Liquified gas evaporator

Claim 1

An evaporator for converting a liquified gas into a heated gas to be supplied to a gas dispensing system, said evaporator comprising: A. a pressure vessel provided at its lower end with a base plate and at its upper end with a top plate, said vessel having an unimpeded inlet pipe adapted to be coupled to a source of liquified gas to feed liquified gas into the vessel to form a pool therein, from which pool gas is evaporated to fill the space thereabove in said vessel to create gas pressure therein, said inlet pipe passing through said top plate and terminating near said base plate, and an outlet pipe to supply the gas evaporated from said pool to said system in accordance with the demand thereof, said outlet pipe being coupled to said top plate and communicating with an opening therein, B. a heat pipe vertically mounted in said vessel and in contact with said pool, the lower end of said pipe extending through said base plate below the bottom of said vessel to expose the evaporator section of the pipe, and C. means to apply heat to said evaporator section whereby said heat is transferred to the section of said pipe within said vessel in contact with said pool to boil said liquified gas and to convert it into a heated gas to be supplied to said system, said pool reaching an equilibrium level in said pressure vessel at which the rate of liquified gas being converted into gas equals the rate at which liquified gas enters the vessel through said inlet pipe, after which further evaporation of said gas from said pool results in an increase in gas pressure in said vessel forcing the liquified gas to flow back out of said vessel through said inlet pipe to said source.