Hydrogen Refuelling
Gaseous Hydrogen (H2) Refuelling
Refuelling of existing vehicles with fuel at a petrol station takes around 5-6 minutes. H2 refuellers are designed with that goal in mind. The refuelling station is designed to fill a vehicle equipped with a tank at 350 bars and 15°C. The overriding ‘full’ criterion is the final pressure in the vehicle tank; with mass filling as a target if vehicle communication data is available.
To achieve that the system uses a cascade fill system. Initially the tank of the vehicle is balanced with the 200 bar hydrogen storage. Once that balance is obtained, the filling of the vehicle is pursued with the 410 bar hydrogen storage. In the situation where the pressure is not reached after the balancing with the storage, the fill is completed by direct compression.
The vehicle fill is guided by instructions on the filling system control panel (a touch screen user interface). The basic procedure for a pressure fill is to park the vehicle with the engine off, connect the grounding attachment to the vehicle, connect the filling hose & start the fill following the on screen instructions. Once the fill is complete disconnect the hose and then the grounding attachment.
As with H2 refuellers; HCNG refuellers are designed with a goal of a 5-6 minute fill in mind. The refuelling station is designed to fill a vehicle equipped with a tank at 200 bars and 15°C. The ‘full’ criterion is the final pressure in the vehicle tank.
The principle is to fill in cascade as with the H2 refuelling but this time as a mix of compressed H2 and compressed natural gas is required, the system balances the vehicle tank each step with a set point pressure depending of the mix of H2 in CNG. The available mixtures are 100% CNG or 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% H2 in CNG.
The HCNG Dispenser alternately balances pressures with the 200 bar H2 Storage and the 260 bar CNG Storage (depending of mix values) until reached the final set pressure of 200 bars in the vehicle tank.
The fill procedure is controlled in a similar fashion to the H2 refueller – the vehicle fill is guided by instructions on the filling system control panel (a touch screen user interface). The basic procedure for a pressure fill is to park the vehicle with the engine off, connect the grounding attachment to the vehicle, connect the filling hose & start the fill following the on screen instructions. Once the fill is complete disconnect the hose and then the grounding attachment.
