Thermal management system for a natural gas tank

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10018307-B2
Application number	US-201414223065-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 24, 2014
Priority date	Mar 28, 2013
Publication date	Jul 10, 2018
Grant date	Jul 10, 2018

Abstract

A thermal management system for a natural gas tank includes a container, and a cooling mechanism operatively positioned to selectively cool the container. A method for minimizing a loss of natural gas storage during refueling is also disclosed herein. In an example of the method, a cooling mechanism, which is operatively positioned to selectively cool a container of a natural gas storage tank, is initiated prior to a refueling event. This cools the container to a predetermined temperature.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A thermal management system for a natural gas tank, comprising:
a container;
a cooling mechanism operatively positioned to selectively cool the container prior to refueling;
an electronic control unit in operative communication with the cooling mechanism to control an operation of the cooling mechanism;
a temperature sensor to detect a temperature of the container and communicate the temperature to the electronic control unit; and
a GPS unit in operative communication with the electronic control unit, wherein the electronic control unit is configured to (i) determine a probability of refueling based on input from the GPS unit and (ii) control operation of the cooling mechanism to initiate cooling when the probability of refueling exceeds a threshold probability.

2. The thermal management system as defined in claim 1 wherein the cooling mechanism is a heat exchanger that circulates fluid around the container.

3. The thermal management system as defined in claim 1 wherein the cooling mechanism is a Peltier cooler.

4. The thermal management system as defined in claim 1 wherein the cooling mechanism is a heat exchanger that includes a helical coil.

5. The thermal management system as defined in claim 1 wherein the cooling mechanism is a phase change material positioned around the container.

6. The thermal management system as defined in claim 1 wherein the cooling mechanism includes a junction of dissimilar metals that is to produce an electric current when exposed to a temperature gradient.

7. The thermal management system as defined in claim 1 , further comprising a natural gas adsorbent positioned in the container, wherein the natural gas adsorbent is selected from the group consisting of a carbon, a porous polymer network, a metal-organic framework, a zeolite, and combinations thereof.

8. The thermal management system as defined in claim 7 wherein the natural gas adsorbent has a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of greater than about 50 m 2 /g and less than or equal to about 2,000 m 2 /g.

9. The thermal management system as defined in claim 7 wherein the natural gas adsorbent includes a plurality of pores having a pore size from about 0.2 nm to about 50 nm.

10. The thermal management system as defined in claim 1 , further comprising a user interface in communication with the electronic control unit for manually initiating the cooling mechanism.

11. The thermal management system as defined in claim 1 wherein the display includes a countdown timer to indicate when the natural gas tank will be ready to minimize a thermodynamic underfill of the natural gas tank during refueling.

12. The thermal management system as defined in claim 1 wherein the display includes an analog or digital gauge to indicate when the natural gas tank will be ready to minimize a thermodynamic underfill of the natural gas tank during refueling.

13. The thermal management system as defined in claim 1 , further comprising a display in an instrument cluster of a vehicle to display messages indicating a status of the thermal management system wherein the status of the thermal management system includes a state of preparing for refueling.

14. The thermal management system as defined in claim 1 wherein the electronic control unit is configured to determine the probability of refueling based on the input from the GPS and a history of refueling.

15. The thermal management system as defined in claim 1 wherein the container comprises a 7,000 series aluminum alloy, a 6,000 series aluminum alloy, or a high strength low alloy steel (HSLA).

Assignees

• Gm Global Tech Operations Llc

Inventors

• Ortmann Jerome P
• Abd Elhamid Mahmoud H
• Morales Arianna T
• Dailly Anne M
• Cai Mei

Classifications

• F17C13/026

  having the temperature as the parameter · CPC title

• F17C13/002 Primary

  for vessels under pressure (F17C13/008 and F17C13/02 - F17C13/12 take precedence) · CPC title

• F17C13/00 Primary

  Details of vessels or of the filling or discharging of vessels · CPC title

• F17C2260/022

  Avoiding overfilling · CPC title

• F17C11/007

  for hydrocarbon gases, such as methane or natural gas, propane, butane or mixtures thereof [LPG] · CPC title