STL invests £120,000 to reduce nitrogen costs by 90%

A £120,000 investment by Samuel Taylor Ltd (STL) on in-house nitrogen generation is set to reduce the cost of nitrogen by up to 90%, with investment payback estimated in less than 12 months. The nitrogen generator installed at STL’s Redditch factory is made up of an air compressor from Boge Compressors Ltd and a nitrogen generation unit from GaseTechnologie GmbH & Co KG.

The system was installed and commissioned by Compressed Air Engineering (Redditch) Ltd, which will also service and maintain the equipment moving forward. The system has enabled STL to become self-sufficient in generating its own nitrogen in-house, replacing liquid nitrogen previously delivered by an external provider.

STL have reduced their gas cost from around 90p per m³ to 8p m³. This is a significant saving as all four furnaces powered up within its factory, run frequently for 24–36hr periods.

James Cameron, technical specialist at STL, said: “The successful commissioning is the culmination of a 12-month project that I have overseen on behalf of STL. Nitrogen is used in many areas of industry. An uninterrupted supply of pure nitrogen plays an important role in several of our processes. At the same time, it is important for us to keep costs as low as possible, given inflation and recent energy price increases.

“With an investment payback period of less than 12 months, the ability to bring nitrogen production in-house and generate 90% savings on unit costs, the conclusion within the company was that moving to this approach was a no-brainer.

“Of course, like all machinery, this will need maintaining, so having a service agreement and the ongoing support of Compressed Air Engineering is crucial in helping us to derive maximum benefit from this investment, and ultimately their expertise and close proximity gave us the confidence to proceed.”

The production of low-cost nitrogen from the ambient air at STL’s site is key to delivering amortisation of the investment costs within a short period of time.

INMATEC GaseTechnologie GmbH & Co.KG nitrogen generators produce nitrogen in the required quantity with a purity of up to 99.999%. Equipped with innovative and future-oriented technology, INMATEC GaseTechnologie GmbH & Co.KG N₂ generators meet the highest quality standards. Thanks to ‘state of the art’ remote-control technology, all operating values can be checked and controlled remotely at any time, ensuring the safety of production processes.