Nitrogen is needed for a wide range of industrial and military applications. Therefore, operators and workers need a stable supply of gas. Unlike delivering nitrogen through cylinders or cans, an on-site nitrogen generator offers many advantages, including lower operating costs, less maintenance, and increased safety.
This article provides an overview of small nitrogen generators. Nitrogen generators and stations, stationary or mobile nitrogen production complexes from the air. It produces nitrogen gas on-site in a wide range of facilities. We have nitrogen generators that can be used even in remote areas.
How do membrane nitrogen generators work?
Atmospheric air contains 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. Conventional dry industrial air compressor is filtered and passed through advanced hollow membrane filaments where the nitrogen is separated from the feed air by selective permeation. Water vapor and oxygen quickly enter the atmosphere, and nitrogen is released under pressure into the gas distribution system. Pressure, flow rate, and membrane size/size are the main variables affecting nitrogen production. Nitrogen purity (oxygen content) is controlled by leakage through membrane bags.
Increasing the nitrogen flow at the membrane pressure and size allows more oxygen to remain in the flow and lower nitrogen purity. Conversely, purity increases with decreasing nitrogen flow. A higher air pressure in the membrane leads to a higher nitrogen flow rate for a given purity. Potential purity ranges from less than 90% to 99.9%.
By combining multiple membrane packages, multiple flow/purity ranges are available for any application requiring nitrogen gas.
Benefits
- Economic Benefits: Nitrogen -Stocking usually exceeds 50 % by changing cryogenic systems or absorption. The clean value of nitrogen complexes is much less than the price of a liquid cylinder or liquefied nitrogen.
- Size -Design: In the case of simplicity, the nitrogen -generator can be divided into blocks. It is different from the classic systems designed for the equipment for a specific separation process step. Using a modular system, production facilities can be built from a set of already existing equipment and, if necessary, increase the plant’s productivity with minimal costs. This option is advantageous if the project foresees a future plant capacity increase or requires on-site nitrogen production using existing equipment.
Drawbacks
- Limited capacity
- Relatively low purity compared to PSA installations (purity 95% to 99% compared to 99.9995% – high purity applications at low flow rates ≤ 10 l/min)
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Application of nitrogen generators
Food and beverage industry: The aging process starts from producing food or drink or when fruits and vegetables are harvested until the products are fully decomposed. This is caused by chemical reactions with oxygen, bacteria, and other organisms. Generators fill products with N2, which replaces oxygen and significantly increases product life because these organisms cannot produce it. In addition, oxidation can destroy or stop the chemical spoilage of food.
Analytical chemistry: Nitrogen generators are required for various types of analytical chemistry, such as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and gas chromatography, where a stable and continuous supply of nitrogen is essential.
Airplane and car tires: Although air is 78% nitrogen, most airplane tires are filled with pure nitrogen. Many auto and tire stores have nitrogen generators for filling tires. The advantage of using nitrogen is that the tank is dry. The compressed air tank often contains water, which forms due to the condensation of atmospheric vapor in the tank after the air is released from the compressor. Nitrogen is dry and has a slightly higher molecular weight (155 µm) than O2 (152 pm), so it does not penetrate the tire as easily and thus maintains a more stable pressure in the heat and cold.
Chemical and petrochemical industry: The first and most important application of nitrogen in the chemical and petrochemical industry is to create an inert environment to ensure general industrial safety while cleaning and protecting process tanks. In addition, nitrogen is used for pressurizing pipelines, transporting chemicals, and regenerating catalysts used in technological processes.
Electronics: In electronics: nitrogen replaces oxygen in producing semiconductors and electric circuits, heat treatment of finished products, cleaning, and purification. The most common application in electronics is the soldering process. Especially selective soldering equipment, flux, and wave.
Glass Industry: In the production of glass, nitrogen is used as a coolant for the electrodes of arc furnaces and to displace oxygen during technological processes.
Metallurgy: The metallurgical industry often uses nitrogen as a preservative for ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Nitrogen can also help in standards such as neutral temperature, cementing, rigid fastening, stress relief, cyanide hardening, metal correlation, and tying.
Paint and lacquer industry: nitrogen uses nitrogen to create a dull environment in technological ships to ensure the safety of color and varnish production, as well as the movement of oxygen during packaging to prevent oil drying.
Petroleum industry: In the petroleum industry, nitrogen is a critical component in many processes. In general, nitrogen is used to create an inert atmosphere to prevent explosions, protect against fire, and support the transport and exchange of hydrocarbons. In addition, nitrogen is used for testing and cleaning pipelines, cleaning technical tanks, and cleaning liquefied gases and hydrocarbon storage.
Pharmaceutical industry: In the pharmaceutical industry, nitrogen is used in pharmaceutical packaging and provides explosion and fire safety in operations where suitable materials are used.
