JPH0979495A - Gas feeding device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the filling time by carrying out during gas filling operation the operation process of the capacity estimation of the opening of a control valve so as to carry out a high speed filling when the remaing amount of a filled tank is at a prescribed value or higher, while to carry out a low speed filling when the remaing amount is less than a prescribed value. SOLUTION: A gas feeding device is composed of a pressure generating unit 4 to compress a city gas to a prescribed pressure, a dispenser unit 5, and a control device 6, and when the remaining filled amount in a fuel tank 3 is large, a control valve 3 is controlled to make the pressure increase rate constant, and as the gas filling is advanced, the valve opening of the control valve 32 is throttled gradually, as the pressure in the fuel tank 3 is increased. The filling can be carried out at a high speed at the flow rate according to the remaining filled amount of the fuel tank 3, and the gas filling process to the fuel tank 3 can be carried out in a shorter time. And since the capacity of the fuel tank 3 is operated during the gas filling operation, a high speed filling can be carried out without receiving the influence of the pressure loss, and a filling delay by the capacity operation is never generated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a gas supply apparatus, and more particularly to a gas supply apparatus configured to shorten a gas filling time in a tank to be filled and improve a gas filling accuracy.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, as a gas supply device for supplying compressed natural gas (CNG) obtained by compressing natural gas to another tank, there is a device as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 4-64699. The device of the said gazette adopts a method of rapidly filling compressed gas, and the gas whose pressure has been raised to a predetermined pressure or more by a compressor is temporarily stored in a gas supply tank and then stored in the gas supply tank. Gas is injected into a fuel tank (filled tank) of an automobile to be filled until the inside of the fuel tank reaches a predetermined pressure.

In the above apparatus, a constant pressure increase control for controlling the valve opening of the control valve so that the pressure increase rate becomes constant, or a constant pressure increasing control for controlling the valve opening of the control valve so that the gas supply amount becomes constant. The fuel tank was filled with gas by controlling the flow rate. When gas filling is performed by constant pressure increase control, the supply pressure supplied to the fuel tank rises at a constant rate, and the pressure in the fuel tank rises due to gas filling and the gas supply pressure rises with the control valve. The fuel tank filling pressure is set to the target filling pressure. Therefore, in the constant pressure increase control, the gas from the gas supply tank is constantly increased by the control valve until it reaches the target filling pressure, regardless of the remaining amount or the residual pressure before filling the fuel tank. .

Further, in the case where the gas filling control to the fuel tank is performed by the constant flow rate control for filling the gas at a constant flow rate, the target filling is performed while the gas supply flow rate from the gas supply tank is constant regardless of the capacity of the fuel tank. It was filled until pressure was reached. However, in such a conventional device, the fuel tank of a bus having a capacity about 10 times that of the passenger car is filled with the gas according to the same control rule as the case of performing the constant pressure increase control of the gas in the fuel tank of the passenger car. Therefore, conventionally, pressure loss occurs due to the flow rate limitation of the gas supply system path,
The filling pressure filled in the fuel tank becomes smaller than the pressure detected by the pressure sensor provided on the gas supply device side, and the filling pressure filled in the fuel tank may become smaller than the target pressure accordingly. there were.

Therefore, it is considered to calculate and estimate the capacity (fillable amount) of the fuel tank on the receiving side at the start of gas filling, and control the pressure and flow rate supplied to the fuel tank based on the calculation result. Has been. In this tank remaining amount estimation method, the rate of increase in pressure at the start of gas filling is detected to calculate the capacity of the fuel tank, and the pressure of the filled tank rises to a predetermined pressure according to the capacity of the filled tank. Up to a certain pressure, the valve opening of the control valve is controlled so that the flow rate measured by the flow meter becomes a constant flow rate when the predetermined pressure is reached. Since the target pressure is filled into the tank to be filled by switching to, the target pressure can be filled accurately.

[0006]

However, when estimating the tank capacity at the start of gas filling as described above, for example, it takes about 10 seconds to calculate the capacity of the fuel tank of a passenger car, and it is necessary to calculate the capacity of the fuel tank. In the case of a large fuel tank (capacity 500 liters), it takes about 40 seconds to calculate the capacity of the fuel tank.

Further, when the tank capacity is calculated, there is a pressure loss in the gas supply system path, and therefore it is necessary to reduce the flow rate of the gas supplied to the fuel tank during the calculation, which causes a problem that the gas filling time becomes long. is there. Further, when the tank capacity is calculated, it cannot be calculated unless the pressure is raised to some extent. Therefore, when the pressure increase rate is small, the calculation accuracy decreases, and for example, ± 10 is needed to fill a large fuel tank with gas. The accuracy was only about%. Therefore, when reducing the flow rate by narrowing the valve opening of the control valve at the end of gas filling, not the remaining filling amount in the fuel tank but the pressure value according to the volume calculation value is set. The flow throttling time at that time varied depending on the capacity.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a gas supply device which solves the above problems.

[0009]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is characterized by having the following configuration. The invention of claim 1 is connected to a tank to be filled,
A gas supply pipeline for supplying a compressed gas to the filling tank, a control valve provided in the gas supply pipeline for controlling the flow of gas, and a gas supply pipeline provided in the gas supply pipeline to the filling tank. Pressure detection means for detecting the pressure to be filled, a flow meter provided in the gas supply line for measuring the flow rate to be filled in the tank to be filled, and the tank to be filled together with the gas filling to the tank to be filled Of the remaining filling amount of the tank to be filled, high-speed filling is performed when the remaining filling amount of the filled tank is equal to or more than a predetermined value, and low-speed filling is performed when the remaining filling amount of the filling tank is equal to or less than a predetermined value And control means for controlling the valve opening of the control valve.

Therefore, according to the first aspect, the remaining filling amount of the filling tank is calculated together with the gas filling of the filling tank, and the high-speed filling is performed when the remaining filling amount of the filling tank is equal to or more than a predetermined value. , When the remaining filling amount of the tank to be filled is less than or equal to a predetermined value, the valve opening of the control valve is controlled so as to perform low-speed filling, so the calculation process of capacity estimation is performed during gas filling. The gas filling time can be shortened and the gas filling accuracy can be improved.

Further, the invention of claim 2 is connected to a tank to be filled and supplies a compressed gas to the tank to be filled, and a gas supply line provided in the gas supply line to control the flow of gas. Control valve, a pressure detection means provided in the gas supply pipeline for detecting the pressure with which the filled tank is filled, and a flow rate provided in the gas supply pipeline with which the filled tank is filled. When the pressure of the flow meter to be measured and the filled tank reaches a predetermined pressure immediately before the tank is full, the remaining filled amount of the filled tank is calculated so that the remaining filled amount of the filled tank becomes equal to or less than a predetermined amount. And a control means for controlling the valve opening degree of the control valve so as to reduce the flow rate.

Therefore, according to the second aspect, when the pressure of the tank to be filled reaches the predetermined pressure immediately before the tank is full, the remaining filling amount of the tank to be filled is calculated, and the remaining filling amount of the tank to be filled is the predetermined amount. Since the valve opening of the control valve is controlled so as to reduce the flow rate when it becomes the following, the calculation process for capacity estimation is performed immediately before the tank is full, and the gas filling time can be shortened by that amount and the gas filling accuracy can be reduced. Can be increased.

[0013]

1 shows an embodiment of a gas supply device according to the present invention. Note that FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a schematic configuration of the gas supply device. The gas supply device 1 is installed, for example, at a gas supply station that supplies compressed natural gas (CNG) obtained by compressing city gas to a predetermined pressure to a fuel tank (filled tank) 3 of an automobile 2.

The gas supply device 1 generally supplies a pressure generating unit 4 for compressing city gas to a predetermined pressure to generate a pressurized gas, and a gas compressed by the pressure generating unit 4 to the fuel tank 3. Dispenser unit 5
And a control device 6 for controlling each device of the pressure generating unit 4 and the dispenser unit 5.

In the pressure generating unit 4, a multistage compressor 12 is arranged in a branch pipe line 11 connected to a medium pressure pipe line (not shown) before city gas or the like is branched to a home. The compressor 12 is provided with, for example, a plurality of (3 or 4) cylinders for compressing gas, and the gas compressed in the preceding cylinder is pressurized to a higher pressure in the next cylinder. The gas supplied from the medium pressure line is compressed stepwise.

Further, a variable pressure line 13 and a high pressure line 14 are connected in parallel to the compressor 12, and the variable pressure line 1
A variable pressure gas pressure accumulator 15 and a high pressure gas pressure accumulator 16 are connected to the high pressure pipeline 14, respectively. The variable pressure gas accumulator 15 and the high pressure gas accumulator 16 are also generally called “gas accumulators” in the literature and the like.

In this embodiment, when the maximum pressure of the fuel tank 3 is 200 kgf / cm ² , the maximum pressure of the variable pressure gas accumulator 15 and the high pressure gas accumulator 16 is 250 kgf / cm ^2.
Set to cm ² . Therefore, the compressor 12 compresses the city gas (about 5 to 8 kgf / cm ² ) supplied from the medium pressure pipeline to pressurize the variable pressure gas accumulator 15 and the high pressure gas accumulator 16 to the set pressure.

The variable pressure line 13 and the high pressure line 14 are also provided.
Is provided with upstream side opening / closing valves 19 and 20 formed of solenoid valves, and the discharge pipe lines 17 and 18 for discharging the gas from the variable pressure gas pressure accumulator 15 and the high pressure gas pressure accumulator 16 are provided with electromagnetic valves. Downstream on-off valves 21 and 22 formed of valves and supply pressure transmitters 23 and 24 are arranged.

The supply side pressure transmitters 23 and 24 are internally provided with pressure sensors for detecting the pressure of gas.
A detection signal corresponding to the gas pressure is transmitted to the control device 6.
When the upstream side on-off valve 19 is opened by a command from the control device 6, the gas compressed by the compressor 12 is supplied to the variable pressure gas accumulator 15 and the upstream side on-off valve 20.
When the valve is opened, the gas compressed by the compressor 12 is supplied to the high pressure gas accumulator 16.

The pressures of the variable pressure gas accumulator 15 and the high pressure gas accumulator 16 are set to a predetermined pressure (250 kgf / in this embodiment).
When the pressure reaches 4 cm ² , the upstream side on-off valves 19 and 20 are closed, the compressor 12 is stopped, and the pressure generating unit 4 is in a standby state ready for filling work.

When the fuel tank 3 is filled with gas, the variable pressure gas pressure accumulator 1 is initially opened by opening the downstream opening / closing valve 21.
After filling the fuel tank 3 with the gas No. 5, the downstream opening / closing valve 2
2 is opened to start filling the fuel tank 3 with the gas from the high-pressure gas accumulator 16, and then the downstream opening / closing valve 21 is closed to gradually increase the supply pressure to the fuel tank 3.

Further, the downstream ends of the discharge pipes 17 and 18 communicate with the gas supply pipe 28, and the variable pressure gas accumulator 15 and the high pressure gas accumulator 16 of the pressure generation unit 4 are connected to the gas supply pipe. It is connected to the fuel tank 3 via a passage 28. The gas supply pipeline 28 extending into the dispenser unit 5 has a gas supply opening / closing valve 29 made of an electromagnetic valve.
A primary pressure transmitter 30 for detecting the primary pressure supplied from the pressure generating unit 4, a Coriolis mass flowmeter 31 for measuring the flow rate of the gas flowing through the gas supply pipe 28, and a downstream feed. The control valve 32 for controlling the flow rate of the gas to be controlled to a predetermined flow rate, the secondary pressure transmitter 33 for detecting the secondary pressure of the gas set by the control valve 32, and the control valve 32 are separated when pulled by a force of a predetermined value or more. And an emergency disconnect coupler 34.

The gas supply on-off valve 29 is opened when starting to fill the fuel tank 3 with gas, and is closed when the gas filling is completed. The mass flowmeter 31 is a vibrating mass flowmeter that vibrates a sensor tube through which gas passes and outputs a measurement signal corresponding to the phase difference between the inflow side and the outflow side due to the Coriolis force. Further, the mass flow meter 31 is configured to accurately measure the flow rate of the gas having a relatively high pressure, and sends the flow rate measurement signal (flow rate pulse) to the control device 6.

The valve opening of the control valve 32 is controlled by a command from the control device 6, and in this embodiment, the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3 that is performed during gas filling is estimated and calculated, so that the capacity is increased. The valve opening degree is controlled such that high-speed filling is performed when the value is equal to or larger than the predetermined value, and low-speed filling is performed when the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3 is equal to or larger than the predetermined value.

In this embodiment, since the supply pressure and the supply flow rate to the fuel tank 3 are controlled by controlling the valve opening of the control valve 32 in this way, the gas filling time is shortened. The primary pressure transmitter 30 and the secondary pressure transmitter 33 are
A detection signal corresponding to the pressure detected at each mounting position is transmitted to the control device 6.

Further, one end of a gas filling hose 37 capable of withstanding high pressure gas is connected to the emergency disconnecting coupler 34, and the other end of the gas filling hose 37 is connected to an inflow port a of a three-way valve 38. Further, a gas supply conduit 39 is connected to the filling port b of the three-way valve 38, and a detachable coupler 40 is provided at the tip of the gas supply conduit 39.

The detachable coupler 40 is connected to the detachable coupler 42 on the fuel tank 3 side before gas filling, and is separated from the detachable coupler 42 after the gas filling of the fuel tank 3 is completed. The exhaust port c of the three-way valve 38 is connected to a low pressure pipe 41 for releasing the residual gas in the detachable coupler 40 to the outside so that the detachable coupler 40 can be detached after the gas filling is completed. The three-way valve 38 is switched so that the inflow port a and the filling port b are communicated with each other and the exhaust port c is shut off when the gas is filled. Then, the three-way valve 38 is switched so that the filling port b and the exhaust port c are communicated with each other and the inflow port a is blocked by a manual operation of the operator after gas filling.

Further, the emergency disconnecting coupler 34 is provided inside the emergency disconnecting coupler 34 in addition to disconnecting the emergency disconnecting coupler 40 when the automobile 2 starts while the disconnecting coupler 40 is still connected to the detachable coupler 42 on the fuel tank 3 side. A check valve (not shown) closes to prevent gas leakage.

The attachable / detachable coupler 40 and the attachable / detachable coupler 42 each have a check valve (not shown) provided therein, and when they are not connected to each other, the check valve closes and the detachable coupler 40 and When the attachment / detachment coupler 42 is connected, each check valve is displaced to the valve opening position and is in communication with each other.

Reference numeral 43 denotes a display, which displays the flow rate and supply pressure of the gas filled in the fuel tank 3. In the memory 44 of the control device 6, the capacity estimation program for estimating the capacity of the fuel tank 3 based on the pressure value detected by the secondary pressure transmitter 33 as well as the gas filling of the fuel tank 3, and the estimated fuel tank When the capacity of the fuel tank 3 is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, the valve opening of the control valve 32 is controlled so as to perform high-speed filling, and when the capacity of the fuel tank 3 becomes less than or equal to a predetermined value, the flow rate is throttled and switched to low-speed filling control The program and are stored.

The control device 6 controls each valve opening of the control valve 32 based on the above control program, reads the pressure values detected by the primary pressure transmitter 30 and the secondary pressure transmitter 33, and , The flow rate pulse output from the mass flow meter 31 is integrated to calculate the flow rate.

In the automobile 2, the pipe 45 connected to the fuel tank 3 filled with high-pressure gas is connected to the detachable coupler 40 of the dispenser unit 5 from the upstream side, and the detachable coupler 42 is connected to the gas. A manual opening / closing valve 46 that is opened by a manual operation during filling and a check valve 47 that prevents the gas filled in the fuel tank 3 from flowing backward are provided.

Next, before explaining the processing executed by the control device 6, the gas filling work in the gas supply device 1 having the above-mentioned configuration will be explained. Fuel tank 3 of the car 2
When filling the gas with the gas, the worker first attaches the detachable coupler 40 of the dispenser unit 5 to the detachable coupler 42 of the automobile 2.
Bind to. Then, the operator opens the manual opening / closing valve 46 of the automobile 2 and performs a switching operation so that the inflow port a and the filling port b of the three-way valve 38 communicate with each other.

Next, when the start button (not shown) for starting the filling is turned on, the control device 6 causes the variable pressure gas accumulator 1 to operate.
The opening / closing valve 21 of No. 5 is opened, and the gas supply opening / closing valve 29 is opened. Thereby, the variable pressure gas accumulator 15
The high-pressure gas stored in the fuel tank 3 is filled through the gas supply pipe 28, the gas filling hose 37, the detachable couplers 40 and 42, and the pipe 45.

When the pressure filled in the fuel tank 3 rises and the pressure of the variable pressure gas pressure accumulator 15 decreases to reduce the difference between the primary pressure and the secondary pressure, the high pressure gas pressure accumulator 16 is opened and closed. After the valve 22 is opened, the on-off valve 21 of the variable pressure gas pressure accumulator 15 is closed and further gas filling is performed.

When the fuel tank 3 is full, the open / close valve 22 of the high pressure gas accumulator 16 is closed and
The gas supply opening / closing valve 29 is closed. The gas filling flow rate that has passed through the gas supply pipeline 28 is measured by the mass flow meter 31, and a flow rate pulse corresponding to the gas filling flow rate is output to the control device 6.

As a result, the control device 6 calculates the gas filling amount filled in the fuel tank 3 based on the supply pressure detected by the secondary pressure transmitter 33 and the number of flow rate pulses from the mass flowmeter 31. And display it on the display 43. When the gas filling into the fuel tank 3 is completed, the operator closes the manual opening / closing valve 46 on the side of the automobile 2 and then connects the three-way valve 38 to the filling port b and the exhaust port c and shuts off the inflow port a. Switching operation is performed. That is, the three-way valve 38
Allows the gas remaining in the detachable couplers 40 and 42 and the filling hose 39 to escape to the outside through the low pressure pipe 41 to reduce the pressure, thereby enabling the detachment operation of the detachable coupler 40.

After that, the operator works on the dispenser unit 5
The detachable coupler 40 is separated from the detachable coupler 42 of the automobile 2. This completes a series of gas filling operations. Here, a process executed by the control device 6 of the gas supply device 1 having the above configuration will be described.

FIG. 2 is a main flow chart executed by the controller 6 during the gas filling work, and FIG. 3 is a filling control subroutine of the main flow chart. The worker
As described above, the detachable coupler 40 provided at the tip of the gas supply conduit 28 is connected to the detachable coupler 42 of the fuel tank 3, and then the inflow port a and the filling port b of the three-way valve 38 are communicated with each other, and the manual type is used. The opening / closing valve 46 of is opened. Then, the operator turns on the start button.

First, the processing executed in the main flow chart shown in FIG. 2 will be described. When the start button is turned on in step S1 (hereinafter “step” is omitted), the control device 6 proceeds to step S2 and determines whether the fuel tank 3 is full. That is, it is checked whether or not the pressure detected by the secondary pressure transmitter 33 is equal to or higher than the filling target pressure. In this embodiment, if the pressure in the fuel tank 3 reaches 200 kgf / cm ² , "full tank" is reached. It is determined.

Therefore, in S2, the secondary pressure transmitter 3
The pressure detected by 3 is the target pressure (200kgf / cm ² )
, The fuel tank 3 is full, so S1
After shifting to 2, all the valves are closed and the gas filling control for the fuel tank 3 is terminated.

However, when the pressure detected by the secondary pressure transmitter 33 is less than the target pressure in S2, it is determined that the fuel tank 3 is not full and gas filling is possible, and S3
Proceed to. At S3, the on-off valve 21 of the variable pressure gas accumulator 15 is
And the gas supply opening / closing valve 29 of the dispenser unit 5 is opened. As a result, gas filling of the fuel tank 3 is started.

After that, the process proceeds to S4 and the variable pressure gas pressure accumulator 1
The gas filling control by 5 is performed. That is, in S4, the valve opening degree of the control valve 32 is controlled so as to fill the gas at the optimum flow rate according to the capacity of the fuel tank 3. In the next S5, it is determined again whether the fuel tank 3 is full. Therefore, the pressure detected by the secondary pressure transmitter 33 after the start of the gas filling control by the variable pressure gas accumulator 15 is the target pressure (200 kg
When it is f / cm ² ), the fuel tank 3 is full, and therefore the gas filling control is ended without executing the subsequent processing. That is, when the fuel tank 3 is full, S1
In step 2, the on-off valve 21 of the variable pressure gas accumulator 15 is closed and the gas supply on-off valve 29 is closed. This completes the gas filling control for the fuel tank 3.

However, in S5, the secondary pressure transmitter 3
When the pressure detected by 3 is less than the target pressure,
Since the fuel tank 3 is not yet full, the process proceeds to S6. In S6, the supply pressure from the variable pressure gas accumulator 15 detected by the supply side pressure transmitter 23 is compared with the filling pressure filled in the fuel tank 3 detected by the secondary pressure transmitter 33, and the fuel tank is compared. When the filling pressure of 3 is sufficiently smaller than the supply pressure of the variable pressure gas accumulator 15, S
Returning to step 3, the gas filling control is continued.

However, in S6, when the filling pressure of the fuel tank 3 and the supply pressure of the variable pressure gas accumulator 15 are substantially balanced, the process proceeds to S7, and the opening / closing valve 22 of the high pressure gas accumulator 16 is opened first. The gas accumulator switching in S6 is not limited to the above pressure difference, but may be determined based on the flow rate measured by the mass flow meter 31, the valve opening degree of the control valve 32, or the like, or a combination of these data. You may.

In the next step S8, a predetermined time (in this embodiment,
1 second) is determined. Then, when the predetermined time has elapsed, it is determined that the pressure of the high-pressure gas accumulator 16 has started to be filled in the fuel tank 3 via the gas supply conduit 28, and the process proceeds to S9. Therefore, in the next S9, the opening / closing valve 21 of the variable pressure gas pressure accumulator 15 is closed at the time when the pressure of the high pressure gas pressure accumulator 16 is started to be filled in the fuel tank 3. After that, gas filling control by the high-pressure gas accumulator 16 is performed (S10).

When the gas filling by the variable pressure gas pressure accumulator 15 is completed, if the gas supply from the variable pressure gas pressure accumulator 15 is stopped and then the gas supply from the high pressure gas pressure accumulator 16 is started, the pressure is accumulated. Pressure fluctuations occur when switching between
As in this embodiment, by stopping the gas supply by the variable pressure gas pressure accumulator 15 after starting the gas supply by the high pressure gas pressure accumulator 16, it is possible to suppress the pressure fluctuation when the pressure accumulator is switched.

Then, in S11, it is determined whether or not the fuel tank 3 is full, and gas filling control of the fuel tank 3 is performed until the pressure detected by the secondary pressure transmitter 33 reaches the filling target pressure. Is done. Further, in S11, when the pressure filled in the fuel tank 3 by the gas supply from the high pressure gas accumulator 16 reaches the filling target pressure in this way, it is determined that the fuel tank 3 is full. Therefore, when the fuel tank 3 is full, the routine proceeds to S12, where the on-off valve 22 of the high pressure gas accumulator 16 is closed and the gas supply on-off valve 29 is closed. With this, the fuel tank 3
The gas filling control for is ended.

Next, the processing of the subroutine shown in FIG. 3 will be described as the first embodiment of the present invention. Note that FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the subroutine of the gas filling process executed in S3 and S10. In S21, the filling capacity of the fuel tank 3, that is, the fillable capacity of the fuel tank 3, from the change in the secondary pressure when the gas from the variable pressure gas accumulator 15 is filled by opening the opening / closing valve 21 and the gas supply opening / closing valve 29, Calculate the remaining filling amount. The fuel tank 3
Can be calculated by "coefficient x integrated flow rate ÷ increased pressure", and the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3 can be calculated by "integrated flow rate x (full tank pressure-initial pressure) / increased pressure". Therefore, in S21, the flow rate pulses output from the mass flowmeter 31 are integrated to obtain the integrated flow rate of the gas filled in the fuel tank 3, and the pressure rise rate of the secondary pressure detected by the secondary pressure transmitter 33 is calculated. From this, the capacity of the fuel tank 3 (remaining filling amount) is calculated.

In the next step S22, it is determined whether or not the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3 is equal to or less than a preset predetermined value (1 kg in this embodiment), and the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3 is 1 kg. When it is above, it progresses to S23. This S
At 23, the valve opening degree of the control valve 32 is controlled so as to perform high-speed filling at an optimum flow rate proportional to the remaining filling amount (capacity) of the fuel tank 3 calculated at S21.

Therefore, when the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3 is large, the control valve 32 is controlled so that the pressure rising rate becomes constant.
Is controlled so that the pressure of the fuel tank 3 increases as the gas filling progresses, and the valve opening of the control valve 32 is gradually narrowed. In this way, since the valve opening degree of the control valve 32 is controlled so that the gas filling is performed at the maximum flow rate with respect to the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3, high-speed filling is performed at the flow rate according to the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3. This makes it possible to fill the fuel tank 3 with gas in a shorter time.

Thereafter, in S4 or S11 of FIG. 2, it is determined whether or not the fuel tank 3 is full, and if it is not full, the processes in and after S21 are executed again. Therefore,
Since the control device 6 calculates the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3 in S21 while performing the gas filling process, the calculation ends because the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3 is estimated before performing the gas filling process as in the conventional case. Until then, there is no problem that the start of gas filling is delayed, and the gas filling time can be shortened accordingly.

Moreover, conventionally, the capacity of the fuel tank 3 was calculated before the filling of the fuel tank 3 was started, but in this case, since there is a pressure loss, the flow rate at the time of capacity calculation is reduced.
On the other hand, in the present embodiment, since the capacity of the fuel tank 3 is calculated during gas filling, high-speed filling can be performed without being affected by the pressure loss, and therefore the filling delay due to the capacity calculation does not occur.

In S22, the fuel tank 3
If the remaining filling amount is less than 1 kg, the process proceeds to S24.
In S24, the flow rate of gas filling the fuel tank 3 is reduced, and the valve opening degree of the control valve 32 is narrowed so as to fill the fuel tank 3 at a low flow rate at low speed. In this embodiment, the valve opening degree of the control valve 32 is controlled so that the gas filling flow rate into the fuel tank 3 is 2 kg / min.

This low speed filling control is performed until the fuel tank 3 is full. In this way, the valve opening of the control valve 32 is narrowed immediately before the fuel tank 3 reaches the target pressure (200 kgf / cm ² ), and the low-speed filling control is continued until the fuel tank 3 becomes full, so the target pressure (200kgf / cm ² )
Can be accurately filled, and the accuracy of filling the fuel tank 3 with gas can be improved.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG. Incidentally, FIG. 4 is a flow chart for explaining the processing of the subroutine of the second embodiment, and FIG.
Is a graph showing a filling flow rate / secondary pressure change at the time of gas filling. Also, in the second embodiment, the main routine is the same as the flowchart of FIG.

In FIG. 4, in S31, the opening / closing valve 21 and
And the variable pressure gas accumulator 1 by opening the gas supply opening / closing valve 29.
Secondary pressure when the gas from 5 is filled in the fuel tank 3.
To monitor. That is, it is detected by the secondary pressure transmitter 33.
The applied pressure is the filling target pressure (200 kgf / cm²) Immediately before
Force (In this embodiment, 195 kgf / cm²) Whether the following has been reached
To determine. Detected by this secondary pressure transmitter 33
Pressure is 195kgf / cm ²When it is below, proceed to S32.
The rate of increase in the secondary pressure supplied to the fuel tank 3 is constant
(In this embodiment, 3 kgf / cm²/ Second)
The valve opening degree of the control valve 32 is controlled.

In S31, the secondary pressure transmitter 3
When the pressure detected by 3 is 195 kgf / cm ² or more, the process proceeds to S33, and the fillable capacity of the fuel tank 3, that is, the remaining filling amount is calculated. Since the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3 can be calculated by "integrated flow rate x full tank pressure-{(initial pressure + rising pressure) / raising pressure}", the flow rate pulse output from the mass flow meter 31 is integrated in S33. Then, the integrated flow rate of the gas filled in the fuel tank 3 is obtained, and the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3 is calculated from the pressure increase rate of the secondary pressure detected by the secondary pressure transmitter 33.

In the next step S34, it is determined whether or not the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3 is equal to or less than a preset predetermined value (1 kg in this embodiment), and the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3 is 1 kg. When it is above, it progresses to S32. This S
At 32, the valve opening of the control valve 32 is controlled so as to perform the constant pressure increase control as described above.

Further, when the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3 is less than the preset predetermined value (less than 1 kg), S35
Proceed to. In this S35, the flow rate of gas filling the fuel tank 3 is reduced, and the control valve 3 is set to fill the fuel tank 3 at a low speed with a small flow rate.
Reduce the valve opening of 2. In this embodiment, the valve opening degree of the control valve 32 is controlled so that the gas filling flow rate into the fuel tank 3 is 2 kg / min. This low speed filling control is performed until the fuel tank 3 is full.

The changes in the gas filling flow rate and the secondary pressure when the filling is controlled in this way are as shown in the graph of FIG. That is, at the beginning of filling, the valve opening of the control valve 32 is controlled so as to perform constant pressure increase control, so that the gas filling flow rate is rapidly increased to perform high-speed filling, and the secondary pressure is the target filling pressure. Immediate pressure of (200kgf / cm ² ) 195kg
The filling amount is calculated when f / cm ² is reached, and the remaining filling amount is 1
When it becomes less than kg, the valve opening degree of the control valve 32 is narrowed. However, when the flow rate is reduced, the pressure loss from the secondary pressure transmitter 33 to the fuel tank 3 is reduced, and the calculated remaining filling amount is 1 kg or more.

Therefore, high-speed filling and low-speed filling are alternately repeated to fill the fuel tank 3 with gas so that the remaining filling amount calculated is 1 kg. Then, when the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3 actually becomes 1 kg or less, the gas filling flow rate is set to 2
Keep at kg / min and perform low speed filling control.

In this low speed filling control, the gas filling flow rate is set to 2
The low flow rate fill is maintained for about 30 seconds to reduce to kg / min. Then, the secondary pressure is 20 due to the low speed filling.
It rises to 0 kgf / cm ² . In this way, the valve opening of the control valve 32 is narrowed immediately before the fuel tank 3 reaches the target pressure, and the low-speed filling control is continued until the fuel tank 3 becomes full, so the target pressure (200 kgf / cm ² ) Can be accurately filled, and the accuracy of filling the fuel tank 3 with gas can be improved.

Thereafter, in S4 or S11 of FIG. 2, it is determined whether or not the fuel tank 3 is full, and when it is not full, the processes in S31 and thereafter are executed again. Therefore,
Since the control device 6 calculates the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3 when the secondary pressure becomes 195 kgf / cm ² just before the target filling pressure by the gas filling process, before performing the gas filling process as in the conventional case. Moreover, since the remaining filling amount of the fuel tank 3 is estimated, there is no problem that the gas filling start is delayed until the calculation is completed, and the gas filling time can be shortened accordingly.

Moreover, in this embodiment, since the capacity of the fuel tank 3 is calculated before the end of the gas filling, the fuel can be filled at a high speed without being affected by the accuracy of the capacity calculation.
No delay in filling due to volume calculation. In the above embodiment, the case where compressed natural gas (CNG) obtained by compressing city gas is supplied as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is also applicable to supply gas such as butane and propane. Of course.

In the above embodiment, the case where the fuel tank 3 of the automobile 2 is filled with the compressed gas has been described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a device for supplying the compressed gas to another container or the like. Needless to say, the present invention can also be applied to a device configured to be installed in the middle of a pipeline for simply feeding compressed gas to another place.

In the above embodiment, the city gas is compressed from the medium pressure pipeline before the city gas is branched to the household. However, the present invention is not limited to this. You may make it take out gas from the pipeline of.

[0068]

As described above, according to claim 1, when the filling tank is filled with gas, the remaining filling amount of the filling tank is calculated, and when the remaining filling amount of the filling tank is equal to or more than a predetermined value. Performs high-speed filling and controls the valve opening of the control valve so as to perform low-speed filling when the remaining filling amount of the tank to be filled is equal to or less than a predetermined value, so the calculation process of capacity estimation is performed during gas filling. Therefore, the gas filling time can be shortened and the gas filling accuracy can be improved. Moreover, since the capacity of the fuel tank 3 is calculated during gas filling,
No delay in filling due to volume calculation.

According to the second aspect, when the pressure of the tank to be filled reaches the predetermined pressure immediately before the tank is filled up, the remaining filling amount of the tank to be filled is calculated, and the remaining filling amount of the tank to be filled is the predetermined amount. Since the valve opening of the control valve is controlled so as to reduce the flow rate when it becomes the following, the calculation process for capacity estimation is performed immediately before the tank is full, and the gas filling time can be shortened by that amount and the gas filling accuracy can be reduced. Can be increased. In addition, since the capacity of the fuel tank 3 is calculated before the end of gas filling, high-speed filling can be performed without being affected by the accuracy of capacity calculation, so that there is no delay in filling due to capacity calculation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an embodiment of a gas supply device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a main flowchart of a process executed by a control device.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a subroutine of a first embodiment of a gas filling process.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a subroutine of a second embodiment of gas filling processing.

5 is a graph showing a filling flow rate / secondary pressure change by the gas filling process of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Gas Supply Device 3 Fuel Tank 4 Pressure Generation Unit 5 Dispenser Unit 6 Control Device 15 Variable Pressure Gas Accumulator 16 High Pressure Gas Accumulator 28 Gas Supply Pipeline 29 Gas Supply Open / Close Valve 30 Primary Pressure Transmitter 31 Mass Flowmeter 32 Control Valve 33 Secondary pressure transmitter

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (71) Applicant 000003056 Tokiko Corporation 1-3-6 Fujimi, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa (72) Inventor Kazuo Kanai 6-9-6 Sodegaura, Narashino-shi, Chiba (72) Invention Akira Kobayashi 4-12, Hiranocho, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka Prefecture Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Manabu Hattori 2 At 507 Shintakamachi, Tokai City, Aichi Prefecture, Toho Gas Co., Ltd. (72) ) Inventor Tokio Yoshida 1-17-1, Chiyo, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka, Seibu Gas Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor, Kazuhiro Ohara 1-3-6 Fujimi, Kawasaki-ku, Kanagawa Prefecture Tokiko Corporation ( 72) Inventor Takuya Matsumoto 1-6-3 Fujimi Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Tokiko Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yuji Fujinuma Ichikawa, Kawasaki, Kanagawa Subdivision Fujimi 1-chome No. 6 No. 3 Tokiko within Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A gas supply pipe connected to a tank to be filled and supplying compressed gas to the tank to be filled, a control valve provided in the gas supply pipe for controlling the flow of gas, and the gas. A pressure detection unit provided in a supply pipeline for detecting a pressure with which the filled tank is filled; a flow meter provided in the gas supply pipeline for measuring a flow rate with which the filled tank is filled; The remaining filling amount of the filled tank is calculated together with the gas filling of the filled tank, and when the remaining filling amount of the filled tank is equal to or more than a predetermined value, high-speed filling is performed, and the remaining filling amount of the filled tank is A gas supply device comprising: a control unit that controls the valve opening degree of the control valve so as to perform low-speed filling when the value is equal to or less than a predetermined value. 2. A gas supply pipe connected to the tank to be filled and supplying compressed gas to the tank to be filled, a control valve provided in the gas supply pipe for controlling the flow of gas, and the gas. A pressure detection unit provided in a supply pipeline for detecting a pressure with which the filled tank is filled; a flow meter provided in the gas supply pipeline for measuring a flow rate with which the filled tank is filled; When the pressure of the tank to be filled reaches a predetermined pressure immediately before the tank is full, the remaining filling amount of the tank to be filled is calculated, and when the remaining filling amount of the tank to be filled becomes a predetermined amount or less, the flow rate is decreased. And a control means for controlling the valve opening of the control valve.