Are you an architectural designer, or do you plan to build a fuel filling station, and you’re wondering how you can make it stand out from the rest? Worry no more!

This informative post will guide you on how to design the best CNG fuel filling station. Compressed Natural Gas falls under the lowest cost, safest and cleanest vehicle fuels. However, handling conventional fuels like diesel and gasoline is not an easy task.

Besides the added vehicle costs, the idea to build CNG fuel filling stations also significantly impacts switching vehicles. So, what elements do you need to focus on when designing CNG fuel filling stations?

Let’s see!

Make A Transition Plan

Develop a CNG transition plan early because it’s vital to think early enough about the building design. You’re likely to oversize the building, but it’s not a strange thing to under-size pieces of equipment, like the compressor. Note that small-sized compressors can result in incomplete/slow fueling.

Start by assembling the current fueling reports:

  • Confirm if the fleet will be a dedicated CNG or bi-fuel gasoline or CNG. This record will help you determine the redundancy level needed in the CNG fuel filling station.
  • The site’s fueling patterns. For instance, do the vehicles come primarily for fueling or go back to the yard for long hours per day?
  • The vehicles to fuel every day while keeping in mind that compressed natural gas vehicles carry less fuel from time to time compared to the liquid-fueled fleet. Therefore, compressed natural gas vehicles may need more frequent fueling.
  • The amount of fuel consumed by compressed natural gas vehicles per day. Consider using the vehicles’ average fuel consumption and not the tank capacity or maximum consumption.

Note that some fleets are likely not to fall under immediate CNG candidates. These include low-use vehicles and aged fleets booked for throwing away in the near future. Mostly, it’s hard to convert diesel vehicles to CNG. Therefore, it’s pivotal to remain patient until the upcoming trading cycle so that you can install OEM-CNG engines on new fleets.

Identify The Type Of CNG Fuel Filling Station

CNG stations come in two primary forms; cascaded fast-fill and time-fill. There is a third type, called buffer fast-fill, but this works well in transit applications.

Time-Fill

A time-fill fuel filling station involves drying gas to cut the moisture. CNG passes out after compression via a pipe to all vehicles concurrently. It’s a simple and cost-effective technique because the compressor features a smaller size in many cases than needed for fast-fill. Also, there is no need for cascading/storage.

Note that time-fill comes with its limitations. It works well only when vehicles go back to a specific facility for many hours, mainly overnight. Also, it’s challenging and cost-prohibitive to measure fuel passed out to each vehicle.

Fast-Fill

The high-pressure vessels are what differentiates fast-fill fueling stations from time-fill fueling stations. The sequenced fast-fill fueling stations offer higher fuel flows compared to compressor alone. Therefore, the sequenced fast-fill fueling stations allow vehicles to take the same time to fuel as liquid-fueled vehicles. Besides having hassle-free individual metering, fast-fill also accommodates vehicles that don’t remain in a yard.

Understand The Components For CNG Fueling Station

A few of the components to learn more about in this case include:

  • Gas Dryers – Needed to minimize the gas’s moisture content
  • Gas Compressors – They form the central point of any fueling station. They exist in different styles, but they feature pistons running in cylinders.
  • Gas Storage – This component works only for fast-fill stations.
  • Gas Dispensers – These components vary widely based on their applications.

 

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