Loctite Saves Almost $20,000 Per Year By Generating Its Own Hydrogen for GC/FIDs
Loctite is saving almost $20,000 per year in cylinder costs alone by generating its own hydrogen for use as carrier gas and fuel in gas chromatographs with flame ionization detectors (GC/FIDs). Helium and hydrogen gas cylinders used in the past were expensive to purchase and required a considerable amount of time on the part of the laboratory staff to order, transfer to the lab and install them while maintaining safety regulations. As a result, a few years ago the company’s Rocky Hill Analytical laboratory purchased an on-site hydrogen generator to produce hydrogen from water on demand which results in virtually no operating costs. “ We save a considerable amount of money every year, avoid the time and difficulties involved in dealing with gas cylinders and produce purer gas more reliably with our on-site generator,” said Robert Trottier, Manager, Analytical Services for Loctite.
Loctite manufactures and markets a broad range of high-technology sealants, adhesives and coatings that are used in computers, automobiles, airplanes, vacuum cleaners, speakers, syringes, cosmetics, compact disk players and many other products. The company often develops the complex equipment used for application and assembly as well. Loctite is in the business of solving problems. When a customer buys a Loctite product it also gets a partner that will work side-by-side with them to find innovative solutions to their design and manufacturing problems. Loctite is a subsidiary of Henkel, KgaA, an international manufacturer of chemicals, detergents, industrial adhesives and cosmetics.
Analytical Services group
Loctite’s Analytical Services group supports the company’s research activities by providing chemical testing of incoming raw materials, intermediates, new compounds and formulations developed to meet customer needs. The vast majority of materials involved in the company’s research are organic based. Liquid chromatography (LC) and gas chromatography (GC) are two of the best tools for characterizing these types of materials. Several years ago, the Analytical Services group converted several of their GCs to capillary column systems. Capillary GC systems typically produce sharper analyte peaks and deliver higher resolution in separating these organic materials.
About the same time, Analytical Services management began considering converting the carrier gas for its Perkin Elmer Autosystem and Autosystem XL GC/FIDs over to hydrogen from helium. “Helium tends to be relatively expensive, it’s a nonrenewable resource,” Trottier said. Another problem is that the purity of commercial-grade helium can be less than ideal for some of the more sensitive analytical methods. We occasionally experienced problems with contaminants that generate background noise in our chromatograms, sometimes causing us to expend time trying to identify the source.”
Cost of gas cylinders
In addition, Trottier said, he was not happy with the cost or the time involved in dealing with gas cylinders. “Each instrument used approximately one cylinder of helium per week at a cost of $167 per cylinder or $8,684 per year. In addition, our laboratory staff had to spend time checking on the supplies of gas for each of our instruments and ordering new tanks when required. Our new Analytical labs are located at the opposite end of the R&D building and are somewhat distant from the shipping & receiving docks. So we would either have to transport the tanks across the building or alternatively, pay to have a gas line run from the receiving area to the lab. It typically took about an hour of staff time to haul the cylinders from the loading dock and install in the laboratory. The cylinders also took up a lot of valuable space. Each instrument required a cylinder to run, a spare cylinder supply and often an additional one in transit or storage.
“When it was time for us to move to our new facility in Rocky Hill, we decided to take a close look at whether it made sense to switch to hydrogen as carrier gas and fuel for the GC/FIDs,” Trottier said. “The primary motivation was cost – hydrogen is less expensive than helium. But what intrigued us even more was the availability of a new generation of hydrogen generators that are capable of producing hydrogen on an as needed basis with virtually no operating costs. This eliminates the need to purchase, transport and install cylinders. The generator services each instrument and automatically produces what is required on demand.”
Eliminating need to purchase cylinders
Trottier spoke to Phil Allison, at that time a Sales Representative and now in Marketing for Parker Balston® Branded Products at Parker Hannifin Corporation in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, the leading producer of hydrogen generators. Based on usage, Allison demonstrated that nearly $20,000 per year could be saved by equipping the 2 Perkin Elmer GC-FIDs in the new laboratory with a hydrogen generator. In addition to these hard savings by eliminating the need to purchase gas cylinders, Trottier felt that the lab could achieve a significant productivity increase by avoiding the need for lab personnel to spend time dealing with cylinders. The gas generator could simply be set up and (almost) forgotten.
Trottier also considered the safety issues involved in the switch from cylinders to on-site generation. Loctite expended considerable effort in ensuring safe handling of gas cylinders and never experienced a gas cylinder accident. Yet Trottier was aware of potential dangers, as highlighted by the American Chemical Society’s training film that is shown to laboratory personnel. The film depicts a cylinder valve being suddenly broken off and the resulting rush of pressurized gas which propels the cylinder through a concrete wall. Gas cylinders also present far more prosaic dangers to extremities such as rolling onto a person’s toe.
On-site generation is safe
On-site generators, on the other hand, eliminate many of these concerns. The gas is produced under very low pressures and is consumed nearly as soon as it is produced, eliminating most of the safety issues involved with cylinders
Parker Balston 75-34 generators produce dry hydrogen gas to a purity level in excess of 99.99999% from deionized water and electricity. The hydrogen generator utilizes the principle of electrolytic disassociation of water and subsequent diffusion through a palladium membrane. The outlet pressure of the hydrogen generator is adjustable and the generator can deliver hydrogen at pressures up to 100 psi. The 75-34 has a hydrogen delivery capacity of 300 cc/minute. The high purity of the gas produced by this generator makes it ideal for use with FIDs, TCDs, trace hydrocarbon analyzers and air pollution monitors.
How on-site generators work
The electrolytic disassociation of water takes place in the electrolytic cell as electricity passes through deionized water. During electrolysis, oxygen and other impurities collect at the nickel anode and are vented from the generator. Hydrogen ions collect at and pass through the tubular palladium cathode driven by the applied electric potential. Inside the tubes, the hydrogen recombines to form purified molecular hydrogen. The newly formed hydrogen is under pressure and ready to be delivered to the usage point. The purity of the hydrogen is ensured by the fact that the palladium membrane allows only hydrogen and its isotopes to pass.
The hydrogen pressure at the outlet is regulated by an electronic pressure control circuit. A pressure transducer monitors the hydrogen pressure at a point between the cell and the outlet of the hydrogen generator. The control circuit adjusts the electrical current to maintain the set hydrogen pressure. Key safety features include minimal hydrogen storage capacity, a production control switch, an electrolytic leak detector, an over-temperature switch, a pressure sensor and a low water shutoff control. The generators also have built-in system diagnostics to monitor the performance and operation of the generator.
Annual maintenance and electricity costs are only $248 per year. The primary maintenance activities are filling the feed water bottle and changing the electrolyte solution. If the generator is operated 24 hours per day at the rated maximum flow, the water in the feed bottle lasts for 8 to 10 days. At this point, the water reservoir is refilled using deionized water with a rating of 5 Megaohm-cm or better. The electrolyte solution must be changed once each year to maintain efficient operation of the hydrogen generator. The electrolyte is a specially prepared solution of sodium hydroxide.
The net result was a substantial and easily measured cost savings as well as significant intangible benefits. “The hydrogen generator more than paid for itself in the first year of operation and has generated savings of approximately $10,000 per machine or $20,000 total each year since,” Trottier said. “In addition, we have eliminated the time and aggravations that were previously involved in purchasing, installing and monitoring the gas cylinders. In my opinion, on-site generation is the wave of the future in gas chromatography.”