Remote liquid nitrogen | Stirling Cryogenics
Remote liquid nitrogen production
How to get liquid nitrogen on site?
The requirement of liquid nitrogen for an application can complicate your business.
First problem can be to get liquid nitrogen to your facility. Several possibilities exist.
Everybody would prefer to get liquid nitrogen easily and hassle free and thus the first option is to call a liquid nitrogen bulk supplier. Most industrial regions worldwide have one or more liquid nitrogen bulk suppliers who generally are very keen to suply the liquid nitrogen.
The problem can become a complicated issue when:
- your location is in a city centre and difficult to reach by the cryogenic supply vehicle
- your location is far from an industrial area and the transport vehicle needs a long time to reach your premises
- roads and transport conditions in your region are difficult (bad roads, environmental conditions etc.) that make liquid nitrogen supply unreliable
- your liquid nitrogen consumption is too small to be of interest to a bulk supplier
Whenever one of the above mentioned factors applies to you a bulk supplier will decide either not to deliver or to ask very high prices for the delivery of the needed liquid nitrogen.
The solution to the above mentioned problems is to produce your own liquid nitrogen on-site. With one of the StirLITE/StirLIN range of liquid nitrogen production plants you can produce your own liquid nitrogen close to the application and the only thing you have to put into the system is electricity or fuel for an electricity generator. The raw material for liquid nitrogen is free ambient air. The Stirling plants are sized to exactly fit a wide range of liquid nitrogen consumption patterns. The fact that these machines are fully automatic and have a long mean time between maintenance (MTBF) will give you the so needed hassle free liquid nitrogen.
Liquid nitrogen for remote situations
A StirLIN liquid nitrogen plant was installed on the German vessel Maria S. Merian. This ship is operated by the German Institute for Marine Sciences and sails around the world for marine research.The StirLIN makes the scientists on board completely independent of space consuming longtime LN2 storage required for their scientific research during longer journeys at sea. Logistic problems associated with LN2 supply in remote harbors are no longer a cause for delay thus increasing the number of days at sea.
Products
For use in applications as described the following Stirling Cryogenics products may be considered:
LN2 plants for medical research facilities
Liquid nitrogen is widely used all over the world for its cryogenic properties which allow long term storage of biological samples. Storage of products such as blood, tissues, stem cells, viruses etc. in liquid nitrogen can ensure their long-term viability and supports not only medical research but also procedures as IVF and blood transfusion.
Using liquid nitrogen is easier said then done. Especially in developping countries where there is no supply chain of liquid nitrogen from bulk suppliers. How to obtain this liquid nitrogen is then a question which needs to be answerred. A solution to this problem is to produce liquid nitrogen with an on-site liquid nitrogen production plant.
Liquid nitrogen production is a process that starts with separating the nitrogen gas (78%) from the ambient air. Once the nitrogen gas is dried and cleaned from dust it is liquified. Stirling Cryogenics manufactures liquid nitrogen production plants with PSA air separation units and Stirling cycle liquefiers. Combining a PSA system with a Stirling cycle liquefier results in highly efficient liquid nitrogen production plants where electric power is the only required utility.
The liquid nitrogen is stored in a storage tank connected to the liquefier forming a completely automatic unit where no operator attention is needed. The liquid nitrogen can be withdrawn from the storage tank by a flexible hose to fill smaller size dewars. Systems can also be offered with completely automated filling systems to maintain customers applications full of liquid nitrogen.
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