Patent ID: 8874388

Claim:
A system for determining a rate of flow of an output from a vessel, the system comprising: a vessel having a fixed volume of storage, the vessel comprising an inlet for receiving output produced by an output generation device, wherein the output generation device is a pressure swing adsorption system having a standby mode and an operational mode, the standby mode occurring any time the output generation device is not generating output and the operational mode occurring any time the output generation device is generating output; a measuring device for measuring a first pressure and a second pressure in the vessel, the first pressure measured when the output generation device enters the standby mode and the second pressure measured when the output generation device enters the operational mode, the standby mode of the output generation device establishes a start time of a time period and the operational mode establishes a stop time of the time period, wherein during the time period a variable amount of output is released from the vessel; and a programmable logic controller configured to calculate a rate of flow of the output from the vessel, wherein an amount of flow of the output from the vessel is calculated using the first pressure and the second pressure, and the rate of flow is then calculated using the amount of flow of the output from the vessel, the start time of the time period and the stop time of the time period.