Parker Hannifin's Domnick Hunter Industrial Division has improved its existing range of MIDIGAS nitrogen gas generators. The launch of the enhanced MIDIGAS systems, which complement the proven MAXIGAS range, means that the company has the capability to offer nitrogen generators for low- to high-volume requirements and can now help customers save costs further, and improve their productivity and their profitability.
Nitrogen is used for many different applications throughout industry and the MIDIGAS generators have been designed to offer a simple and cost-effective method of producing high-purity nitrogen in-situ simply from a supply of compressed air. This eliminates the need for traditional and expensive gas storage cylinders, dewars or bulk storage. As a result, customers using MIDIGAS generators can make significant reductions in the cost of using nitrogen, with payback on a MIDIGAS generator claimed to be between 12 and 24 months, and ongoing savings of up to 90 per cent thereafter.
In addition, by producing nitrogen on-site, the latest MIDIGAS generators enable customers to overcome the environmental issues associated with road transport of bottled gas, as well as the unpredictability of fluctuating gas prices.
Each MIDIGAS generator is supplied as an integrated system, has a compact footprint and requires just mains power and compressed air connections. The generators use proven pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology, with pairs of extruded aluminium modular columns filled with high-performance carbon molecular sieves (CMS). These adsorb oxygen preferentially from the compressed air supply, with the larger nitrogen molecules passing through each sieve to a storage vessel, from where the gas can be fed directly to process applications.
During manufacture, the extruded columns are snowstorm filled with CMS. This maximises the packing density and ensures uniform flows, producing a highly efficient method of separation with a continuous nitrogen stream that delivers 5 per cent down to 10ppm oxygen content. The snowstorm filling also improves backflushing to exhaust the adsorbed oxygen and other contaminants from each column.
The operation of each MIDIGAS system is fully automatic, making it easy to setup and use, with the production of nitrogen being determined by the demands of downstream processes. This helps to reduce overall energy consumption and considerably extends the operating life of the unit, which is typically in excess of ten years. Similarly, maintenance costs are low, with only routine maintenance required, while the modular design of the MIDIGAS system enables the installation to be extended as and when nitrogen requirements increase.
MIDIGAS and MAXIGAS units are backed by Parker Domnick Hunter's global network of manufacturing, sales and customer support centres, providing full service, spares and applications expertise. Optional preventative maintenance contracts are also available.
In addition to nitrogen, Parker Domnick Hunter also offers pre-treatment systems such as Oil-X Evolution compressed air filters and PNEUDRI adsorption dryers to provide compressed air to ISO 8573-1:2001 air quality standards.