Fluent material handling – with receiver or receiver coacting mea – Diverse fluid containing pressure filling systems involving... – Filling with exhausting the receiver
Patent
1997-03-04
1999-03-09
Jacyna, J. Casimer
Fluent material handling, with receiver or receiver coacting mea
Diverse fluid containing pressure filling systems involving...
Filling with exhausting the receiver
141 45, 141290, 417205, 417253, 417295, B67D 5378
Patent
active
058787909
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a recovery system for recovering hydrocarbon vapor given off by motor vehicle tanks while they are being filled with liquid fuel via at least one dispensing pipe.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In gas stations delivering liquid fuel, each of the dispensing pipes is terminated by a hose pipe equipped at one end with a gun that the user inserts into the feed pipe of the tank of the vehicle.
Naturally, as the tank fills, an equivalent volume of hydrocarbon vapor that it contains escapes to the outside via said feed pipe. In principle, vapor recovery thus consists in sucking up at the outlet of the feed pipe a volume of vapor that must at all times be equal to the delivered volume of liquid fuel. For this purpose, the dispensing gun is equipped with a sleeve which penetrates into the outlet orifice of the tank of the vehicle, and into which the upstream end of a recovery pipe opens out, on which recovery pipe a suction pump is placed which returns the recovered hydrocarbon vapor to the storage tank for storing the liquid fuel. For the recovery system to operate satisfactorily, it must be possible to vary the speed of rotation of the pump so that the instantaneous volume of sucked-up vapor equals the instantaneous volume of dispensed liquid.
With known recovery systems, of the type including a vapor suction pump with the flow rate being regulated by varying its speed of rotation, it is difficult for the volume flow rate of the liquid being supplied and the volume flow rate of the vapor being recovered to be kept equal in all circumstances because: leaks increasing with wear and with the upstream-downstream pressure difference that such pumps must generate to cause the vapor to flow and to be transferred to the storage tank; recovery pipes, especially those integrated in the fuel-dispensing hose pipes, it being possible for their headloss coefficients to vary considerably over time; and
One known way of avoiding those drawbacks consists in inserting into the recovery pipe a gas flow meter optionally associated with a pressure sensor so as to servo-control the speed of rotation of the vapor pump or the opening of a valve so as to obtain the desired vapor flow rate.
However, this method makes it necessary to implement a rapid-response servo-control loop receiving flow-rate and pressure information supplied by the measurement sensors and acting on the actuator after comparing the information with a reference value that can itself vary very rapidly over time with the flow rate of liquid fuel as controlled by the user.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a recovery system for recovering hydrocarbon vapor given off by motor vehicle tanks while they are being filled with liquid fuel via at least one dispensing pipe, which system makes it possible to obtain good proportionality between the flow rate of vapor to be recovered and the speed of rotation of the vapor pump, such as a pump having vanes, gears, or rotary pistons, without having to use a complex and costly servo-control loop such as the loop described above with reference to the state of the art.
According to the present invention, the solution to the technical problem posed consists in that said system comprises a recovery pipe associated with said dispensing pipe, a power pump placed on said recovery pipe, and a metering pump driven by a motor at an angular velocity that is substantially proportional to the volume flow rate of liquid fuel delivered by the dispensing pipe, said metering pump being mounted in series with said power pump via a differential pressure expander-regulator suitable for maintaining a pressure difference that is small between the outlet and the inlet of the metering pump so as to obtain a vapor volume flow rate that is substantially proportional to the angular velocity imparted by said motor.
In this way, the accuracy of the metering pump is made to comply with the regulations by the presence across its terminals of the expander
REFERENCES:
patent: 2936107 (1960-05-01), Blackburn
patent: 4256151 (1981-03-01), Gumm
patent: 4260000 (1981-04-01), McGahey et al.
patent: 5291922 (1994-03-01), Martin et al.
patent: 5363649 (1994-11-01), McBurnett et al.
patent: 5484000 (1996-01-01), Hasselmann
patent: 5542458 (1996-08-01), Payne et al.
Jacyna J. Casimer
Schlumberger Industries
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