Dealing with gases in the plant

An image showing a manometer, pressure gauge and valves

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More than just purging and venting

There are three phases of matter, but it’s rare that we think about gases participating in process chemistry. Most of the products that we sell in industry are solids or liquids. Our colleagues in the commercial gases industry will likely note that they too contribute to the chemical enterprise. There would be neither party balloons nor MRIs without pure and plentiful liquid helium, extracted from natural gas deposits. Not to mention the nitrogen, oxygen and argon distilled from liquid air. But what about the gases that form during large-scale chemical reactions?