Gas Generators

Compressed gases, such as nitrogen and hydrogen, have become an integral part of any laboratory. Gas generators are used to supply purge gas, carrier gas, and fuel gas for instruments such as FT-IR, gas chromatography, TOC, NMR, and thermal analyzers. In addition, gases are used for solvent evaporation, purging of laser gas chambers, used with autosamplers, and blanketing of solvents and samples.

Worldwide Gas Generator Demand

Gas generators employ different technologies, depending on the gas and type of purity of the gas needed. In many instances, gas generators are used to create gases of very high purity (99.99999+%) with the use of membranes and specialized adsorbents. Major types of gas generators include nitrogen, hydrogen, TOC, zero air, oxygen, and ozone generators.

Gas generators are fast becoming the preferred method of gas supply for many laboratories for a variety of reasons. One of the biggest reasons being the convenience of having an unlimited gas supply at any point in time as opposed to the traditional way of supplying gas through pre-filled cylinders, which can run out. Safety is another issue when it comes to gas. Gas generators allow analytical researchers to constantly make their own gas thereby eliminating the need to store containers, which might otherwise prove dangerous should there be a leak.

SDi estimates that North America accounts for about 38% of the worldwide demand, followed by Europe and Japan with 30% and 17%, respectively.

The foregoing data was extracted and adapted from SDi's Market Brief Gas Generators published in 2008. For more information, contact Glenn Cudiamat, VP of Research Services, Strategic Directions International, Inc., 6242 Westchester Parkway, Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90045, tel. (310) 641-4982, fax (310) 641-8851, e-mail:cudiamat@strategic-directions.com