Chromatography Forum

Hi,

Anyone out there have experience with zero air generators? Are they as great as they claim to be; are there any hidden issues I should consider before throwing away all my cylinders?

Thanks.

M

The gas generator is good, but the maintenance cost for one year is over 5K. Do the calculation.

we using hydrogen generator and air/nitrogen generator with PE headspace and it is working well

All the zero air generators I am familiar with have an oxidation stage to eliminate the hydrocarbons present in most compressed air supplies. The main problem seems to be with the oxidation module if there is not a good hydrocarbon trap before the generator. Put high capacity traps (indicating is best) for water and hydrocarbons before the the generator, and a high purity trap isn't a bad idea. With a good quality compressed air supply the generators work well. The way I always look at it is the function of the zero air generator is to take air of good purity and make it into air of very high purity, not to take diry air and transform it into clean air.

One thing to be aware of is that for a given generator you get high low rate OR high purity but not both together. So a generator with a max flow rate of 5 l minute sounds more than enough for a couple of FIDs, but its flow at 99.999 purity might only be 500 ml/min.

Peter

Thanks for the info. I'm thinking we're going to give it a shot.

Martin