A passive insulating tank support structure includes a first interface ring mounted to a first tank, a first support ring surrounding and spaced apart from the first interface ring, a second interface ring mounted to a second tank, a plurality of first struts coupling the first and second interface rings, a plurality of second struts coupling the first support ring and second interface ring, a plurality of third struts coupling the first support ring and a first heat source, a third interface ring mounted to the second tank, and a plurality of fourth struts coupling the third interface ring and a second heat source.

Apparatus for compressing cryogenic fluid in at least one compression stage comprising at least one piston and at least one sleeve delimiting at least one compression chamber, a shaft that is able to move in translation along a longitudinal axis (A), the shaft being connected to the piston(s) or sleeve(s) and being able to move with an alternating movement in two opposite directions to ensure phases of compression and intake of fluid into the at least one compression chamber by moving the at least one piston and the at least one sleeve in a relative manner, characterized in that the shaft comprises a portion of reduced cross section in the longitudinal direction (A), said portion of reduced cross section separating two adjacent parts of the shaft, the shaft also comprising at least one linking element made of material that is less thermally conductive than the constituent material of the shaft, in particular a composite material, said at least one linking element having two ends connected respectively to the two adjacent parts of the shaft.

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.

A ship comprises: a tank; a multistage compressor for compressing a boil-off gas discharged from a storage tank and comprising a plurality of compression cylinders; a first heat exchanger for heat exchanging a fluid, which has been compressed by the multistage compressor, with the boil-off gas discharged from the storage tank and thus cooling the same; a first decompressing device for expanding a flow (“flow a1”) partially branched from the flow (“flow a”) that has been cooled by the first heat exchanger; a third heat exchanger for heat exchanging, by “flow a1” which has been expanded by the first decompressing device as a refrigerant, the remaining flow (“flow a2”) of “flow a” after excluding “flow a1” that has been branched and thus cooling the same; and a second decompressing device for expanding “flow a2” which has been cooled by the third heat exchanger.

A device for filling a tank or tanks with pressurized gas comprising a circuit comprising a plurality of upstream ends connected respectively to separate pressurized gas sources, at least one compressor, at least one buffer storage, a set of controlled valves and at least one downstream end intended to be connected to the tank(s) to be filled, the device further comprising an electronic control member configured to control the valves and/or the compressor in order to ensure a transfer of gas into the tank from at least one source and/or at least one buffer storage and/or via the compressor, the device comprising a set of sensors for measuring the pressure in the sources and the buffer storages, the control member comprising member for receiving or generating signal representative of the filling demand from a relatively high demand to a relatively low demand, the control member being configured to ensure the transfer of gas into the tank according to at least a first transfer mode using the source having the highest pressure and a second transfer mode using a source having a pressure lower than this highest pressure in response, respectively, to a relatively high or low filling demand.

A control device of a gas charging device controls opening/closing of a control valve so that pressure increase rate of gas pressure in a tank when gas charging to the tank increases at a reference increase rate determined in advance. The control device, when gas charge to the tank begins, controls pressure increase rate at a high increase rate higher than the reference increase rate. After the difference between gas pressure in the tank when gas charging is performed at the high increase rate and gas pressure in the tank when the charging is performed at the reference increase rate has reached a predetermined pressure difference, the control device controls the opening/closing of the control valve so that gas charge to the tank is performed at the reference increase rate.

A system and a method for processing and storing hydrocarbon gas. A gas conditioning and compression transport comprises a gas conditioning system for processing hydrocarbon gas received from the hydrocarbon fuel source and a compression system. The compression system comprises a dual shaft electric motor capable of driving a first compressor and a second compressor to compress the hydrocarbon gas. A gas compression and storage transport receives the processed hydrocarbon gas from the gas conditioning and compression transport. The gas compression and storage transport is capable of directing a first portion of the processed hydrocarbon gas to bypass processing at the gas compression and storage transport and diverting a second portion of the processed hydrocarbon gas for storage. A storage compressor compresses the second portion of the hydrocarbon gas for storage in one or more gas storage tanks.

When a pressure accumulator tank A3a is used as a low-pressure hank, a controller sends an open control signal to an electromagnetic open/close valve A10a to open the electromagnetic open/close valve A10a so that hydrogen in the pressure accumulator tank A3a can be supplied to a tank to be filled (not shown) of an FCV. In parallel with this, the controller sends an open control signal to a first electromagnetic open/close valve 6a and a second electromagnetic open/close valve 6b to open the first and second electromagnetic open/close valves 6a and 6b so that hydrogen can be supplied also from a compressor 2 to the tank to be filled of the FCV.

Disclosed herein are a diagnostic method using laser induced breakdown spectrum analysis and a diagnostic device for performing the same. The diagnostic method may include projecting a pulsed laser to a suspicious specimen, obtaining first spectrum data on the light collected from the suspicious specimen, projecting the pulsed laser to a non-diseased specimen, obtaining second spectrum data on the light collected from the non-diseased specimen, and determining whether a disease is present in the suspicious specimen from a comparison value of the first spectrum data and the second spectrum data using an artificial neural network.

A gas supplying apparatus includes a compressor, a housing having an exhaust port, and an exhaust duct. The housing has a circumferential wall and a top wall. The circumferential wall has an access section. The exhaust port is provided on at least one of the circumferential wall and the top wall at a location higher than the access section. The exhaust duct includes a discharge port for discharging the air, exhausted from the exhaust port, to the outside. The discharge port is opened upward or opened downward in an area overlapping the top wall in an up-and-down direction.