Which nitrogen purity class do I need?
Often you will hear from industrial gas suppliers and nitrogen generator manufacturers that all applications require 99.999% nitrogen. That makes sense, of course: Almost every application works with this high nitrogen quality because it guarantees minimal contamination in the operating medium. However, the fact is often forgotten that the requirements for the nitrogen purity class are based on the special application conditions - and the purer the nitrogen required, the higher the costs.
The question now arises: does your application even need nitrogen of the purity class 99.999%? If not, why are you paying for it?
Nitrogen purity class: higher quality, higher costs
To illustrate the whole thing, let's assume that your application requires a nitrogen purity of 99.9%. To produce 8 m 3 / hr according to these specifications, you need a compressed air of almost 26 m 3 / hr. However, if we produce 8 m 3 / hr at 99.999% purity, compressed air of almost 45 m 3 / hr is required.
Nitrogen: as pure as necessary, as cheap as possible
If you want better nitrogen, you have to pay more for it. But the cost difference between the quality levels 99.9%, 99.99%, and 99.999% can amount to tens of thousands (even hundreds of thousands) of euros. And why? The purer the nitrogen produced should be, the larger the production facility must be.
This is primarily due to the required flow rate. If you remember our article on the different types of nitrogen generators, you will know that compressed air is required to generate the gas. The purer the nitrogen, the more compressed air you have to push through the sieve or the membrane. For this you need an appropriately sized compressor. And we don't even want to start with the rest of the equipment (drying system, drainage openings and air reservoir).
To illustrate the whole thing, let's assume that your application requires a nitrogen purity of 99.9%. To produce 8 m 3 / hr according to these specifications, you need a compressed air of almost 26 m 3 / hr. However, if we produce 8 m 3 / hr at 99.999% purity, compressed air of almost 45 m 3 / hr is required.
Nitrogen: as pure as necessary, as cheap as possible
You should therefore always check carefully which purity class a particular application requires. And by that we mean not just a rough area of activity, but very specific properties. If you know these parameters, you can order exactly the right nitrogen purity class (or produce it yourself, as described in our article) and save money.
Do you know what nitrogen your applications require? Our nitrogen generation experts will be happy to help you determine the requirements.