured to detect the position of the member for adjusting flow rate, and an electronic device having a means for measuring pressure and temperature, a microprocessor-based data processing means that are configured to calculate a remaining fluid on the basis of pressure and temperature measurements, of the position of the member for selecting the flow rate and of the internal volume of the container, a timer, and display means for displaying an updated remaining fluid.

A pressure vessel system has a pressure vessel for storing gaseous fuel, a fuel line, and a total-pressure sensor for measuring a total pressure of the fuel at a position within the fuel line. This makes it possible for various functions, such as the control of power reduction, for example, to be performed more accurately than if only static pressure were being used. The technology disclosed here also relates to an energy supply arrangement having such a pressure vessel system and having an energy converter, such as a fuel cell, for example.

A hydrogen fueling method for a hydrogen fueled mobility is based on model predictive control, and includes steps of: obtaining a measurement value of a current state; predicting or obtaining a next state value by using a model predictive control technique based on the measurement value of the current state; and generating a control command for hydrogen fueling based on a comparison result between the measurement value of the current state and the next state value.

To provide a gas filling apparatus with high handleability and safety. A gas filling apparatus including: a filling mechanism for carrying a gas through gas carrying pipes while measuring flow rate of the gas from a gas supply source (accumulator); a filling hose connected to the gas carrying pipe and having a filling nozzle at an end of the filling hose; and an attachment sensor (nozzle attachment detecting portion) for outputting a detection signal after detecting that the filling nozzle is attached to a filling port of an in-vehicle tank, wherein filling gas to the in-vehicle tank by the filling mechanism becomes possible after the detection signal is inputted to the filling mechanism from the attachment sensor. The gas filling apparatus may further include: a pressure gauge for measuring a pressure in the in-vehicle tank; a thermometer for measuring ambient temperature; and a target pressure calculating means (comparing means) for calculating a pressure in the in-vehicle tank when filling up the in-vehicle tank or filling preset amount of the gas is finished before filling gas to the in-vehicle tank based on a capacity of the in-vehicle tank and the measured pressure in the in-vehicle tank and the measured ambient temperature; wherein the filling mechanism stops carrying the gas to the in-vehicle tank when the pressure in the in-vehicle tank reaches the target pressure.

A method and apparatus for compressing gases and supplying fuel to a gaseous fuel consuming device, such as a gaseous fueled vehicle or the like. One embodiment includes a gas compressor for compressing the gaseous fuel to an array of tanks having predetermined initial set points which are increasing for tanks in the array. One embodiment provides a selecting valve having first and second families of ports wherein the valve can be operated to select a plurality of ports from the first family to be fluidly connected with a plurality of ports with the second family, and such fluid connections can be changed by operation of the valve.

In one or more embodiments, a system and method for filling a compress gas tank or fuel tank is provided, including determining a fill time (t.sub.final) predicted to produce a gas final temperature (T.sub.final) based on one or more coefficients selected from a lookup table, mass average dispenser gas temperature for control (MATC), and alpha, determining a pressure ramp rate (RR), delivering gas to the compressed gas tank at a control pressure based on the pressure RR during a first portion of filling the compressed gas tank, determining a mass average enthalpy (MAE) and density, and delivering gas to the compressed gas tank at a target ending fueling pressure based on the density and the gas final temperature during a second portion of filling the compressed gas tank.

A fuel gas filling system detects at least one of a pressure of fuel gas supplied from a filling device and a temperature of the fuel gas in a fuel tank of a vehicle and determines whether or not there is a gas state fluctuation in which the pressure or temperature of the fuel gas suddenly changes. The fuel gas filling system executes either one of a first filling control of filling the fuel gas into the vehicle on the basis of at least one of the fuel gas pressure and the fuel gas temperature and a second filling control according to the gas state fluctuation. This system executes the first filling control in normal time and executes the second filling control of filling the fuel gas without using a fuel gas pressure detected by fuel gas state detection unit or the second filling control of filling the fuel gas without using a fuel gas temperature detected by the fuel gas state detection unit when it is determined by gas state fluctuation determination unit that there is the gas state fluctuation.

In a gas filling method for filling a tank with gas by supplying the gas from an accumulator to the tank through a flow rate adjusting valve and a pipe, a target pressure rise rate, which is a temporal change of a target tank pressure, is set when the tank is filled with the gas. During filling of the tank with the gas, the flow rate adjusting valve is adjusted so that a dispenser pressure, which is a gas pressure in the accumulator, becomes a pressure that is higher than the target tank pressure and enables the target pressure rise rate to be maintained.