If you’ve had to lug a tank of gas to an experiment station and secure it in place, you know the hassle and danger involved. Many lab managers are turning to generators for convenience; cost also plays a part with labs needing to pay for the delivery of gas while the time required to change the tanks and the managerial costs of maintaining the necessary supply of tanks also hurt the bottom line. Most generators pay for themselves in two years on the hard costs alone and can also make a better product. When you generate gas at a plant, the second you start doing anything with it, the gas starts to degrade, even as the producer starts to fill a tank from a big supply. If users decide to go the gas generator route, they have plenty of options to choose from. One class, the zero air gas generator, makes air that is free of hydrocarbons, which is the kind of gas needed for many processes, including gas chromatography. Labs can also buy generators that make a specific gas, such as hydrogen or nitrogen.
The type(s) of gas generator(s) our readers are looking to purchase for their labs include:
| Calibration | 5% |
| Hydrogen | 26% |
| Nitrogen | 34% |
| Purge | 6% |
| TOC | 2% |
| Zero Air | 21% |
| Other | 6% |
Applications our readers are using or planning to use their gas generators for:
| TOC analysis | 3% |
| Gas chromatography with flame ionization detection | 31% |
| High-performance liquid chromatography | 18% |
| Gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection | 20% |
| Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy | 6% |
| Inductively coupled plasma systems | 5% |
| Nuclear resonance spectroscopy | 3% |
| Other | 12% |
The reasons our readers are purchasing/considering purchasing a gas generator:
| Switching from helium to hydrogen | 11% |
| Cheaper than gas cylinders | 25% |
| Increase safety | 19% |
| Building/renovating lab | 7% |
| Upgrading old system | 17% |
| Starting a new lab process | 15% |
| QA/QC | 2% |
| Other | 3% |
The 10 most important features/factors in our readers’ decisions to purchase a gas generator:
| Important | Not Important | Don't Know | |
| Value for price paid | 96% | 4% | 0% |
| Durability of product | 93% | 3% | 3% |
| Performance of product | 93% | 7% | 0% |
| Low maintenance/ easy to clean | 91% | 2% | 7% |
| Total cost of ownership | 89% | 5% | 5% |
| Low operating costs | 89% | 9% | 2% |
| Service and support | 84% | 15% | 2% |
| Availability of supplies and accessories | 83% | 10% | 7% |
| Ease of use | 82% | 12% | 5% |
| Warranties | 79% | 14% | 7% |
For more information on gas generators, visit http://www.labmanager.com/gas-generators
