Important Information About Nitrogen Generation
Use of nitrogen in the past was considered just a leisure activity, and airplane wheels only, but just like technology, the practice of nitrogen generation is growing, and at a high rate. People are finding various uses for this gas for instance; some car owners prefer to use nitrogen on their car wheels as opposed to normal gas. Some automobile companies are also using nitrogen on their new automobile as the default gas for their wheels.
Generation Using the PSA Method
There are various ways of nitrogen generation, and PSA is the most common method for production of high purity nitrogen. PSA stands for Pressure Swing Absorption, and this is an air-to-nitrogen technology that uses the process of absorption in nitrogen generators. The basic principles used by the PSA technology is the difference in absorption rates of different gases, and requires a constant temperature that is close to its surrounding temperatures.
Using the PSA process, nitrogen is generated and produced at above the atmospheric pressure and is absorbed at below the atmospheric pressure.
Advantages of PSA
Pressure Swing Absorption technology is the best at production of very high purity nitrogen from the atmosphere, whereas membrane systems have no ability of this type of production. The type of technology used to produce a continuous flow of this high purity nitrogen is by the use of CMS. CMS which stands for Carbon Molecular Sieve is normally available with or without internal compressors.
PSA uses have low production and operating costs as opposed to the other nitrogen production technologies. For instance, the net cost of the nitrogen produced by nitrogen generators is much lower than the net cost of liquid nitrogen gas or even bottled nitrogen.
Generation Using the Membrane Method
This concept, unlike the PSA generation which uses different gas pressures for gas separation, uses the difference in gas velocity. To get different gas velocities, then the gases must at least have different gas pressures. So the driving element behind this concept of different gas velocity is different the unique partial pressure of each gas actually.
Advantages of membrane technology
Just like PSA, this is also a less expensive nitrogen production alternative, its cost being much less than is bottled nitrogen gas or liquefied nitrogen gas.
The membrane method of production is fairly easy when compared with other methods and hence can be divided into separate modules during production. This means that equipment and facilities used can easily be built from pre-existing facilities, hence saving production costs.
The membrane method is guaranteed of reliability. The equipment used in the membrane technology is built to be highly resistant to intense vibrations, or shocks, moisture or grease.
The membrane technology has a wide range of temperature acceptance range (from -40 degrees to +60 degrees Celsius) and is capable of lasting for about twenty years when used frequently.
The only two disadvantages that come with this technology are that;
1. Has no ability of producing high purity nitrogen gas like the PSA
2. Its capacity is limited
Its various applications in everyday life include;
1. In food and beverages for preservation
2. Used in aircraft and vehicle wheels, because it has the advantage of being dry when inside a gas tank as opposed to other gasses that do contain moisture when in the tank
3. Analytical chemistry, where there is need for continuous and stable nitrogen gas supply
4. Used as Antioxidants in electronics.
In addition, is also useful in Cooling agents in the glass production industry. There are also cases when it ids used to displace oxygen in the paint industry and petroleum industry.
