By Emily Newton at revolutionized.com
Because Earth’s atmosphere has around 21% oxygen, the expectation for compressed air canisters is the same. While it is abundant in this composition, the high oxygen concentration is less than ideal in environments with a lot of machinery or sensitive products. Process engineers in industries such as chemicals, food, pharmaceuticals and more need to maintain high air purity. Otherwise, oxidation could jeopardise equipment efficiency or output quality. Transitioning to nitrogen gas for oxidation prevention could solve these pain points.
Product Spoilage and Contamination in Food and Pharmaceutical Industries
An inert gas like nitrogen is ideal for countless production environments. For perishables such as food and medicines, it is the primary driver of degradation and spoilage. Oxygen encourages microbes to grow, leading to rapid discolouration, poor nutritional value and a rotten flavour.
Consider a potato chip manufacturer that has been battling stale flavours in single-serving bags. Injecting compressed air into the product could be the reason this has been a common customer complaint. Many companies use oxygen absorbers to prevent these issues, but nitrogen compressors could reduce the need for these entirely.
Spoilage is particularly critical, especially as precision medicine continues to grow. Personalised therapies and medications often require specific conditions to remain fresh until they reach the patient. With the costs ranging from an average of $56,694 in West Europe to $263,092 in North America, losing medicines to oxidation is a monumental setback.
Degradation and Unwanted Reactions in Chemical and Medical Industries
Oxygen is highly reactive despite being unnoticeable in the air. It can even lead to unintended side effects with chemicals and medicines. Much like how oxygen can erode food’s nutrition, it can also degrade any active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), ruining the drug’s effectiveness or causing contamination. This could make expensive drugs noncompliant or even dangerous to patients if doctors administered them. Oftentimes, oxidation exposure occurs during production, but it can also occur in transit.
Financial losses are evident, as many bespoke concoctions need to be thrown out, wasting significant expensive resources and labour. Additionally, the discarded batches require careful disposal. This is also true in the chemical industry, where the active ingredients in these products are less effective due to oxidation. If professionals improperly dispose of chemicals and medicines, process engineers and their companies could incur greater financial losses from regulatory fines, lawsuits or reputational damage from recalls.
Corrosion of Pneumatic Instruments and Piping
Manufacturing process engineers would want to replace compressed air with nitrogen since it can lead to rust and corrosion. The mixture of oxygen, moisture and other elements can exacerbate rust formation, making it dangerous to use pneumatic instruments. It becomes particularly hazardous when corrosion forms around batteries and electronic components. Additionally, the deterioration of everything from cylinders to valves is a safety concern.
Corrosion is a silent yet hefty threat to financial stability, costing the planet over $2.5 trillion annually. Many of these costs are preventable by removing the stimuli that lead to rust, such as the elements in a compressed air canister. These costs accumulate and compound because workers have to repeatedly replace components like pipes and more. The cost of parts, labour and downtime harms everyone when organisations could default to an inert gas like nitrogen instead.
Inconsistent Product Quality and Process Variability
Compressed air systems exhibit inconsistent moisture and oxygen levels. While variances are not significant on paper, these deviations lead to mixed performance. This could eventually result in varied product output, requiring more intense quality control and labour to ensure everything is suitable for sale. Inert nitrogen is more reliable. A nitrogen air compressor is also more accurate than alternatives, as it amplifies previously compressed air with higher pressures.
Any manufacturer making a highly replicable item, such as plastic bottles, can see how compressed air can lead to excess waste. If moisture or oxygen is present at unexpected concentrations, it could change everything about the mould, from its shape to its colour. From batch to batch, there would be noticeable changes, unless the maker used an inert gas.
Biofilm Growth in Water Treatment
Wastewater treatment plants must contend with numerous contaminants, substances and microbes, using multiple methods to eliminate each unique threat to safe, clean water. Many microbes, algae and biofilm thrive in wastewater. This provides an opportunity for plants to capitalise on them as potential energy, or it could be a costly and cumbersome process for citizens to remove. Oxygen feeds this growth, and regardless of how a facility manages it, the process requires additional infrastructure and workflows.
Using compressed nitrogen would discourage the unchecked growth of harmful and contaminating microbes, especially when it leads to biofilm formation. The slimy layer reduces water quality, but it also accumulates on pipes and machinery, shortening their lifespans and reducing their efficiency. This could strain energy systems, causing higher consumption and utility bills.
Increased Fire and Explosion Hazard
Nitrogen gas for oxidation prevention also prioritises the workforce’s health and well-being. High levels of oxidation from compressed air can create an oxygen-rich environment, increasing the risk of ignition. This could be a food manufacturer’s stray flour on the production floor or a layer of powdered metals on a machine for an automotive maker. Oxygen could even cause solvents to ignite, leading to explosions, damaged infrastructure, lost product, and, most importantly, injuries to employees.
Dust is present in every facility and has become a focus for researchers, as it can lead to safety incidents across sectors. One of the factors for prevention is inherently safer design and safeguard effectiveness, which compressed nitrogen systems support. While comprehensive safety requires a multipronged approach, preventing oxidation with nitrogen could reduce long-term business shutdowns and legal liabilities.
Nitrogen vs. Compressed Air Systems in Practice
Compressed air is more accessible and affordable, especially for enterprise-level applications. However, process engineers should consider a gradual transition to a nitrogen-based alternative. While it may cost more up-front, the long-term financial savings from reduced oxidation speeds will free corporations to spend more time, money and effort on core operations, rather than on quality control errors and maintenance-related downtime. The inert nature remains ideal for these applications and has been embraced by the most forward-thinking industries.
