CNG Dispensing Stations

Cascade Filled

Cascade fast-fill stations provide fast and convenient fueling similar to that
provided by conventional liquid fuel stations. CNG storage vessels arranged in
cascades, or banks, are used to quickly fill vehicles during peak fueling times,
when the compressors alone cannot meet demand. During off-peak times, the
compressors refill the CNG storage cascades. These stations are suitable for
fueling light-duty vehicles at public access stations where use patterns are
random. They are also suitable for fueling fleets of light-duty vehicles, such as
taxis and police cars, that require a fast fill and have peak fueling periods.
Cascade fast-fill stations are not appropriate for continuous, high-volume fueling
because the compressors are not large enough to provide a fast fill once the
CNG storage has been depleted. Most of the several hundred public access CNG
stations in North America use a cascade fast-fill system.

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CNG Equipment Outline
9 CNG Station Layout
9 Station Types

9 CNG Station Components

9 Visual Inspection
9 Test Equipment
9 CNG Dispenser Functional Test

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 Equipment
CNG Station Components

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 Vaporized Gas
Utility Meter

To give you a visual view of what the system generally looks like…here are some
of the photos. This is Utility meter own by the Gas Company.

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 Dryer/Cleaner

The gas dryer is used to remove water vapors from the gas and to dry it to a
pressure dew point. Failure to dry the gas can result in vehicle engine problems.

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 Filters

Gas Filters are required and is recommended to be installed at various locations

within the CNG compressor station otherwise there will be some serious
maintenance issues as well as vehicles having plugged up fuel injector lines.
They Filter out foreign particulates and solid matter.

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 Compressor

Gas compressor basically sucks in natural gas from pipeline and then
compresses it out into a storage tank.

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 CNG Storage
Tanks/Cylinders

The Storage tank here are the most common system we see at public fueling
stations. Although they can be a single tank or multiples stacked like a triangle
but they are generally much slower to fill. Notice there are 3 tanks? This is used
to store gas at pressure higher than the vehicle tank pressure. This differential
pressure is used to transfer the gas from the cascade into the vehicle. This
system is typically divided into three banks: high, medium, and low. Any number
of cascades can be connected together to increase storage capacity.

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 Priority Sequence Panel

The Priority system is used to divert gas from the compressor to the storage tank
and is also integrated in the Emergency shutdown system which is used to
isolate the storage cascade from the quick fill dispenser in the event of
emergency shutdown.

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 System Controller

This component controls all of the operational features of the compressor and
dispenser characteristics. This unit can also carry some of the metrological
functions. Such as calibration of pulse counts,

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 CNG Dispensers

The CNG dispensers comes from different manufactures which may or not use
the same station compressor system.

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 Point of Sale Systems

Station Attendant Presented

For Direct Sales

The first type of “service” station is the attended site Point of sales systems
comprised of multiple components such as a printer, scanner and a monitor
screen that can also function as a touch screen.

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 Self – Serve CNG Stations

Card Reader

Customer interfaced

The second type of “service” is the unattended Station which is mostly a

customer interface system. This component of the station is operated and
controlled by the consumer using a credit card or fleet type card.

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 Equipment and Parts
CNG Dispensers
Primary Indication Display

CNG dispenser - Primary customer indication consists of three major displays 1)

Total Sale, 2) Volume delivered, 3) Price unit.

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 Equipment and Parts
CNG Dispensers
Card Reader

External

Internal

One major component is the “Card Reader” it may be internal within the
dispenser or it may be external.

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