WO2013002426A1

WO2013002426A1 - Liquefied petroleum gas partial refilling process

Info

Publication number: WO2013002426A1
Application number: PCT/KE2011/000025
Authority: WO
Inventors: Momanyi Michael BOGONKO; Koome Francis NJOGU
Original assignee: Gulf Energy Limited
Priority date: 2011-06-29
Filing date: 2011-06-29
Publication date: 2013-01-03
Also published as: AP2014007393A0

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a partial LPG refilling process that satisfies partial refilling of LPG cylinders thereby enabling the consumer to purchase LPG in desired quantity and verify the actual amount of LPG purchased. It prevents illegal refilling of LPG from and to third party cylinders and ensures decentralized refilling of the LPG cylinders. A partial LPG refilling process takes place with the help of UFM, consumer cylinder and vendor cylinders. The UFM is fitted with load cell, jig mechanism, Irish code reader, mechanical spindle and control unit. The load cell is for placing and weighing the consumer cylinder, jig mechanism holds the consumer cylinder, Irish code reader identifies the unique identity code of the consumer cylinder and the control unit stores information of consumer and vendor cylinders into the internal memory.

Description

Liquefied Petroleum Gas Partial Refilling Process

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a partial refilling process for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) into composite and steel cylinders using Universal Filling Machine (UFM), allowing consumers and dealers to partially refill LPG cylinders.

Background to the Invention

The majority of the poor in Africa and other parts of the developing world lack access to

[005]modern energy services. Fuel requirements of the urban poor are rarely met. In Kenya, East Africa and other parts of Africa, the urban poor pay above-average prices for energy to meet their cooking, lighting, heating and communication needs. Most households depend on traditional biomass resources including fuel wood and charcoal. Despite the availability and promotion of LPG, kerosene and biomass continue to dominate. Inefficient traditional biomass

[010] sources have detrimental impacts on health, gender roles and income.

Reasons for the low adoption of LPG in urban areas include: lack of information about the benefits of LPG; rigid market practices with regards to LPG dispensing; lack of awareness on the negative effects of burning biomass and kerosene; absence of an efficient and reliable supply chain for LPG in many areas, particularly in low income and informal dwelling areas.

[015] To address the health, gender and purchasing power challenges requires that a large number of biomass and kerosene users are converted to LPG users. Indeed, countries such as Kenya have made important efforts to encourage such a switch. To be successful in moving users from biomass and kerosene, however requires that there is a perfect substitute in terms of affordability, hardware, distribution, supply chain as well as cost. Fuel purchase decisions are

[020] primarily driven by income and cost. This means that a substitute will need to involve very low switching costs and be convenient in terms of reach and availability since many of the concerned consumers are in difficult-to-reach areas. Currently, LPG is sold in opaque steel cylinders of between 3kg and 13 kg and the cylinders have to be refilled to full capacity. A perfect substitute can be found if consumers can be allowed to purchase small units, very frequently e.g. daily or every few days. This is because many of the urban poor have

[005] inconsistent daily or weekly income.

Another reason for low penetration of LPG amongst the low income segment of the population is due to rigid industry practices like collection of consumer cylinders at central point such as petrol pumps and supermarkets and their filling and refilling at centralized locations (depots). Along with this, the industry practice enables unscrupulous businessmen to decant LPG from

[010] other oil marketer's cylinders and into other third party cylinders, there by depriving the oil marketer's revenues from their assets.

An example of European Patent (EP1998100) for an invention invented by Kurutepe Sahin et al., relates to a system which reads the "Cylinder Information Card" on LPG cylinders, fills these cylinders automatically and removes the defective cylinders by pushing them from the

[015]conveyor line prior to filling.

An example of Japanese Patent Application number (JP5026398) relates to a device which verifies the tare weight during filling in order to prevent the wrong tare information, which may be entered by filling staff and lead to too much or less filling.

In European Patent document number (EP0813022), it is disclosed that the tare of the empty

[020] cylinder is weighed and the necessary gas quantity is calculated under the control of a computer and after filling, the cylinder is reweighed and controlled, and if the required weight is not reached it is pushed out of the conveyor line.

In the publication WO2009065413, the inventor Neilsen et al., describes tare weight identification with voice recognition system for filling gas into containers using bluetooth

[025]technology. It is therefore the main object of the present invention to enable the partial re-filling of the LPG cylinder in units as desired by the customer and empowering the end user to verify the actual amount of LPG purchased. The present invention also prevents illegal refilling of LPG from and to third party cylinders and decentralizes the refilling of LPG cylinders because of [005]communication capability and process between the control unit, vendor and consumer cylinder.

Disclosure of the Invention

As shown in figure 1, the UFM comprising of a load cell and control unit (CUC), plays a role in partial refilling of the consumer cylinder from the vendor cylinder.

While the making of various embodiments of the present invention are discussed in detail [010]below, it should be appreciated that the present invention provides many applicable inventive concepts that can be embodied in a wide variety of specific contexts. The specific embodiments discussed here are merely illustrative of specific ways to make the invention and do not delimit the scope of the invention.

The present application discloses the process of partially refilling LPG cylinders using UFM [015]which is fitted with a load cell, a control unit (containing a keypad, display screen and internal memory), an Irish code reader, a jig mechanism and a mechanical refilling spindle. This UFM is used to dispense LPG in partial fills. The system works using a weighing or a mass flow principle.

A load cell is used for placing and weighing the consumer cylinder before and after refilling. The [020] jig mechanism holds the consumer cylinder on the UFM while refilling of the consumer cylinder from vendor cylinder. The CUC comprises of an internal memory keypad and display screen. The UFM's internal memory stores a database of vendor and consumer cylinder, containing Irish identity code as well of unit price and quantity of LPG to be dispensed. The Irish code reader in the CUC reads the unique identity code of the consumer cylinder. When a consumer requires LPG they will go to a vendor with their LPG cylinder and pay for the amount of LPG they require. The vendor will place the customer's cylinder on the load cell of the UFM (to determine the weight of the cylinder before dispensing LPG), they will then input the value of LPG the customer requires into the system using the keypad on the CUC.

[005] Upon placement of the cylinder on the load cell, the UFM reads the Irish identity code on the cylinder to check that the cylinder exists in the database. If the cylinder is recognised, the UFM will lock onto the cylinder by way of jigs ready to dispense the required LPG into the customer's cylinder.

Prior to dispensing the amount of LPG corresponding to the value keyed-in by the vendor, the [010] Irish code reader in the UFM checks the code of the vendor cylinder against the database in its internal memory. If the vendor cylinder is confirmed to be a valid cylinder, the UFM releases LPG from the vendor cylinder into the consumer's cylinder.

On completion, the display screen of the CUC shows the new weight of the cylinder. The consumer is in a position to know the additional amount of LPG decanted into her/his cylinder.

[015] Should either the consumer or vendor cylinder not be identified from the list contained in the CUC's internal memory, the UFM will not dispense LPG and will indicate the relevant error message on the display screen.

In the event that the producer of cylinders requires recalling the consumer cylinder for revalidation (bi-annually), the same will be updated in the database and when the cylinder is [020] presented for refilling the UFM will not dispense LPG into the specified cylinder. Instead, a message indicating that the cylinder should be recalled will appear. The vendor will keep the said cylinder and issue the customer with a replacement cylinder.

The process of partial refilling may be performed automatically and manually. The reading of Irish codes on the vendor and consumer cylinders and the cross-checking of the same against [025] the database of existing cylinders in circulation is performed automatically for speed and accuracy. The connection of the refilling spindle to the consumer's cylinder is performed manually to ensure that the spindle engages properly and minimizes losses.

The above description of the present invention have many advantages, including partial refilling of the consumer cylinders thereby, satisfying the consumers need for LPG. The load cell [005]enables the consumer to verify the actual amount of LPG purchased as this displays pre and post purchase weight of the consumer cylinder. This prevents illegal refilling of other marketers' cylinders. This UFM promotes decentralizing the refilling of LPG cylinder.

The foregoing description is provided for illustrative purposes only and should not be construed as in any way limiting this invention, the scope of which is defined solely by the appended [010]claims.

Description of the Drawings

For a more complete understanding of the features and advantages of the present invention, reference is now made to the detailed description of the invention along with the accompanying figures and in which:

Figure 1 illustrates front and side elevations of the UFM with a single consumer and vendor [015] cylinder loaded.

Figure 2 illustrates front and side elevations of the UFM with single consumer cylinder and two vendor cylinders loaded.

Claims

The Claims We claim

1. A filling process for partially refilling LPG into consumer cylinders, said process comprising:

• a control unit (CUC) consisting of an internal memory, a keypad, and a display screen. The internal memory maintains a database of existing cylinders in circulation.

^• a jig mechanism for holding the consumer cylinder in place when refilling.

^• placing and weighing the consumer cylinder on a load cell before and after refilling.

^• identifying and tracking the unique Irish codes using a irish code reader on the composite and steel cylinders.

2. A partial refilling process according to claim 1, where the consumer cylinder is placed on the load cell and the quantity of LPG to be refilled into the consumer cylinder is entered into the CUC.

3. A partial refilling process according to claim 1, where the Irish code on the consumer cylinder is identified using Irish code reader and checked for its existence in the database.

4. A partial refilling process according to claim 1, where the recognized Irish cylinder is locked onto the refilling machine by use of jigs and the required quantity of LPG can be dispensed into the customer cylinder.

5. A partial refilling process according to claim 1, where the Irish code reader checks the code of the vendor cylinder against the database before dispensing LPG into the consumer cylinder. A partial refilling process according to claim 1, where the display screen of CUC shows the weight of the cylinder.

A partial refilling process according to claim 1, where the consumer cylinder is not refilled if the cylinder requires revalidation. A message on the display screen of CUC notifies the vendor for collection of the said consumer cylinder for revalidation.