Does your brewery or winery still use delivered nitrogen cylinders for pressurizing and preserving your spirits? If so, you could be spending unnecessary money. At On Site Gas, we sell permanent and portable PSA and nitrogen membrane generators that can save you money and enhance your business operations.

Types of Nitrogen Generators for Breweries and Wineries

Nitrogen generators work by separating and removing oxygen from the air so only the nitrogen is left. The nitrogen is then stored in a tank to be used in the beer and winemaking process. There are several types of nitrogen generators available for use in wineries and breweries, including:

• PSA Nitrogen Generators – These systems offer stable gas costs, low energy usage, and high purity (up to 99.999 percent).
• Membrane Nitrogen Generators – A membrane system may be a perfect solution if higher purity is not required.
• Engineered Nitrogen Generator Systems – These generators can be completely customized for your brewery or winery.
• Nitro Blast Generator – This type of generator is great for beverage tap systems, including beer dispensing.

Benefits of Nitrogen Generators for Breweries

A generator can save you anywhere from 40 to 75 percent on your nitrogen costs and provide you with a reliable source that will never run out or leak. Beyond saving you money, nitrogen generators offer a myriad of benefits for breweries. These are just some of the ways a generator can improve your operations:

• Can be used in conjunction with carbon dioxide
• Helps pressurize kegs
• Helps prevent spoilage
• Can purge tanks between batches
• Creates a more consistent product
• Improves color, flavor, and carbonization

Benefits of Nitrogen Generators for Wineries

Nitrogen gas is used to displace oxygen during the winemaking process in order to preserve flavor and prevent spoilage due to contamination. Wineries typically use nitrogen for flushing, sparging, blanketing, and bottling. Flushing is needed during the transfer stages in order to purge pumps, hoses, and transfer containers. During the fermentation stage, nitrogen is added as tiny gas bubbles to remove oxygen – a method known as sparging. Blanketing is the process of pushing nitrogen through bottles, barrels, and tanks in order to remove oxygen prior to storing the wine.
It is estimated that wineries can save between 40 and 80 percent on nitrogen costs when they choose to install a generator versus renting cylinders. Not to mention, you’ll be improving your winery’s environmental friendliness.
Here are just a few more of the many benefits of nitrogen generators for wineries:

• Improve your ROI and profit margin
• Never run out of nitrogen
• Prevent nitrogen leakage, which is common in cylinders
• Reduce wasted wine due to spoilage

Enhance Your Brewing and Winemaking Operation with On Site Gas

On Site Gas has been manufacturing high-quality nitrogen and oxygen equipment for over 30 years. To learn more about our nitrogen generators for breweries and wineries, or to order your PSA, membrane, or custom nitrogen generator, contact us today.

Are you considering purchasing a nitrogen generator and wondering how much they cost? These systems can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to more than $30,000, depending on the size of the generator and your specific needs.
Let’s take a look at how to determine the cost of a nitrogen generator.

How Much Nitrogen Do You Use?

Before you purchase a nitrogen generator, it’s important to determine how much you use on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. If you’ve previously used nitrogen cylinders, an easy way to determine your average usage is by examining your past purchases. What was the volume of gas in those cylinders? How much did they cost to rent, and did you run out of nitrogen at any point?

What’s the Ideal Purity of Your Nitrogen?

Nitrogen generators have the ability to produce purities of up to 99.999 percent.. In addition to determining your purity level, you need to know the required flow and outlet pressure. These three variables will help to determine the cost of your equipment.

What Type of Nitrogen Generator Do You Need?

Nitrogen generators typically come in two forms – stationary and portable. Stationary nitrogen generators do not move; once they are installed, they must remain in place. Portable generators, on the other hand, can be moved using a trailer system. Your cost to purchase will depend on the type of system you need for your business.

How Nitrogen Generators Can Save You Money

For many businesses that require nitrogen, the go-to solution is to rent cylinders because it’s fast and reasonably reliable. However, these tanks usually never get emptied and you are wasting as much as 20 percent of the encased nitrogen. Cylinders must also be transported within your facility, which can lead to workplace accidents and an increase in workers compensation claims.
Unlike nitrogen cylinders, on-site nitrogen generators provide a constant supply of nitrogen directly on your property, you won’t have to worry about the risks associated with transportation. Therefore, while there is an initial investment to purchase a nitrogen generator , purchasing one could save you money in the long run.

How to Buy a PSA Nitrogen Generator

Here at On Site Gas, we offer new and used nitrogen generators. We have membrane nitrogen generators, portable generators, nitrogen filling stations, custom engineered systems, and Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) nitrogen generators for sale. If you know the type of system you’d prefer, you can order it directly from us at affordable prices. And if you’re not sure or you want to spec your system, we offer custom quotes. Contact us today to discuss your nitrogen needs!

Today it’s common practice to use inert gas during winemaking, but questions remain as to the correct use of nitrogen during the process. When wine is exposed to oxygen, its quality, stability and longevity are negatively affected. For this reason, winemakers use nitrogen in the ullage of wine containers to avoid oxidation, which leads to spoilage. Due to wine’s low solubility, nitrogen is the preferred inert gas for the winemaking process.
Nitrogen’s ability to eliminate oxygen prevents it from affecting the quality of the wine. And using nitrogen gas from a nitrogen generator from On Site Gas Systems can eliminate concerns related to oxygen exposure throughout the winemaking process.

Nitrogen Gas in Winemaking

Prolonged exposure to oxygen causes wine to turn into a vinegary substance, which is created as oxygen converts ethyl alcohol in wine to acetic acid. Winemakers use nitrogen at multiple points during the winemaking process to prevent this degeneration from occurring.
Use a nitrogen generator to prevent oxygen exposure throughout the winemaking process for:

• Flushing: Nitrogen collected by generator is used to flush filter housing pumps, hoses, and to fill bowl directly before bottling begins.
• Blanketing: Nitrogen from generator is applied to a vessel as a means to displace oxygen in the headspace of partially filled barrels, tanks, or bottles.
• Sparging: This process refers to the practice of applying nitrogen from generator in the form of extremely small gas bubbles. This process removes any oxygen the wine has dissolved.

Specific Uses for Nitrogen Use During WineMaking Process

Nitrogen is used during bottling, transfer, and storage. By forming a nitrogen blanket during bottling, contact between oxygen and the surface of the wine is reduced, which prevents the development of bacteria and other microorganisms.

Transferring Wine

When preparing to move wine between containers, preventing exposure to oxygen requires flushing out hoses and blanketing the vessels by pumping nitrogen through them. Wine may also need to be sparged to remove any extant oxygen.

Topping

This process replaces evaporated wine by flushing nitrogen into the barrel’s ullage. At this stage of processing, nitrogen will blanket wine to eliminate oxygen.

Bottling

When bottling wine, oxidation is a concern due to turbulence when mixing wine and air during the filling process. To ensure the integrity of wine, it is essential to flush bottles with nitrogen before and after filling.
Nitrogen generators from On Site Gas Systems provide cost effective and efficient solutions for manufacturers to prevent oxidation during the winemaking process. On-site nitrogen generators eliminate the need for expensive contracts, as well as handling high pressure nitrogen cylinders.
On Site Gas Systems nitrogen generators are safe, reliable, and easy to operate. And they allow you to generate nitrogen on-site so you will never run out of nitrogen again.
Our systems are used all around the world, including remote locations with harsh climates. If you are interested in learning more about the innovative nitrogen generators we offer or our “try before you buy” program, or if you want to know more about the benefits of a custom-designed nitrogen generator, contact On Site Gas Systems today.

Companies thinking about purchasing a Nitrogen generator should consider what purity of Nitrogen they need. Nitrogen purity is usually expressed in the form of a percent. For example, 99 percent Nitrogen means the gas consists of 1 percent Oxygen, with the remaining 99 percent consisting of Nitrogen and other inert gases.
However, some high purity cases express the Nitrogen’s purity as parts per million by volume (PPMv) of Oxygen that remains in the product gas. Ten PPMv is equal to 99.999 percent Nitrogen and 10,000 PPMv equals 1 percent Oxygen. Determining the minimum purity level required for the applications at your facility is essential to ensure that you benefit the most from your on-site Nitrogen production. Our Nitrogen generators usually pay for themselves in less than 18 months.

On-Site Gas’ Self-Generated Nitrogen Gas Production Options: Pressure Swing Adsorption and Membrane Nitrogen Generators.

Pressure Swing Adsorption Nitrogen Generators

Pressure Swing Adsorption, which is commonly referred to as PSA, uses two vessels. These vessels are filled with CMS (carbon molecular sieve). While compressed air flows up through one vessel, the Oxygen is adsorbed, meanwhile the other vessel de-pressurizes some of the Nitrogen, which flows downward to desorb (drive-off) the moisture and Oxygen the first vessel previously collected. This process continues with one vessel performing adsorption and the other performing desorption. A full cycle includes several steps and usually only takes about two minutes.

Membrane Nitrogen Generator System

A membrane Nitrogen generating system uses hollow fibers of various lengths, materials, efficiencies and diameters. These hollow fibers consist of man-made polymers: their variances allow for selective permeation. Selective permeation is used to separate the gases from the stream of compressed air as it moves through the membranes.
Some vessels contain millions of hollow fibers. These vessels may be referred to as membranes or membrane bundles. In order to provide the capacity needed, these membranes are frequently installed parallel to one another. Semi-permeable fibers are designed to let the faster gases permeate the fiber walls and release into the surrounding atmosphere. These gases are carbon dioxide, Oxygen, water vapor and hydrogen. The membrane separation process does not involve the use of moving parts, which is beneficial for individuals who would like to avoid maintenance and keep things simple; however, other parts of a membrane Nitrogen generator do have moving parts and electrical components. Membrane Nitrogen generators are typically quiet and take up less space that their pressure swing adsorption counterparts do.

Nitrogen Generator Energy Costs

Energy costs are determined by the percentage of Nitrogen required: An N2 system that provides 95 percent purity takes approximately 2 standard cubic feet per minute of compressed air to provide 1 standard cubic feet per minute of Nitrogen.
Nitrogen Specs for Comparison Purposes

• Food Packaging – about 99.5 percent for the majority of applications
• Blanketing to avert hazardous conditions – anywhere from 95 to 97 percent.
• Heat treating metals – materials and processes determine whether purity levels can be 97 percent or as high as 99.999 percent (10 parts per million of O2).
• Blanketing vegetable oils (edible) – approximately 99.9 percent.
• Printed Circuit Boards – “Lead Free” selective solder in most cases requires 99.999% (10 parts per million of O2). Both wave solder and reflow can require purities between 99.9% and 99.99%.

On Site Gas provides PSA Nitrogen gas generators and membrane Nitrogen gas generators to companies all over the world. Our generators are ideal for any company that uses Nitrogen. Furthermore, our generators can be found in some of the most remote places on Earth, even those with the harshest climates. To learn more, contact us today.