Cryostar’s involvement in liquefied natural gas and liquefied-compressed natural gas (LNG/LCNG) fueling stations for vehicles began almost a decade ago. Today, opportunities in the LNG supply chain are growing, and in May of 2013 Cryostar launched its latest LNG fueling station for gas powered vehicles in the US. This article looks at where we are today with this technology, which appears to be on the brink of wider adoption in North America.
Then and Now
In 2003, Cryostar Automation teamed up with UK haulage firm Hardstaff Group and cryogenic equipment manufacturer M1 Engineering to develop a new gas filling station. The combined LNG/LCNG station, installed in Nottinghamshire at Hardstaff’s premises, represented a UK first both in terms of a UK firm investing in such a station, and in garnering UK government funding to support the initiative.
At this point, M1 Engineering already had involvement in supplying first-generation LNG fueling equipment to other UK companies, while Cryostar Automation incorporated its process control know-how gleaned via work on industrial automatic gas filling stations. Cryostar contributed the buffer tank, pumps, vaporizers, interconnecting pipe work, electrical cables, and automatic control cabinets for the LCNG dispensing while M1 Engineering provided the 44,000 liter LNG tank, pumping and metering systems, pipe work, and electrical equipment for LNG dispensing. This equipment was able to fuel four trucks per hour with CNG or ten trucks with LNG, with a flow rate of nine gallons per minute (34 l/min) from two 22kW LNG pumps.
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