NITROGEN CHARACTERISTICS
Nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and
inert gas and presents a particular
danger of asphyxiation.
HOW IS DRY NITROGEN
USED FOR PURGING?
Dry nitrogen can be supplied to equipment for through
purging (venting of purge gas) or the more effective single point
pressure purging (NEPS).
WHY USE NITROGEN?
Nitrogen is generally a reliable dry gas, which
is economic, safe (when handled properly) and chemically inert
with most metals and materials.
WHAT IS NITROGEN PURGING?
A method or means of removing the moisture/water
vapor to create a dry environment within equipment or a system.
SOURCES OF NITROGEN
Dry
nitrogen can also be supplied from cryogenic factories and nitrogen
generators.
USES FOR NITROGEN
In
the early years of air separation, oxygen was the most sought
after component for use in the steel industry. This
situation began to change when nitrogen was no longer considered
a waste product and its inert properties could be exploited as
a blanketing gas. Today, nitrogen is used in a host of applications,
including:
- Blanketing
of tanks with flammable or toxic materials
- Blanketing of metal reduction processes
- Purging process equipment
- Medical applications
- Soil freezing prior to excavation
- Various minor uses of gas and liquid nitrogen
- Food freezing
- Finishing of rubber goods
- Cooling in helium or hydrogen plants
- Freeze grinding
- Fragmentation of scrap metal
- Electronics industry
Purging
and blanketing are probably the most popular uses of nitrogen gas. Tanks filled
with hydrocarbon liquids have vapor space in the top of the tank,
which collects hydrocarbon vapors. In atmospheric tanks, air
can be drawn in when emptying the tank and it would be easy to ignite
this by static electricity or friction. Purging the vapor space
with nitrogen prevents this.
HOW DRY IS DRY NITROGEN?
Bottled nitrogen is often specified as dryer than
2 ppm (parts per million) equivalent to a dew point of -94°F
(-70°F). |
