Nitrogen Generators for On-Site Nitrogen Generation

The air around you is already 78% nitrogen. A nitrogen generator takes clean, dry compressed air, separates the nitrogen from the oxygen and everything else, and delivers it to your process at the purity and pressure you need. Pipe compressed air in, pipe nitrogen out.

For any site using nitrogen regularly, generating it in house removes cylinder rental, delivery charges, re-ordering and the risk of running out mid shift. It also removes the high pressure cylinders and cryogenic vessels from your workplace, along with the tanker movements that come with them.

IATT supplies, installs and services on-site nitrogen generation systems using factory trained engineers located throughout the UK. As an independent air and gas technology company we specify the generator to suit the job rather than the range, and we take care of the ancillary equipment around it as well.

How Nitrogen Generators Work

Compressed air is fed into the generator, which separates the nitrogen from the oxygen, water vapour and trace gases. Which technology suits you depends on the purity and flow your process needs, and on whether you need nitrogen as a gas or as a liquid.

Membrane Nitrogen Generators

Compressed air is passed through bundles of hollow fibre membranes. Under pressure, oxygen, water vapour and other trace gases permeate out through the fibre walls while nitrogen travels along the fibres to the outlet. There are no moving parts, maintenance is minimal and the footprint is small, which suits lower purity applications and compact or remote installations. Multiple units can be connected for larger flow rates. See our membrane nitrogen generators.

PSA Nitrogen Generators

Pressure Swing Adsorption uses twin pressurised towers filled with carbon molecular sieve. Clean, dry compressed air enters at the bottom of one tower, where oxygen and trace gases are adsorbed onto the sieve while the nitrogen passes through into a buffer tank ready for use. After a set period the system switches to the second tower, and the first depressurises and exhausts the adsorbed oxygen to atmosphere. That switching is what gives Pressure Swing its name, and it is what allows continuous supply.

PSA is the choice where higher purity or higher flow is needed, and units can be manifolded together for large volumes. See our PSA nitrogen generators.

Liquid Nitrogen Generators

Where your process needs liquid nitrogen rather than gas, a liquefier produces it on site from a plug and liquefy system with an external compressor and chiller. Our CNP range runs from 10 to 840 litres per day, with a fully integrated design, one button operation and a modular layout that can be extended as demand grows. Because the noisy plant sits outside the unit, they can be installed in research laboratories and cleanrooms. Operators replace filters and carry out routine checks, with maintenance intervals of 13,000 operating hours.

On-site liquefaction removes the dewar deliveries, the storage vessels and the losses to boil-off that come with buying liquid nitrogen in. See our liquid nitrogen generators.

The Cost Case for Generating Your Own Nitrogen

Buying nitrogen in means paying for the gas, the delivery, the cylinder or vessel rental and the administration around ordering. Those costs recur every month and rise as your usage does.

On-site generation replaces them with a single capital investment plus the electricity to run the compressed air feeding it. Payback periods of two to three years are commonly reported across the industry, and the saving continues for the life of the equipment. The case is strongest where a compressed air system is already installed, because the generator connects to infrastructure you have paid for.

Before you commit to anything, we will look at your current nitrogen spend, your consumption and the purity you actually need, and tell you whether generating on site stacks up.

What Your Compressed Air System Needs to Deliver

A nitrogen generator is only as reliable as the air feeding it. Wet, dirty or oily compressed air will shorten the life of a carbon molecular sieve bed and damage membrane fibres, and the first sign is usually purity drifting rather than an obvious failure.

This is where an air treatment specialist is worth more than a box supplier. Alongside the generator itself, we specify and supply the air compressor, air receiver, pre-filtration, dryer and downstream filtration, plus gas control, mixing and analysis where the process calls for it. We can also verify the quality of the air going in, and the nitrogen coming out, through our compressed air quality testing service.

Where On-Site Nitrogen Is Used

• Laser cutting, where nitrogen blows molten material clear and keeps oxygen away from the cut for a clean, oxide free edge
• Food packaging and modified atmosphere packaging, where displacing oxygen protects quality and extends shelf life
• Beverage production, for blanketing during storage and purging lines before bottling
• Chemical processing, for tank blanketing, purging and inerting where flammable vapours are present
• Electronics, for wave and reflow soldering, where an inert atmosphere reduces oxidation defects
• Plastics and injection moulding
• Laboratories, for purging, blanketing, calibration and gas chromatography
• Marine transport, oil and gas, and cylinder refurbishment

Liquid nitrogen has its own set of uses, generally where low temperature rather than inerting is the point:

• Cryogenic sample and biological storage
• Research laboratories, universities and NMR
• Cryogenic freezing and chilling in food production
• Cryopreservation in clinical and veterinary settings
• Shrink fitting and cold treatment in engineering

How IATT Supports On-Site Nitrogen Generation

• Specification and sizing based on your purity, flow and pressure, not on what we happen to stock
• Complete turnkey packages including compressor, receiver, filtration, dryer and pipework
• Installation and commissioning, planned to minimise disruption to production
• Servicing and maintenance by factory trained engineers located across the UK
• Nitrogen and oxygen generation, so a site needing both can deal with one supplier
• Testing and verification of both the compressed air feed and the gas produced

Get in touch today to chat to one of our experienced and knowledgeable staff who can help with any technical or other queries you might have. Request a free quote – we’re happy to help.

Nitrogen Generator FAQs