The nitrogen generator installed at STL’s Redditch factory is made up of a BOGE Compressors air compressor, and an INMATEC GaseTechnologie nitrogen generation unit.
The new technology was installed and commissioned by Redditch based Compressed Air Engineering (Redditch) Ltd, who will also service and maintain the equipment moving forward.
The equipment has enabled STL to become self-sufficient in generating their own nitrogen in-house, replacing liquid nitrogen previously delivered by an external provider.
STL have reduced their gas cost from around 90 pence per metre cubed (m3) to 8 pence per metre cubed. This is a significant saving as all four furnaces powered up within their factory, run frequently for 24–36-hour periods.
James Cameron, Technical specialist at STL, comments: “The successful commissioning is the culmination of a 12-month project that I have overseen on behalf of Samuel Taylor Limited (STL).
“Nitrogen is used in many areas of industry. An uninterrupted supply of pure nitrogen plays an important role in several of our processes. At the same time, it is important for us to keep costs as low as possible, given inflation and recent energy price increases.
“With an investment payback period of less than 12 months, the ability to bring nitrogen production in-house and generate 90% savings on unit costs, the conclusion within the company was that moving to this approach was a no-brainer.
“Of course, like all machinery, this will need maintaining, so having a service agreement and the ongoing support of Compressed Air Engineering (Redditch) Ltd is crucial in helping us to derive maximum benefit from this investment, and ultimately their expertise and close proximity gave us the confidence to proceed”.
The production of low-cost nitrogen from the ambient air at STL’s site is key to delivering amortisation of the investment costs within a short period of time.
INMATEC GaseTechnologie nitrogen generators produce nitrogen in the required quantity with a purity of up to 99.999%. Equipped with innovative and future-oriented technology, INMATEC GaseTechnologie N2 generators meet the highest quality standards. Thanks to state-of-the-art remote-control technology, all operating values can be checked and controlled remotely at any time, ensuring the safety of production processes.
