Patent ID: 8671997

Claim:
A method for filling a container with a gas under pressure, comprising the transfer of the gas pressurized to a pressure called the high pressure from a source to a tank to be filled, the method including a step of pre-cooling the pressurized gas before it enters the tank down to a target temperature by indirect heat exchange with a cooling fluid via a refrigeration hold-over medium, the refrigeration hold-over medium being cooled by heat exchange with the cooling fluid prior to the transfer of pressurized gas to the tank, the refrigeration hold-over medium being selectively cooled by heat exchange with a cold cooling fluid circuit, wherein the refrigeration hold-over medium forms and fills a gap between the cooling fluid of the cold cooling fluid circuit and the pressurized gas of a hot circuit, the gap having a thickness of greater than 5 mm, and wherein, during a transfer of pressurized gas to the tank to be filled, the cooling fluid is simultaneously made to flow, for heat exchange with the refrigeration hold-over medium, with a specified flow rate, this cooling fluid flow rate corresponding to a cooling power of less than an instantaneous cooling power needed to cool the amount of pressurized gas flowing during the transfer at any given moment down to the target temperature, the degree to which the cooling power of the cooling fluid flow rate is less than the instantaneous cooling power is provided by the pre-cooled refrigeration hold-over medium.