Nitrogen Gas - N2

NITROGEN GAS

Nitrogen makes up the major portion of the atmosphere (78.03% by volume, 75.5% by weight). Gaseous nitrogen is inert, colourless, odourless, tasteless, nontoxic, noncorrosive, and non-flammable. Nitrogen is inert and will not support combustion; however, it is not life supporting.

Nitrogen is inert except when heated to very high temperatures, where it combines with some of the more active metals, such as lithium and magnesium, to form nitrides. It will also combine with oxygen to form oxides of nitrogen and when combined with hydrogen in the presence of catalysts, will form ammonia.

Since gaseous nitrogen is inert, special materials of construction are not normally required. Vessels and piping must be selected and designed to withstand the pressure and temperatures involved and comply with applicable codes and regulations.

Industrial Applications

One of the main applications of nitrogen is blanketing, purging and sparging in the food and chemical industries. It can also be found in modified atmosphere packages (MAP) for foodstuffs. In liquid form, it is an agent to shock-freeze food, store biological material, perform cryosurgery and cryogenically grind plastics and rubbers, for instance.

In the semiconductor industry, N2 is used in large quantities as a purge and carrier gas. In electronics, it acts as an inerting agent for epitaxial reactors. It is also useful as a carrier, zero and balancing gas in laboratory analysis. Other common applications include heat treatment, the production of ammonia, fire extinguishing in mines, tyre filling, shrink-fitting and cold traps, where nitrogen can help to increase vacuum efficiency.

We offer the full range of Tanks, Portacryo Tanks & liquid cylinders and on-site solutions to meet all volume and purity requirements.