Coaxial - Petroleum

Equipment Institute
Generally speaking, within the petroleum marketing industry, coaxial
is used to describe a piece of equipment that consists of a tube within
a tube. A coaxial hose, for instance, is an outer hose with a smaller
hose inside. A coaxial fitting is one that can be attached to a single
opening, but which will permit liquid to flow through one channel in
the fitting while vapors are simultaneously flowing through another
channel in the same fitting.

Coaxial design has become important within the industry in recent

years because of gasoline vapor recovery requirements.
When gasoline is being unloaded into an underground storage tank,
for instance, as liquid flows into the tank displaced vapors flow out.
These vapors must be captured and returned to a terminal for
processing.

In some locations, the transport driver hooks a delivery hose into one
opening in the tank, and connects a second hose–a vapor-return
hose, to another opening. This is referred to as a two-point
connection. At locations designed to accommodate coaxial delivery,
however, the driver connects a single fitting to the tank opening. To
one port on this fitting, the driver would connect a gasoline delivery
hose; to another port, the driver would connect a vapor-return line.
Thus, the coaxial fitting permits simultaneous product delivery and
vapor retrieval through a single opening in the tank.

Dispenser hoses, used in gasoline stations where Stage II vapor

recovery is required, are generally coaxial. The hose connecting the
nozzle to the dispenser appears to be a single hose. Actually, it is a
hose within a hose. Gasoline flows through the inner hose, into the
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 motorist’s tank. Displaced vapors, from the tank, enter the nozzle and
then flow back toward the dispenser by passing through the space
between the inner and outer hose. In some coaxial hoses, liquid flows
through the outer hose and vapor through the inner hose.
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