Air Products has announced that its on-site gas generator called PRISM VSA Oxygen Generation System has officially started supplying more than 200 t/day of oxygen to Gerdau Steel’s production facility located in Whitby, Ontario, Canada.
A typical PRISM VSA Oxygen Generator
Gerdau Steel awarded the long-term contract to Air Products based on its successful demonstration of the capabilities of its PRISM system. The contract also includes the supply of liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen.
The announcement of Gerdau project comes on the heels of signing a contract in September 2011 by Air Products to supply oxygen through it s PRISM VSA Oxygen Generation System to a first-of-its-kind waste-to-ethanol plant located in Vero Beach, Florida, a testament of the oxygen system’s application versatility.
contrary to cryogenic air separation methods, the VSA generator operates at ambient temperature, radically decreasing capital investment, power consumption and the time required to start and stop the system. The modular design of the oxygen generation system needs less plot area and incurs low installation expenditures.
Nelson Squires, who serves as Air Products’ Vice President of North America Merchant Gases, stated that the company has years of working experience to supply industrial gas for the worldwide steel industry. The company has numerous supply options to offer the correct solution as per the requirement of the steel mills, he said. The company analyzed the operating requirements of the Gerdau steel plant and assessed its gas supply alternatives, which led to the selection of its PRISM product as the on-site solution, he concluded.