Nitrogen Generators

[gitchegumee]

I'm researching a nitrogen generator to use as a source of purge gas for my conditioning/bright/packaging tanks. I'll be using a membrane unit and my most demanding use will be in my packaging tank prior to canning beer that will have a 3 month shelf life. Obviously, higher purity is better, but within the limits of technology and reason, what is sufficient purity? 99.8%? 99.9%? Is there an oxygen scavenging unit I could use to scrub the last bit of oxygen out? I'd love to hear from anyone with insight. Thanks again for any help.

[matt]

I have been looking at these for some time and finally have purchased one.
Just waiting for it's arrival now.
As far as purity goes, by definition, absolute is 99.9%, because nothing is 100% For the 0.1, 0.2% this will be mostly oxygen, if it is CO2 or nitrogen.

You can spend the money on the scrubbers to try and improve the quality, but you're in a cost-benifit situation. For a 3 month shelf life I would think the nitrogen generator, if maintained and working properly, would be adequate..

[swiftvin]

how much are these in the US? I have just bought one from Taiwan.

[MikeRoy]

From my understanding it seems most US companies are not selling them, they are leasing them. We have one at our pub, simply put if it's cheaper than buying tanks every month then it's a good deal.

I'm curious though, how much are generators running outside the US?

[gitchegumee]

South-Tek, an American company, has three small models to choose from between $3,000-5,000. They are membrane units good to 99.8% N2.