One of the first things we recommend for any of our nitrogen gas using customers to look at when wanting to reduce operating costs, is on site nitrogen generation. For anyone who is buying in nitrogen in the form of bottle banks, we typically find that the costs for this can quickly mount up.

For an example, lets assume that you buy up to 5 x Nitrogen bottle banks per week (use 1 per day) to supply a laser cutter with deliveries of once per week. Based on recent online pricing from a major gas supplier (as of Feb 2023), for supply of 5 x 230bar, 147m3, nitrogen MCPs every week, this could incur the below monthly costs;

20 x MCP             £13,900

Monthly rental     £1,518

Deliveries             £398

Total:                    £15,816

Annual Total:       £189,792

Assuming that the laser cutter is in use for 5 x 8 hour shifts per week, and assuming that the bottle banks are returned with 20bar remaining, this would give us an average usage of around 16m3/hr during the shift. If this example customer was to consider installation of an Atlas Copco HPN9 Nitrogen Generation skid capable of producing up to 19m3/hr of nitrogen at 99.99% purity, and factoring in initial purchase price, energy running costs and ongoing maintenance costs, our example customer would be looking at a return on investment of under 1 year! (depending on installation scope).

With a few key pieces of information, we can quickly;

  • Size up and specify a suitable nitrogen generation system capable of meeting your required flow, pressure and purity
  • Price up supply and installation of the recommended nitrogen generation system
  • Determine expecting running costs / maintenance costs of the recommended nitrogen generation system
  • Determine expected return on investment

If capex is an issue, we can also assist with financing a project of this nature so that you begin seeing cost savings from day one. Typically, the monthly cost for financing a system + the electrical running costs will be significantly lower than the cost savings you can achieve.

Get in touch with us for a free of charge feasibility study with one of our experts. For no more than 30 minutes of your time, we can gather the required information to determine what savings you could achieve and what your potential return on investment would be by purchasing your own on site nitrogen generation system.

Click here for more info on our Atlas Copco nitrogen generators

Contact Murray Irvine at mirvine@designairscot.co.uk or call on 07387150934.