Automotive fuel additive dispensing and blending system

An automotive fuel additive dispensing and blending system is described wherein both proprietary and mandated fuel additives heretofore normally added at the refinery or a bulk storage plant may be added at a service station and blended into the fuel as fuel is dispensed thereby allowing most effective and reliable addition of additives that may be volatile and that may degrade in storage after mixed with fuel as well as providing a cost effective method for supplying differing gasoline blends to the customer.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
In recent times gasoline refiners and marketers improve the various 
qualities of the gasolines supplied to the motoring public by blending a 
variety of additives with the fuel The need for additives has become ever 
more important because of the continuing demand by car owners for good 
engine performance from their high tech engines, while at the same time, 
keeping costs low and satisfying the needs for high fuel mileage and 
mandated low emission levels of air pollutants. As a result the oil 
companies have developed fuel additives and fuel components that are 
blended with the more-or-less commodity gasoline to improve the octane 
(anti-knock) quality, remove carbon deposits from combustion chambers and 
fuel injectors, reduce emissions by adding oxygenates, and so on. 
These complex fuel additives developed by the various oil companies are 
usually proprietary since they are intended to make their brand of 
gasoline more desirable to the motoring public, thereby causing brand 
allegiance and repeat customers. 
The proprietary additive package, as it is usually called, is normally 
added at the bulk terminal. If the additive is of low volume, it is 
usually added when the fuel is loaded into transport trucks for delivery 
to service stations. Large volume "fuel component" kinds of additives 
require significant duplicate storage and handling facilities at the 
terminals. Different wholesale customers get different additive packages, 
and a given refinery or bulk plant will often supply more than a single 
chain of branded and unbranded service stations. Additive addition as 
outlined is complicated, and subject to error. Some additives are volatile 
and some begin to degrade once mixed with the fuel. Also, in some regions 
of the country, some additives are going to be mandated by the regional 
environmental regulators (such as the need for oxygenates for the Rocky 
Mountain region of the country). Therefore, since a refinery or bulk plant 
can typically serve a region within a 300 mile radius, it is becoming 
still more desirable to perform the addition and blending with additives 
at the service station. Further, since gasoline marketers often add 
different additive quantities to different fuel grades, it is most 
desirable to add these to the fuels at the retail fuel dispenser in the 
service station. This is especially important in the case of mandated 
addition because the regulatory testing for conformance will likely be 
done at the retail pump. 
An objective of this invention is to provide an automatic fuel additive 
dispensing system that can be incorporated into service station fuel 
dispensers which will automatically blend a preset amount of one or more 
additives into the fuel as it is being delivered into the motorists gas 
tank. The preset amount of each additive to be blended will be in terms of 
a specified mix ratio according to the desires of the fuel marketer and 
environmental regulators. The additive dispenser system will allow the mix 
ratio for each additive to be set independently, and easily changed from 
time to time as the additive formulations are changed. Likewise, the 
additive dispenser will allow the mix ratios for the additives to be set 
differently for each fuel grade, according to the desires of the marketer. 
When the volume of fuel additive blended with the fuel is a significant 
amount relative to the errors of measurement allowed by the Weights and 
Measures regulators, the additive volumes must be added to volume of fuel 
dispensed. For example, when the additive mix ratio is very low, such as 
in the order of about 1 cubic centimeter, or one milliliter, per gallon of 
fuel, the mix ratio is only about 0.026%. This is a rather insignificant 
amount compared to the W&M accuracy requirement of about 0.4% and 
therefore will probably not be an issue from a W&M standpoint. This is 
especially true if the additive amount dispensed will be in addition to 
the fuel volume for which the retail customer is actually charged. 
But when the additive is of a larger volumetric ratio and becomes a 
significant portion of the fuel delivery, relative to the tolerated errors 
of fuel metering, the measured additive volume dispensed will have to be 
added to that of the fuel delivery for transaction purposes, and the 
accuracy of measurement will probably have to meet the 0.4%. This can be 
accomplished in one of two ways. The simplest and preferred method is to 
inject the additive into the fuel at a point that is upstream of the meter 
in the fuel dispenser. In that way the additive is measured along with the 
fuel. For cases where there is reason to inject the additive downstream of 
the meter, such as at the nozzle, this invention includes the facility for 
metering the additive volumes dispensed, and for this dispensed volume 
data to be transmitted to the fuel dispenser computer on a real time basis 
during fueling. With this information, the computer will add and include 
the additive volume dispensed with the metered fuel volumes for sales 
transaction purposes. 
In this extension of the earlier disclosed system in Ser. No. 07/472,236, 
the choice of the additives becomes that of the gasoline marketer, and not 
that of the gasoline buying customer. Accordingly, the dispensed additive 
in this invention will not be the subject of a separate sales transaction. 
Instead, the additives simply become a part of each of the graded fuel 
products that the marketer wishes to sell as his proprietary fuel 
products, and at the posted prices as usual. This invention affords a more 
desirable, more effective, and much more controlled method of blending 
fuel additives that are offered by the fuel marketer, that may or may not 
be mandated by the regulatory authorities. This invention applies to any 
and all fuel additives, and to fuel components which are generally of 
larger volume ratios to the fuel volume. The term "additive" is used 
hereafter in this patent application for all such substances to simplify 
the wording. 
A further objective of this invention is to provide a similar fuel additive 
dispensing and blending system for use with fuel blending retail 
dispensers. In these fuel blending dispensers a premium grade of gasoline 
is blended with a lower grade of gasoline to form one or more selectable 
intermediate grades of gasoline. For this case, this invention includes 
the ability to dispense and blend the fuel additives into both of the 
flowing streams of fuel according to preset mix ratios, or into the 
blended fuel stream according to preset mix ratios for each selectable 
grade. 
The system comprises: 
1. Fuel additive fluid storage tanks 
2. Additive pumps with drive mechanism 
3. Additive fluid meters 
Note: The additive pump and meter may or may not be a single device such as 
a metering pump. 
4. A distribution means that automatically directs the pumped and metered 
additive to the correct fuel line 
5. Plumbing as required for the additives from the storage tank to the pump 
and meter, through the distribution system, and to the point where it is 
injected into the fuel stream. Normally a dual hose runs to the dispensing 
nozzle. 
6. A controller that: 
a. monitors the existing fuel dispenser system to detect which fuel has 
been selected by the customer and the fuel flow rate in real time; 
b. sets the distribution system so as to deliver additive to the proper 
fuel line being used; 
c. regulates the additive pump motor and/or drive mechanism and in one 
embodiment, a fuel blend control valve in such a way that the additive 
pump delivers additive in chosen amounts proportional to the fuel flow 
rates as the fuel is delivered to the customer's gas tank; and 
d. sends additive-volume-dispensed signals to the fuel dispenser computer 
for inclusion with the fuel volume dispensed if the additive is being 
dispensed downstream of the fuel flow meter. 
The controller function includes the capability to be preset to provide mix 
ratios of additive/fuel that are fixed thereafter, until changed once 
again. It is also capable of controlling multiple additive blender pumping 
systems as described above, each with independently set mix ratios as 
required for each of multiple additive fluids. 
In this invention, the additive fluids can be delivered all the way to the 
fueling nozzle with flexible tubing as is disclosed in the prior 
referenced invention, or it may be delivered and injected into the fuel 
stream at some point within the hydraulics section of the fuel dispenser. 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
The overall objective of this invention is to allow a bulk gasoline shipper 
selling to Service Stations to provide for blending of additives, and 
normal blending of fuels and then additive addition, as the fuel is 
dispensed to a customer. In some regions of the country different amounts 
of oxygenating material called oxygenates are required in gasoline and 
normally the bulk seller wishes to add proprietary additives. Usually 
proprietary additives are a small percentage in the dispensed gasoline but 
the oxygenates may be several percent. Our system provides for blending 
different amounts of different additives into the differing grades of fuel 
sold to customers in Service Stations including intermediate grades of 
fuel that are achieved by blending at the gasoline dispenser unit of the 
Service Station. 
The system comprises the following major functional elements: 
1. One or more additive fluid storage tanks with these storage tanks 
properly sized relative to the gasoline storage for normal additive use; 
2. a minimum of one additive pump and drive mechanism for each additive 
storage tank; 
3. an additive fluid meter for each different additive to measure additive 
flow into the gasoline as the gasoline additive mixture is dispensed; 
4. a distribution system with control valve that may be controlled to 
direct additives as measured to the fuel line activated by the customer to 
dispense fuel; 
5. Plumbing as required for the additives from the storage tank to the pump 
and meter, through the distribution system, and to the point where it is 
injected into the fuel stream. 
6. A controller that: 
(a) monitors the existing fuel dispenser system to detect which fuel has 
been selected by the customer and the fuel flow rate in real time; 
(b) sets the distribution system so as to deliver additive to the proper 
fuel line being used; 
(c) and regulates the motor and/or drive mechanism in such a way that the 
additive pump delivers additive in chosen amounts proportional to the fuel 
flow rates as the fuel is delivered to the customer's gas tank; and 
(d) sends additive-volume-dispensed signals to the fuel dispenser computer 
for inclusion with the fuel volume dispensed if the additive is being 
dispensed downstream of the fuel flow meter. 
In this invention, the additive fluids can be delivered all the way to the 
fueling nozzle with flexible tubing as is disclosed in the prior 
referenced invention, or it may be delivered and injected into the fuel 
stream at some point within the hydraulics section of the fuel dispenser, 
preferably upstream of the fuel flowmeter. 
In some Service Stations intermediate grades of fuel are formulated from a 
high grade fuel and a low grade fuel. There may be one or more 
intermediate grades. Usually this formulation is accomplished using a 
valve called a blend control valve. The blend control valve operates in 
conjunction with electronic controls to measure a preset ratio of high 
grade fuel with its additives to low grade fuel with its additives. With 
fuel blending dispensers, two lines lead to the dispenser nozzle to mix 
the fuels at the nozzle. The two lines are necessary so that each customer 
will get only the properly mixed fuel and additive that he chooses and not 
first a line full of another mixed fuel that was left by the prior 
customer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
We may best describe details of the invention by a description of the 
drawing. 
In FIG. 1 we show a service station fuel dispensing unit 1 with a fuel 
dispenser computer 2 and display panel 3. Displayed is price per gallon, 
gallons dispensed and price of the selected and dispensed fuel. In a 
preferred embodiment of this invention fuel dispenser computer 2 acts 
normally to include the cost and amount of the additive or additives 
blended into the fuel an includes amount of the additives in the amount of 
fuel displayed and includes cost of the additives in the total cost 
displayed. Note that fuel dispenser computer 2 may be connected and 
programmed to interact with a remote operator terminal and other modern 
service station transaction equipment. 
Dispenser computer 2 also acts normally to activate fuel flow of one of 
three from storage tanks 28, 29, or 30 as chosen by the customer and 
delivers the selected fuel to the customer fuel tank, while receiving 
measured flow data from the respective fuel meter, and computes and 
displays the transaction data. 
The functional elements of this embodiment of this invention are shown in 
schematic form. One or more additive storage tanks 25 are placed for 
storing the additives that the fuel marketing company wishes to blend and 
dispense with the fuel. The additives are pumped and metered by pumping 
and metering unit 26, which may be one or more separate devices and are 
shown here combined in a preferred embodiment inside the fuel dispensing 
unit housing. Additives then pass through a distribution system 27 
controlled by controller 4 to cause the additives to be directed through 
appropriate plumbing and fittings to injection points in the fuel lines of 
the different grades of fuel, preferrably upstream of the fuel meters 32, 
33 or 34 so that the dispensed additive volume is measured along with the 
fuel. The distribution system 27 is controlled to cause the additive to 
flow only to the one fuel line that is being used in any fuel dispensing 
transaction. 
The controller 4 is a second computer which receives information from the 
fuel dispenser computer 2 indicating which fuel grade is being taken, and 
the rate of fuel flow on a real time basis during the fuel dispensing 
operation. The controller 4 includes means for presetting the additive mix 
ratios for each additive, and differently for each fuel grade if so 
desired by the marketer. This setting can include setting at the unit, or 
by remote programming from a console. 
With the selected fuel 28, 29 or 30 and fuel flow rate information from 
fuel dispenser computer 2, and with the marketer's preset mix ratios, the 
controller 4 activates additive pressuring and measuring units 26, and 
distribution system 27 to pump and blend appropriate proportional amounts 
of the additives with the selected fuel flowing through one of flowmeter 
32, 33, or 34 as the fuel is pumped by one of pumps 23 and dispensed into 
the motorist's fuel tank through nozzle 38. 
The controller 4 can be a separate electronic module as drawn, or the 
controller 4 functions might be combined with those of the fuel dispenser 
computer 2 as a single unit as indicated in dashed lines on FIGS. 1, 2 and 
3. 
If the additive injection point is located for any reason downstream of the 
fuel flowmeter, the measured additive volumes will be transmitted on a 
real time basis from the controller 4 to the fuel dispenser computer 2 
which will be programmed to add the additive fuel volume dispensed to the 
metered fuel volume through flowmeter 32, 33, or 34 for transaction 
purposes. 
In FIG. 2 we show a second embodiment of the invention wherein additives 
are added at the dispensing unit 6 in a service station where the 
dispensing unit is a fuel blending type unit. The blending type dispensing 
unit 6 may be used to minimize number of fuel storage tanks and/or allow 
dispensing one or more intermediate fuel grades. Although additives may be 
used in all grades, additives alone are not usually sufficient to 
transform the lower or regular type fuel sold to a premium grade. In the 
blending type service station fuel dispenser normally a premium grade fuel 
and lower grade fuel may be sold separately or mixed to give intermediate 
grades. Our invention provides for having the proper additives for premium 
grade fuel and lower grade fuel in the fuel hoses at all times as well as 
proportional amounts of additives in the intermediate grade fuels. 
The functional elements of the automated fuel additive dispenser system for 
the fuel blending type dispenser is shown schematically. With this fuel 
dispenser type there are two fuel tanks 28 and 30 with pumps 24, each 
having their respective fuel meters 20 and 22. There is also the typical 
fuel blend valve 36 that is controlled by the blending dispenser computer 
5. The blending dispensing computer 5 is programmed to allow customer 
choices of regular or lower grade or premium grade or one of one or more 
intermediate fuel grades and receives flow rate signals in real time from 
the two fuel meters 20 and 22 during the fuel delivery. With this 
information, the computer 5 controls the fuel blend valve 36 so as to 
maintain the fuel blend ratio to the selected value through out the fuel 
delivery. 
In a preferred embodiment of this invention, there are one or more storage 
tanks 25 placed for storing the additive, pressuring and measuring units 
26, distribution system 27, and respective plumbing to carry the pumped, 
measured and distributed additive to the preferred injection points 
upstream of the fuel meters. The controller 4 receives fuel flow 
information from the fuel dispenser computer 5 and regulates the flow of 
additives being dispensed to maintain a preset mix ratio. However, in this 
case there are two fuels flowing with their two meters operating 
simultaneously. Therefore, this invention includes the added programmed 
ability of the fuel dispenser computer 5 and the controller 4 to 
communicate and receive, respectively, the real time fuel flow data from 
the two operating meters simultaneously. Controller 4 in this embodiment 
will cause additive amounts to be dispensed by pressuring and measuring 
units 26 for each additive and alternately as required through 
distribution systems 27 for each additive to each of the two fuel line 
injection points upstream of the fuel meters 20 and 22 so as to maintain 
the additive to fuel ratio to the correct preset value for each additive 
and for each of the two flowing fuels throughout the delivery. 
As with the embodiments of FIG. 1, the functions of controller 4 might be 
combined and made a part of dispenser computer 5. 
In the blending type service station unit 6 the dispenser nozzle 35 is fed 
from a line for lower grade fuel and a line for premium grade fuel. Blend 
control valve 36 controls ratio fed to the nozzle 35 so that a lower 
grade, one or more intermediate grades, or premium grade fuels may be 
dispensed with one nozzle. 
In FIG. 3 we show a second embodiment for dispensing unit 6 that is a fuel 
blending type unit. In this second embodiment, two sets of controlled 
pressuring and measuring units 26 are provided for each additive with each 
unit 26 of each set delivering additive under control of controller 4 at a 
preset ratio of additive to fuel to one of the two fuels 28 and 30 
upstream of fuel meters 20 and 22. With this design, the distribution 
system 27 as shown in FIG. 2 are eliminated. As in FIG. 2 blend control 
valve 36 acts to allow pumping a single fuel grade from tank 28 or tank 29 
or mixtures thereof to form intermediate grades with a preset ratio of 
additives to fuel being added to each grade. Dual lines lead to dispenser 
nozzle 35 with mixing in the nozzle for intermediate fuel grades. 
In addition to embodiments as outlined, one pump for each additive, pumping 
through each of two control valves to add a controlled measured flow of 
additive to each stream flowing through flowmeters 20 and 22 would come 
within the spirit and purpose of this invention. 
Many minor mechanical or control features of this invention may be changed 
by one of normal skills in the art so we do not wish to be limited to 
exact details but only as to spirit and purpose as outlined in these 
claims and specifications.