Hydrogen Generation Makes Switching from Dissociated Ammonia Attractive

For decades, industrial gas providers have tried to develop a compelling reason for metal thermal processing shops to switch from the dominant dissociated ammonia atmosphere technology to hydrogen/nitrogen blended gas “synthetic” atmospheres. Two problems interfered with this business approach – ammonia for dissociation was generally very cheap, and the alternatives that the industrial gas companies proposed did not solve all of the issues faced by the thermal processors.

The offerings of the industrial gas providers failed to displace dissociated ammonia in most installations because the cost of the atmosphere was high as compared with dissociated ammonia, and the solution proposed by the industrial gas providers simply replaced one highly hazardous gas delivery and storage problem – ammonia – with another – hydrogen. Users and their local Authorities Having Jurisdiction did not find the tradeoff attractive to swap ammonia storage for hydrogen storage.

Onsite hydrogen generation technology makes it possible to replace delivered, stored hazardous ammonia with “zero-inventory” onsite generated hydrogen and stored or generated nitrogen. This approach eliminates the hazardous material objection to ammonia replacement for thermal processors, and makes it much more interesting to consider replacement of DA with hydrogen/nitrogen. While economic issues remain, a look at total costs of operation makes hydrogen/nitrogen generation a viable, and growing solution for thermal processors.

Presentation will review several successful customers that transitioned from DA to hydrogen generation and nitrogen deliverer and storage or generation. Presentation will consider costs, compliance and process results.