Dry Air or Nitrogen

Most hydrocarbon liquid and gas systems & pipelines need to be dried after hydrostatic testing or turnarounds. Many systems can be dried using compressed air or super-dry air. Some systems e.g. Ethylene, LNG, Hydrogen etc need to be dried to dewpoints which can only be achieved by using dry nitrogen. Dewpoints as low as minus 60⁰C can be achieved using our mobile nitrogen pumps/vaporizers.

Nitrogen is the most widely used gas in industry and the most common pure element on earth. Nitrogen is a constituent element of air, making up 78% of the atmosphere that surrounds us.  Oxygen is the second largest constituent of air comprising 21%.  Nitrogen occurs naturally as a molecule consisting of two atoms of nitrogen that are held together by a very strong and stable triple bond. This triple bond makes the reaction of nitrogen with any other elements very unlikely, except under conditions of extreme pressures and temperature. This chemical inactivity makes nitrogen a perfect fluid to use in industrial processes and its inertness is key to what makes its use so prevalent.

Nitrogen does not retain water molecules in the form of vapor which makes nitrogen a dry gas with an atmospheric dew point of -94°F. Nitrogen is colorless, odorless, and tasteless, additional characteristics that make it the go-to gas for countless industrial and scientific applications.   

Nitrogen gas is used primarily for the following purposes and all of the nitrogen applications described below take advantage of at least one of these characteristics, many applications depend on all four:

• Prevent oxidation of materials
• Prevent bacteriological growth
• Reduce or remove the risk of fire and explosion
• Provide a dry atmosphere