Gases Today

This chapter provides an introduction to compressed gases. Included are descriptions of the various groupings and families into which gases are categorized, as well as information concerning standard units of measurement. This is useful background information especially to anyone unfamiliar with gases. 

Since this handbook provides information for the general reader, as well as the professional, it does not fully reproduce published standards for procedures, equipment, design, etc. It does, however, present the essential content of some standards and clear references if more detailed information is required. CGA recommends using the most current editions of standards, specifications and all reference documents unless otherwise specified in regulations. For a current publications catalog contact CGA. 

Compressed gases have become so widely used in modem society that we often take them for granted. Yet without them, civilized life as we know it would simply not be possible. 

Compressed gases have enabled humans to venture deep below the seas and travel far into space. Gases provide the tremendous power needed to launch spacecraft, as well as the micro-thrusts needed to control and maneuver space vehicles. (See Fig. 1-1.) 

Further discussion of the uses of specific gases is given in the remainder of this chapter and in the gas monographs in Part II. The physical world inhabited by mankind largely consists of three states of matter - solid, liquid, and gas. Suffice it to say that the history of gas use is the history of how humans have used compressed gases for the improvement of life. 

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Polymerization of olefins from cracked gases today covers a broad range of products from motor fuel to petrochemicals. The petrochemical list is expanding rapidly with many of these products being made from propylene. Figure 1 shows a typical chamber type unit for producing the important petrochemicals, tetramer and cumene. 

Commercially available nitrogen and argon gases today are of very high purity and can usually be used directly without further purification for most organometallic compounds. However, a trace of oxygen or moisture sometimes induces autocatalytic decomposition of compounds even under inert gas. This is sometimes observed because of continuous accumulation of oxygen and moisture by the gas flow. 

Traditionally, monolith reactors have demonstrated their performance in gas-phase reactions, particularly in the treatment of automotive exhaust gases. Today, virtually all vehicles are equipped with catalytic converters. Here we will consider three-phase applications. These have been studied by a few authors and research groups such as Moulijn and coworkers [4,5] and Irandoust and Andersson [6]. Certain industrial processes such as hydrogenation of anthraquinone in the production of hydrogen peroxide are also examples of the monolith reactor technology being established on an industrial scale. Monolith... 

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