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Nitrogen: The Most Cost-Effective Makeup Gas for Gas Chromatography

Nitrogen: The Most Cost-Effective Makeup Gas for Gas Chromatography
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Nitrogen: The Most Cost-Effective Makeup Gas for Gas Chromatography - 1

Nitrogen: The Most Cost-Effective Makeup Gas for Gas Chromatography aerospace climate control electromechanical filtration fluid & gas handling hydraulics pneumatics process control sealing & shielding

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Nitrogen: The Most Cost-Effective Makeup Gas for Gas Chromatography - 2

Nitrogen: The Most Cost-Effective Makeup Gas for Gas Chromatography Peter Froelich, President Peak Media, Franklin, MA Abstract Helium has been used as a makeup or carrier gas in the gas chromatography process since the 1950s-1960s. However, there are several major disadvantages to helium: it is expensive and the supply can fluctuate, depending on natural gas production and national supply-and-demand factors. Helium is also only available in tanks. Nitrogen, on the other hand, performs just as well as helium as a carrier gas and is far less expensive. The supply of nitrogen gas is unlimited...

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Nitrogen: The Most Cost-Effective Makeup Gas for Gas Chromatography - 3

Gas Separation Membrane Permeate Outer side dense Fiber wall porous Pressurized air Inner side open te Figure 2: Separation of nitrogen via a semi-permeable membrane. poison the catalyst. If halogenated hydrocarbons are present in the compressed air at a level exceeding 5 ppm, an auxiliary activated carbon scrubber can be used to avoid poisoning the catalyst. 3. Particulate filtration. A BQ-grade filter (99.99-percent efficient at 0.01 µ) is placed after the activated carbon filter to ensure that activated carbon particles are removed from the stream. 4. Hydrocarbon removal. A cartridge...

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Nitrogen: The Most Cost-Effective Makeup Gas for Gas Chromatography - 4

5. Elimination of contamination. An in-house nitrogen generator eliminates the possibility of introducing foreign materials when a new tank is installed. When a tank is used to provide nitrogen, the user must periodically break the connection between the supply and the detector to install a new tank, which could lead to the introduction of materials from the atmosphere that would have a negative impact on the FID measurement. Becoming Lean There is no question that in-house nitrogen gas generation saves money after the initial investment is recovered, typically within about one year. What...

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