What are the ways to transport industrial gases?

What are the ways to transport industrial gases?

Industrial gases can be supplied by using a range of different methods. Using a portable gas cylinder that operates at very high pressures, is one way of transporting gases. They are also supplied in tanks, which hold the gas as a cryogenic liquid at very low temperatures. However, the key factors that determine the most appropriate and cost-effective gas supply mode include the pressure, volume, and flow rate of the gases. Most industrial gases are supplied as high-pressure gas or low-pressure gas in cylinders. These cylinders have a limited volume of gas but are easy to transport whenever required.

Gases that remain liquefied at low temperature can be supplied either in cryogenic vessels or in large tanks which can hold tens of thousands of liquid gases. Another option is on-site supply systems which are built around standardized components to ensure maximum cost efficiencies.

Such systems are used for the supply of oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen gases. For customers requiring larger quantities customized solutions are provided.

Cylinders Cylinders that are used to store gases are constructed from materials capable of withstanding these pressures. An industrial gas cylinder is usually made of high-strength steel or aluminum, but modern composite cylinders are lightweight. Gases like oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, argon, and helium can be easily compressed into a cylinder at a pressure of up to 300 bar for cylinders suppliers.

Several fuel gases are supplied in liquid form at room temperature. These are stored at lower pressure in thin-walled aluminum cylinders, acetylene being an exception which needs to be stored in a cylinder containing a porous mass within which the gas is held in a carrier solvent.

On-site supply These supply systems are built around standardized components to ensure maximum cost efficiencies. If you want to cut down the costs involved in engineering, building, installing, and maintaining on-site gas supply, standardized design and dimensions play an important role. This type of supply system offers minimal capital expenditure, cuts operations costs and consumption of utilities such as energy and water.

Drum tanks Drum tanks are used for the storage of a wide range of low to medium pressure packaged gases, which are usually packaged chemicals or refrigerants. Gases stored in drum tanks meet the needs of the customers whose demand is too high to be managed with cylinder supply, but lower than delivery by bulk tanks. They minimize the need for portable gas cylinder handling, changeovers, and site transport and minimize the space requirements.

Pipelines

Pipelines are the preferred method of supply when there are extremely large amounts of gases for their production purposes continuously. This can be done by setting up a production plant next to an individual customer, or several production plants can be connected to a pipeline network that serves many customers. Gases that are supplied by this technique include oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide.

The bottom line Since most gases are gaseous at ambient temperature and pressure, they are supplied as compressed gases. The above transportation techniques, especially the industrial gas cylinder, are the most common ones that are used to transport compressed gases.