GRDF expressed an interest in evaluating HYGEN’s new Liquid Piston Technology as it applies to CNG fueling of NGVs in a fleet application. In particular, the test was performed on the HYGEN+, a standalone system comprised of a dual liquid piston compressor, 200 BAR storage and dispensing system.

The objective of the study was to evaluate the performances of the prototype solution developed by HYGEN relying on a new innovative compression technology (liquid pistons) in term of filling time, electrical consumption, and gas quality.

There are an increasing number of compression technologies for Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV) applications available on the market today. The study notes that for those who are considering the development of small NGV fleets, the use of dedicated refueling solution for 1 to a few vehicles is appealing.

A prototype liquid piston technology developed by HYGEN company (HYGEN+) for this application has been tested for different vehicles tank volumes in term of fueling time, electrical consumption, noise and gas quality. The results show that the technology offered by this prototype is suitable for fast filling of light-duty vehicle with low noise and electrical consumption.

The report states “HYGEN+ system is therefore a very interesting technology that could easily be deployed for private fleet.”

The ENGIE Lab CRIGEN report for the HYGEN+ Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Vehicle Fueling Appliance (VFA) for Natural Gas Vehicles (NGVs) is available for downloading from www.grdf.fr/documents/10184/6229674/CNG+-+Testing+Report+for+HYGEN.pdf/.

UPDATE: November 2020 – This research paper will be of interest to readers of this article: The Innovative Technology of Hydraulic Compression and Boosting for Filling the Vehicles and Storage Systems with Natural Gas and Biomethane