Gas chromatography requires gases that are of ultra-high purity. Impurities in carrier gases run the risk of damaging the gas chromatography column and causing problems with analytical identification and retention times.
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However, ultra-high purity gases tend to be rather expensive, and it can be difficult to understand the labeling of different classes of ultra-pure gas.
Numerous gas chromatography devices demand 6.0-grade gases, which means the gas must be 99.9999% pure. However, the number of contaminants present in 6.0 grade gases varies.
The two gases could include varying proportions of substances, including water and oxygen, that are particularly difficult for gas chromatography columns, even when their purity levels are the same.
BIP gases from Air Products, which have extremely low impurities, are one solution. Less than 10 ppb of oxygen and 20 ppb of water are present in the specific range of products known as BIP gases.
The advantage of Air Products’ line of BIP gases is that these extremely low impurity levels can be achieved without the use of external filters on the gas lines due to a new cylinder and purifier design that not only lowers gas impurity levels but can even help to reduce the costs when it comes to purchasing gas.
Cost Savings with BIP Gases
The self-contained purifier in the cylinder of the BIP gases from Air Products guarantees that pollutants are removed before they leave the cylinder, helping to prevent problems like column bleed in chromatography applications.
Since emptying the cylinder completely run the risk of drawing impurities from the cylinder walls, many chromatography users will leave a considerable unused portion of gas, frequently 15–25%.
With BIP gases, the entire cylinder can be used as the purifier makes sure to filter out any impurities. BIP gases facilitate more efficient cylinder usage and less frequent gas refills overall.
The lack of in-line filters is another way that Air Products’ BIP gases reduce costs. Removing in-line filters means that any costs and time associated with their purchase, disposal and maintenance are also saved. Such is the effectiveness of the BIP cylinders design, adding in-line filters actually raises the risk of gas contamination.
Prolonging the life of the column is another indirect cost-saving benefit of employing BIP gases for chromatography.
Although columns are a consumable parts of a gas chromatograph, they can be significantly expensive to replace, and replacement also means that there will be some instrument downtime. Even trace amounts of water and oxygen can cause more rapid degradation.
Calculating Costs
Air Products has created the BIP gas cost-saving calculator to assist users who are thinking about switching to BIP gases for chromatography to determining exactly how and where BIP gases could help them save money.
The number of gas chromatography units, column life, inline purifier costs including associated disposal costs and many other variables can all be taken into consideration by the BIP gas calculator when operating chromatography equipment.
Contact Air Products today to find out more about how the innovative BIP gas cylinder design could help users make significant savings.
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Air Products PLC.
For more information on this source, please visit Air Products PLC.