A Sustainable Approach to the Supply of Nitrogen Peter Froehlich, PhD aerospace climate control electromechanical filtration fluid & gas handling hydraulics pneumatics process control sealing & shielding BaLston ENGINEERING YOUR SUCCESS.

Nitrogen (N2) is commonly employed in both industrial and analytical applications where it is desired or necessary to exclude oxygen and moisture. Typical industrial applications include laser cutting, modified atmosphere packaging, aluminum degassing, ink, edible oil and chemical blanketing, and boiler layup. Applications that use nitrogen in the laboratory include gas chromatography (GC), liquid chromatography with mass spectroscopy detection (LCMS), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy (ICP), glove boxes, and blanketing of reactions that require...

The hollow fiber used to separate nitrogen from air has a small internal diameter. Thousands of fibers are bundled together to provide a large surface area to provide the desired flow of nitrogen (Figure 2). In a typical system, a high-purity gas greater than 99.5% N2 at a flow rate of hundreds of cubic feet per minute at an outlet pressure of 100 psig can be obtained. Nitrogen generation using an in-house pressure swing adsorption system. Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technology is used to separate nitrogen from oxygen based on the preferential adsorb-tion and desorption of oxygen and other...

for fractional distillation and operation of the compressor is very dependent on local considerations (fossil fuels, nuclear, wind, biomass, etc.), while the energy required for transport of the gas to the end user is derived from fossil fuels. The use of a hollow fiber membrane or PSA for the generation of nitrogen utilizes significantly less energy and hence generates less greenhouse gas than fractional distillation. Additionally, less energy is required for the isolation of the gas, and no transportation of heavy bottles is required. Comparing the cost of bottled nitrogen and nitrogen obtained...