Patent ID: 6880585

Claim:
A vapor recovery monitoring system that monitors vapor recovered during refueling of a vehicle and returned back to an underground storage tank in a service station environment, comprising: a plurality of fuel dispensing points that deliver fuel from the underground storage tank to the vehicle, wherein said plurality of fuel dispensing points each include at least one meter that measures the amount of fuel flow delivered; at least one vapor flow sensor operatively connected to a vapor return line to measure amounts of vapor flow being returned back to the underground storage tank in aggregate from active fuel dispensing points in said plurality of fuel dispensing points, wherein the number of said at least one vapor flow sensors is less that than the number of said plurality of fuel dispensing points that can be active at any one time; a central electronic control that receives information relating to said amount of fuel flow delivered by said plurality of fuel dispensing points and receives information from said vapor flow sensor relating to said amounts of vapor flow recovered in aggregate from said active fuel dispensing points in said plurality of fuel dispensing points, wherein said central electronic control is capable of determining an estimate of the amount of vapor flow recovered by each of said plurality of fuel dispensing points using said amounts of vapor flow recovered in aggregate from said active fuel dispensing points in said plurality of fuel dispensing points.