Swap the gas cylinders for a COSMOS Hydrogen generator

Hydrogen generators have become the preferred method of using hydrogen in the laboratory because they are safer and less bulky, less dangerous than gas cylinders. By simple electrolysis of water, our hydrogen generators will deliver, on demand, a quality of high purity gas that your applications need such as the supply of detectors and GC carrier gases. Once installed, a hydrogen generator will provide hydrogen with constant purity 24 hours a day.

A hydrogen generator avoids any breakdown of analyzes compared to the gas cylinders which will have to be ordered and replaced and eliminates the risk of variation in the quality of the gas. In fact, when changing cylinders, contaminants can enter the gas lines, affecting the analysis results.

In terms of safety, a hydrogen generator has several advantages:

it produces gas on demand, which means that only the amount needed for GC is produced at a regulated flow rate and controlled pressure.

• it is equipped with internal and external leak checks as well as an automatic shut-off function to stop the production of hydrogen.
• the volume of internal hydrogen stored is small (<50ml), compared to cylinders that store up to 9000 L at extremely high pressure (~ 2000-3000 psi).
• it has the detection of various faults (water quality and level, information on the condition of the cell).
• real-time monitoring of gas pressure to prevent overpressure and the flow of hydrogen produced.
• it can be connected to a hydrogen probe to detect the presence of hydrogen in the GC oven.

Swap from Helium to Hydrogen

Helium is commonly used in gas chromatography (GC) as a carrier gas. But the difficulty in obtaining this gas has prompted laboratories to reconsider their supply of the gas, which can lead to delays in sample analysis and overall disruption of daily workflow. Indeed, a helium shortage has begun to surface. As a result, many laboratories are now turning to hydrogen as an alternative to helium, the price of which is increasing as its availability continues to decrease year after year. When all the criteria are taken into account, it is easy to understand what motivates them: reliability, speed of analysis (cut in half), economy and peace of mind.

As a result, many GC manufacturers have actively begun to recommend replacing helium with hydrogen gas by using a hydrogen generator as the carrier gas.

Gas generators are more reliable, safer, more aesthetically pleasing, take up less space, and do not require moving bulky cylinders around the lab.

Hydrogen has many advantages:

• Faster analysis: The diffusion rate of hydrogen and helium is about the same, but hydrogen is half as viscous as helium and, therefore, the linear velocity of the gas is higher and retention times are shorter in isothermal analysis.
• High efficiency: Hydrogen has the flattest Van Deemter curve compared to helium and nitrogen, hydrogen needs the lowest number of plates to achieve the same resolution over a wide range of linear velocities.
• Cost reduction: A GC grade hydrogen tank is about 3 times less expensive than its helium equivalent.
• Availability: Hydrogen is readily available through water electrolysis and with an F-DGSi gas generator, it can be produced on demand.
• More environmentally friendly: A hydrogen generator requires only a single delivery for installation. From then on, your hydrogen generator stays in the lab. Plus, it produces hydrogen gas from deionized water.

You don’t have to worry about running out of carrier gas mid-analysis!