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Pressure Swing Generators have brought in a revolution of sorts in the burgeoning gas industry. Gone are the days of bulky cylinders that took much space and posed safety hazards. With PSA Generators giving the much needed advantage of on site generation system with high purity, they are becoming increasingly popular. PSA Gas generators have become particularly useful where an uninterrupted supply of gas is a must, especially in distant areas where the delivery of cylinder or liquid supply can be a genuine problem. The continuation of this trend is now inevitable as PSA generators offer the benefits of reliability lesser maintenance requirements, and higher percentage of purities.
Most of the PSA Generators are coming today with the highly sophisticated microprocessor controls. These Microprocessors are able to monitor effectively the output and purity. Perhaps there would only be few areas left that is not touched by the benefits of PSA Gas Generators. Applications can range from say tyre inflation, to food and beverage dispensing to laboratory use. Let us look at the economic factors now.
Economic
factors in favour of PSA Generators:Most customers who opt for gas generators do so for a direct replacement for cylinders or may be a liquid system. Predominantly cost is a major factor. Companies see the Gas cylinder costs as a daily operating expenditure, and account for them in the daily opearting costs in their budget. While on the other hand, the companies consider gas generators as a capital expenditure. This is because of the initial outlay. Cosideration of the total costs associated with gas cylinders, and the economics with regard to gas generators becomes apparent. Besides the cost of the gas used, gas cylinder users also have to incur costs associated with rentals and shipping. In addition there are soft costs which range from purchasing/inventory, labour etc. Now coming back to the Generators. A company that generates its on-site gas genaration system is almost independant of external suppliers, thus eliminating disturbing factors like price variations.
Features of PSA Generators:
- The purity of the outlet product is generally dependent on the flow rate from the columns, with higher flow rates producing lower purities. Typically the purities ranges from 99. 0-99. 999% and even higher.
- This is a physical, and not a chemical process. As a result it produces no hazardous waste.
- Strong Economic Factor in that the basic cost after capital outlay is only electricity.
PSA Generators can come in various sizes also, depending on the type of activity for which it can be utilized. For example, a medium sized oxygen generator may be used for metal cutting and brazing. While a concentrator is used to produce oxygen that is for medical and respiratory needs. Still another kind of generator is the large, almost tonnage sized, for oxygen and nitrogen, that is used to either replace or complement bulk products. Depending on the gas, PSA Gas Generators for our purpose of study can be divided into the following categoroies: