Design and Analysis of a Self-Refueling CNG Vehicle to Provide Home Refueling

Home refueling systems for natural gas vehicles are commercially available but suffer from long refilling times and high system costs. A novel concept of selectively repurposing one cylinder of a compressed natural gas (CNG) engine to be used as a compressor would allow a CNG vehicle to refuel itself quickly and with low capital cost. Using funding from the DOE through the ARPA-E program, such a vehicle is being designed and built by Oregon State University with the help of Czero, Inc. This paper outlines some of the early design, analysis and simulation work done to prove the concept and arrive at a first prototype design. Some of the unique challenges associated with the concept are discussed and the solutions to them are presented. An accompanying paper will present test results for the system.