Patent ID: 8656938

Claim:
A method of reducing rupture damage to a liner of a fuel cell tank during fueling with compressed gas comprising: providing a supply of compressed gas; providing a storage tank defining the liner therein with a fueling line, and a nozzle in the fueling line, the nozzle movable between at least a flow reduction position and a full fuel flow position; providing a controller configured to determine a calculated tolerance margin comprising a minimum pressure, a signal tolerance, a degradation and a safety margin; using the calculated tolerance margin in conjunction with the controller to initiate a low pressure fueling from the supply of compressed gas with the nozzle in the flow reduction position until the minimum pressure of approximately 20 bar within the storage tank is obtained after which the nozzle is moved to the full fuel flow position to deliver a high pressure fueling; fueling the storage tank from the supply of compressed gas with the nozzle in the full fuel flow position until fueling is completed wherein the initiating of the low pressure reduces a tendency of the liner to rupture through lower impact force between the liner and a surface of the fuel cell tank.