Nitrogen generator has been helpful to numerous people in the pharmaceutical, food and beverages, and electronics industry. Generating nitrogen onsite is a better choice than gas deliveries. Compared to the nitrogen tanks and bottles, a nitrogen generator helps by reducing the overall cost and gets the work in limited time. Nitrogen generator membrane system, on the other hand, used the membrane technology to separate nitrogen from other gases present in the air, guaranteeing purity. While the terms may sound too technical, it is much easier when understood. And to help you out, we have prepared this blog to help you understand the basic types of nitrogen generator systems for power plants.

As clearly the term says nitrogen generator, it does not generate or create nitrogen. These generators use the nitrogen that is already present in the air and purify it by getting rid of the additional molecules. As taught in science, the air contains 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen and other gases. The other gases include gases like carbon dioxide, argon, and water vapour. Traces of methane, helium, krypton, and hydrogen are also found in the air.

When we talk about separating nitrogen from the air, we need to understand that there are more ways to do it. Apart from the nitrogen generator membrane system, the other one that is commonly used is the Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) technology.

1. Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) technology: 

PSA technology also helps in removing the extra molecules. In PSA technology, the unwanted molecules are absorbed to separate the nitrogen. The PSA nitrogen generator is made up of two towers that contain molecular sieve, particularly made of carbon. This carbon molecular sieve acts as the soaks up the nitrogen and oxygen molecules when the air is pressurized in one of the towers. All the additional, unwanted molecules are then released out into the atmosphere after the nitrogen molecules have been separated. The pure nitrogen produced is then used to remove moisture in the power plants and helps in averting corrosion.

2. Membrane Nitrogen Systems:

The nitrogen generator membrane systems are known for producing the purest nitrogen, which is 99.5%. The membrane technology is used by companies to separate gases from nitrogen, including oxygen distinctly. In the membrane technology, compressed air is forced into a vessel. This vessel has a tube-like structure surrounded by polymeric hollow fiber. This polymeric fiber selectively pervades water vapour, oxygen, and other unwanted substances out of the walls. This allows the nitrogen to pass through the center easily and gets collected together outside. This helps the power plant owners to enjoy the plenty of gas produced with minimal maintenance.

3. Custom Nitrogen Systems:

Some of the power plants need customized nitrogen generators according to the needs. Here companies like Oil and Gas Systems International play an important role in providing the required nitrogen system, according to the client's need.

Nitrogen generators take less than a day to get installed and help you collect pure nitrogen cost-effectively. You may not be using the power plants all the time. Using nitrogen generators you can now prevent oxidization and rust when not in use.

Use of Nitrogen in Oil Extraction

Under normal circumstances, only 15% of the oil can be extracted from an oil well. This low efficiency is caused by the pressure produced by the oil well. To increase the efficiency of the extraction, oil companies deploy a number of methods such as gas lift and stimulation but these methods have a very negative impact on the environment and only improve the efficiency by not more than 50%.

Nitrogen is a natural gas that is perfect for re-pressurizing oil wells because of its inert gas properties. Moreover, being an inert gas, Nitrogen does not have any corrosive effect on the drilling equipment and is suitable for use in acidic as well as the saline environment. Nitrogen also helps in displacing oxygen in the drilling rigs and thus reduces the chances of oxidation.

Nitrogen generators help in increased pressure in the oil well during the extraction process to improve the efficiency. They can be used in depleted oil wells as well to extract hard-to-recover oil and increase the efficiency of oil extraction in depleted reservoirs by more than 180%.

Functioning of Nitrogen Generators

Nitrogen generators don't create Nitrogen but actually separate it from other elements. They use various methods to segregate nitrogen from the rest of the gases.

There are two methods that are used to separate gaseous in the air which are, Pressure Swing Adsorption and Nitrogen generator membrane system.

Adsorption Based Generators

These kinds of generators work by using compressed air to generate a continuous stream of nitrogen gas. The high pressured air is passed through carbon molecular sieve in the first cylinder which absorbs the oxygen molecules, and the remaining nitrogen gas is passed to the second cylinder while the first cylinder vents out the contaminants, mainly oxygen.

This method is mostly deployed for enhanced oil recovery, extraction, and underbalanced drilling operations.

Membrane-Based Generators 

A Nitrogen generator membrane system works by filtering air and passes it through advanced membrane fibers. The hollow fibers function as reverse filters. Oxygen moves easily throughout the fiber walls, but nitrogen gets caught inside the fibers and passes to the end of the fiber tubes. As a result, compressed gaseous nitrogen is generated.

The purity of Nitrogen can be altered by using various membrane sizes and increasing or decreasing the air pressure.

Compared to membrane-based generators, adsorptive nitrogen generators have a higher purity and low energy consumption. But adsorptive nitrogen generators need much larger space on the site and require more maintenance.

Buy Membrane Nitrogen Generator for Your Processing Unit of Oil and Gas System

Membrane nitrogen generator is used to provide nitrogen for production or production unit with a purity level ranging between 90% to 99.999%. Oil and Gas Systems International provides membrane nitrogen generator with customizable solution depending on the needs of the plant system capacity, required concentration and output pressure.

Get membrane nitrogen generator to extract pure nitrogen out of the atmospheric air on-site

Nitrogen generation systems are used to extract pure nitrogen out of the atmospheric air on-site. Oil and Gas Systems International provides membrane nitrogen generator based nitrogen generation technology compressed air passes through special tubular membranes which consist of a large quantity of hollow fibers.