Gas filling method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11326740-B2
Application number	US-201916370061-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 29, 2019
Priority date	Mar 30, 2018
Publication date	May 10, 2022
Grant date	May 10, 2022

Abstract

To provide a gas filling method in which it is possible to estimate a volume of a tank with high accuracy even when the tank has a small volume. A hydrogen filling system includes a hydrogen station having a pressure accumulator of compressed hydrogen gas, a vehicle having a hydrogen tank, a connection tube system that connects the accumulator and the tank, and a flow rate sensor and a station pressure sensor provided on the connection tube system. A hydrogen gas filling method is a method of filling the tank with the hydrogen gas from the pressure accumulator and includes estimating a volume of the hydrogen tank based on detection values of the flow rate sensor and the station pressure sensor and a volume value of the connection tube system, after a start of filling of the hydrogen tank with the hydrogen gas from the pressure accumulator.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A gas filling method of filling a tank with a gas from a supply source by a gas filling system including a gas supply device having the supply source of a compressed gas, a moving object having the tank that contains the gas, a tube system that connects the supply source and the tank, and a flow rate sensor and a pressure sensor provided on the tube system, the gas filling method comprising:
estimating a tank volume, which is a volume of the tank, based on detection values of the flow rate sensor and the pressure sensor and a volume value of the tube system, after a start of filling of the tank with the gas from the supply source.

2. The gas filling method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
calculating a value of a coefficient related to a pressure loss, which occurs when the gas flows in the tube system, based on the detection values of the flow rate sensor and the pressure sensor when filling of the tank with the gas from the supply source is stopped,
wherein the tank volume is estimated based on the detection values of the flow rate sensor and the pressure sensor, the volume value of the tube system, and a pressure loss value calculated based on the value of the coefficient.

3. The gas filling method according to claim 1 ,
wherein a term of filling the tank with the gas is divided into an initial filling term of filling the tank with the gas in order to know a state of the tank and a main filling term of filling the tank with the gas so as to realize a predetermined target pressure increase ratio, and
wherein the tank volume is estimated based on the detection values of the flow rate sensor and the pressure sensor, during the main filling term.

4. The gas filling method according to claim 2 ,
wherein a term of filling the tank with the gas is divided into an initial filling term of filling the tank with the gas in order to know a state of the tank and a main filling term of filling the tank with the gas so as to realize a predetermined target pressure increase ratio, and
wherein the tank volume is estimated based on the detection values of the flow rate sensor and the pressure sensor, during the main filling term.

5. The gas filling method according to claim 3 , further comprising:
estimating an initial pressure of the tank before a start of the initial filling term based on the detection value of the pressure sensor, after the initial filling term is started,
wherein, in the main filling term, the filling of the gas is started immediately after the initial pressure is estimated, and the filling of the gas is performed so as to realize a target pressure increase ratio set based on an estimation value of the initial pressure estimated in the initial filling term.

6. The gas filling method according to claim 4 , further comprising:
estimating an initial pressure of the tank before a start of the initial filling term based on the detection value of the pressure sensor, after the initial filling term is started,
wherein, in the main filling term, the filling of the gas is started immediately after the initial pressure is estimated, and the filling of the gas is performed so as to realize a target pressure increase ratio set based on an estimation value of the initial pressure estimated in the initial filling term.

7. The gas filling method according to claim 1 ,
wherein, when an estimation value of the tank volume estimated after the start of filling of the tank with the gas from the supply source is out of a predetermined range, the filling of the tank with the gas from the supply source is stopped.

8. The gas filling method according to claim 2 ,
wherein, when an estimation value of the tank volume estimated after the start of filling of the tank with the gas from the supply source is out of a predetermined range, the filling of the tank with the gas from the supply source is stopped.

9. The gas filling method according to claim 3 ,
wherein, when an estimation value of the tank volume estimated after the start of filling of the tank with the gas from the supply source is out of a predetermined range, the filling of the tank with the gas from the supply source is stopped.

10. The gas filling method according to claim 6 ,
wherein, when an estimation value of the tank volume estimated after the start of filling of the tank with the gas from the supply source is out of a predetermined range, the filling of the tank with the gas from the supply source is stopped.

11. The gas filling method according to claim 3 ,
wherein the gas filling system includes an input device that receives an operation performed by a user to designate a type of tank,
wherein the gas filling method further comprises determining whether or not a type of tank designated via the input device is a small-sized tank having a volume smaller than a predetermined standard volume or a large-sized tank having a volume larger than the standard volume, and
wherein, in the main filling term, a period of filling time corresponding to a period of time from a predetermined filling start time point to a scheduled filling end time point, is calculated based on the detection values of the pressure sensor and the flow rate sensor during the filling of the gas, the target pressure increase ratio is determined such that the tank is fully filled at the scheduled filling end time point based on the period of filling time, and the filling start time point is set to a start time point of the initial filling term when a type of tank is determined as a small-sized tank.

12. The gas filling method according to claim 6 ,
wherein the gas filling system includes an input device that receives an operation performed by a user to designate a type of tank,
wherein the gas filling method further comprises determining whether or not a type of tank designated via the input device is a small-sized tank having a volume smaller than a predetermined standard volume or a large-sized tank having a volume larger than the standard volume, and
wherein, in the main filling term, a period of filling time corresponding to a period of time from a predetermined filling start time point to a scheduled filling end time point, is calculated based on the detection values of the pressure sensor and the flow rate sensor during the filling of the gas, the target pressure increase ratio is determined such that the tank is fully filled at the scheduled filling end time point based on the period of filling time, and the filling start time point is set to a start time point of the initial filling term when a type of tank is determined as a small-sized tank.

13. The gas filling method according to claim 1 ,
wherein an estimation value V′ of the tank volume is calculated based on Equation (1) to be described below,

V
′

=

[

(

Δ
⁢

⁢
M

+

Assignees

• Honda Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Yamaguchi Shigehiro
• Fujita Yuzo
• Handa Kiyoshi

Classifications

• F17C2223/0123

  gaseous, e.g. CNG, GNC · CPC title

• F17C2225/036

  Very high pressure, i.e. above 80 bars · CPC title

• F17C2270/0168

  by vehicles · CPC title

• F17C2221/012

  Hydrogen · CPC title

• F17C2265/065

  for refuelling vehicle fuel tanks · CPC title