Industrial Application of Gas Plants

The final output that is formed in gas plants whether in solid, liquid or gaseous form is used in various industrial applications. All types of gases be it oxygen or nitrogen or any other gas have some kind of applications in various industries whether in construction, cutting, welding, purification or processing. Gas plants are used in diverse applications. The various industries served by different gas plants (oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, acetylene, argon, methane etc.) are as follows:

 

Chemical Industry	Laboratories & Analysis
Pharmaceutical Industry	Oil and Gas Industry
Food and Beverage Industry	Welding, Cutting & Coating
Glass, Cement and Lime Industry	Electronics Industry
Health Care Industry	Automotive & Transportation
Metals Industry

 

Chemical Industry

• Oxygen: In the chemical industry, oxygen is required to improve the output of a large number of petrochemical processes. Pure oxygen is used in chemical oxidation reactions like the production of ethylene dichloride (EDC), propylene oxide (PO), ethylene oxide (EO), titanium dioxide (TiO2), ferric sulfate. Oxygen is also used in de-bottlenecking of air-based processes and in the production of synthesis gas (H2/CO).
• Nitrogen: Nitrogen is used for blanketing in the chemical industry. It is also used as storage for protecting raw materials or finished products in liquid form, regeneration of purification beds, preparing catalysts and transporting polymer powders. It is also used to control temperature in reactors.
• Carbon dioxide: This gas is used in synthesis chemistry. It is used for controlling reactor temperatures. The gas can neutralize alkaline effluents. Carbon dioxide is also used for purifying or dying polymer, animal or vegetable fibers under supercritical conditions.

 

Pharmaceutical Industry

• Oxygen: This is used in chemical synthesis. In pharmaceutical industry, oxygen is required for enrichment of air during fermentation. It is used for treatment of wastewater. Another application is in flame sealing of glass ampules for finished products
• Nitrogen: It is used for inerting and cryo-grinding. Nitrogen is also used in lyophilisation, drying, liquid phase transfer of products. Cryo-condensation of waste gases and low temperature storage also make use of nitrogen
• Carbon dioxide: In pharmaceutical industry, for inerting, chemical synthesis, supercritical fluid extraction , product transportation at low temperature, acidification of wastewater, CO2 is used
• Nitrous oxide: This gas is used as gas propellant for aerosols packaging.

 

Food and Beverage Industry

• Oxygen: Oxygenation of fish-breeding tanks.
• Nitrogen: Liquid nitrogen is a highly demanded cryogenic fluid, to freeze, chill or store food products. Gaseous nitrogen, on the other hand, is used in contact with foodstuffs to prevent oxidation or micro-organism growth.
• Hydrogen: This is used for the production of polyester, plastics, and nylon. It is also used in the hydrogenation of amines and food oils and fatty acids.
• Carbon dioxide: This gas is used in the food and beverage industry for carbonation of fizzing beverages, packaging of foodstuffs, to increase the shelf life of many food products. Carbon dioxide in dry form , known as dry ice, is used for temperature control during the distribution of foodstuffs.
• Argon: The argon gas is used in a controlled atmosphere in most applications. It is used in place of nitrogen. Its solubility and certain molecular characteristics make it special for use with vegetables.

 

Glass, Cement and Lime industry

• Oxygen: Besides all oxy-combustion process, oxygen is used in the glass melting
• Nitrogen: This gas is used as an inert gas. In the float glass process, in combination with hydrogen, nitrogen creates a reductive atmosphere over the tin bath.
• Hydrogen: An active gas. Used with nitrogen to form a reductive atmosphere over the tin bath in the float glass process. It is also used for heat treatment of the hollow glass and pre-forms optic fibers
• Acetylene: This gas is used in automatic lubrification for glass bottle production molding
• Argon: Used for the filling of double glazing enclosures which can lead to high performance thermal isolation.

 

Health Care Industry

• Oxygen: Oxygen is one of the most essential requirement in any health care unit. For treatment of respiratory insufficiencies and resuscitation and for treatment of carbon monoxide poisoning, oxygen is used. Small portable oxygen units are gaining wide use in homes
• Nitrogen: Nitrogen is used in health care industry for low-temperature preservation of living tissues and cells.
• Carbon dioxide: This gas is used to create form atmospheres for the operation of artificial organs. In a mixture of oxygen or air as respiratory stimulant, carbon dioxide is used to promote deep breathing. It is also used for the surgical dilation.

 

Metals industry

• Oxygen: The largest user of oxygen is the iron and steel industry. For decarburization of hot metal to produce steel, to enrich blast furnace air, for secondary smelting and non ferrous primary production etc., oxygen is widely used in the metal industry.
• Hydrogen: Hydrogen creates reductive atmosphere for various heat treatment processes.
• Carbon Dioxide: Used for red fume suppression during scrap. It is also used in carbon charging, for nitrogen pick-up reduction and for bottom stirring. Carbon dioxide is used for fume suppression in the non ferrous metallurgy. Liquid CO2 is used in water recycling from acid mine drainage.
• Argon: Used to prevent contact between liquid metal and the surrounding atmosphere. Argon is used in melt stirring, in purging to prevent steel re-oxidation and also used in secondary steel refining in vacuum degassers. Argon can also be used in decarburising raw high-chromium steels while minimizing the chromium oxidation.

 

Laboratories & Analysis

• Oxygen: Used with other gas mixtures for environmental emission monitoring, industrial hygiene or and trace impurity analyzers. It measures the PCI of hydrocarbons or coal and in oxidation reactions.
• Nitrogen: For various industrial and hospital analyses and quality control nitrogen is used as a carrier gas in gas chromatography. It acts as the balance gas of the calibration gas mixtures used in environmental monitoring systems and industrial hygiene gas mixtures. It is also a blanket gas for analyzers or chemical reactors

 

Oil and Gas Industry

• Oxygen: To enrich air of regeneration of Fluid Cracking Catalytic units. Oxygen is used in refinery.
• Nitrogen: Widely used for quality protection of products and facilities, for example blanketing.
• Hydrogen: Desulfurization of fuel-oil and gasoline. · Carbon dioxide: Carbon dioxide is the mobile phase in both extraction and chromatography applications
• Acetylene: The fuel gas in atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS)
• Argon: Used in mixtures or in pure form for industrial and hospital analyses and quality control. Argon is also used as plasma gas in inductive coupled plasma emission spectrometry and as carrier gas in gas chromatography for various detector
• Nitrous oxide: This gas is used as a comburant for the flame in atomic absorption spectrophotometry. It is also used in calibration gas mixtures.
• Methane: In combination with argon, methane is used for the detector in X Ray Fluorescence as quenching gas. In combination with other hydrocarbons, methane is used as reference point for the measurement of PCI of hydrocarbons or coal.

 

Welding, Cutting & Coating

• Oxygen: It is used for heat treatment of various metals. With acetylene or LPG's, oxygen expands the flame properties in flame torches and burners . It also provides an highly effective jet for oxy-cutting carbon steels both low and non alloys.
• Nitrogen: An important component of the special mixtures used in CO2 lasers.
• Acetylene: A versatile fuel gas, it helps in manual applications like brazing, welding, cutting, straightening or any other heating process.
• Argon: This is a shield gas for arc welding, plasma cutting and root shielding. It reduces fume emissions during welding.

 

Electronics

• Oxygen: Used to oxidize certain materials. It can achieve chemical vapor deposition of oxides. Oxygen is also used to make ozone for oxidations or cleaning.
• Nitrogen: A carrier gas used for overall protection against impurities and oxidation in soldering and semiconductor processes. N2 , in its cold and liquid form, is used as a cooling medium in the environmental testing of electronic devices.
• Hydrogen: A carrier gas used in semiconductor processes. For silicon deposition or crystal growing, hydrogen is also used as a scavenger gas in atmosphere for soldering, for annealing copper films. The use of forming gases (H2 diluted in N2) allows a complete removal of oxygen and its inconveniences in medium to high temperature processes
• Carbon dioxide: It is used in waste water treatment. A cooling medium, CO2 is used in environmental testing of electronic devices.
• Argon: Used as a carrier gas for reactive molecules. It protects semiconductors against impurities. Under ionic state, the gas is used for ion implantation, annealing, sputtering, and etching processes in semiconductor and even for high performance material manufacturing.

 

Automotive & Transportation Industry

• Nitrogen: Gas Assisted Injection Moulding needs pressures between 10 bar and 200 bar and a nitrogen content of between 98.0 % and 99.9 %. Tires filling with nitrogen has more life and therefore reduces the recycling or treatment of this waste.
• Hydrogen: A carbon-free energy source used in the fuel cells.
• Argon: Argon in pressurized packs is used to inflate car airbags.
• CNG: The most regular used fuel to drive vehicles.

Tags:- Application Of Gas Plants, Gas Plants Application

Add a comment