The atmosphere—commonly referred to as “air”—is composed of both nitrogen and oxygen. However, when we compare their ratios, oxygen makes up a far smaller portion than nitrogen. Based on this naturally high concentration of nitrogen in the air, industrial methods have been developed to extract and utilize nitrogen efficiently. One of the most important of these technologies is the nitrogen generator. In this article, we will provide detailed information about nitrogen generators, which have become increasingly popular in recent years and are widely used across many industries.

What Is a Nitrogen Generator? What Does It Do?

A nitrogen generator is a system that separates nitrogen from the ambient air and produces nitrogen at the required purity, pressure, and volume. With a nitrogen generator, you can produce nitrogen gas instantly and on-demand within your facility. Nitrogen gas is used across various industries—from food packaging and laser cutting to electronics, chemical production, and pharmaceuticals.

Producing nitrogen on-site offers several major advantages, including high purity levels (95–99.999%), uninterrupted nitrogen supply, and the elimination of delays or operational disruptions caused by gas shortages.

The working principle of a nitrogen generator is quite simple—its only requirement is air. A key advantage of nitrogen generators is that they allow you to use 100% of the nitrogen you produce, unlike other nitrogen supply methods where gas losses occur. In addition, nitrogen generators include storage tanks, allowing unused nitrogen to be stored for later use.

Using a nitrogen generator brings substantial energy and time savings to your business. So, what benefits does a nitrogen generator offer? Let’s take a closer look.

Benefits of Using a Nitrogen Generator

Below are the key advantages nitrogen generators provide:

• The greatest benefit of a nitrogen generator is that it eliminates nitrogen losses caused by evaporation, reducing operating costs significantly.

• Nitrogen generators allow businesses to produce nitrogen anytime they need it—24/7 uninterrupted production.

• Özen Kompresör nitrogen generators are equipped with PLC control panels, enabling full command and monitoring of the system.

• They operate at low pressure, and thanks to advanced built-in safety measures, they provide a highly secure system.

• Due to their safe design, nitrogen generators do not require constant supervision, saving you valuable time.

• Nitrogen generators produce extremely high-purity nitrogen compared to other nitrogen-producing devices—starting at 95% purity and reaching up to 99.999%. These levels cannot be achieved effectively with other methods.

• The elimination of nitrogen evaporation results in extremely low operational costs for the facility.

• Installation is simple and user-friendly.

How Does a Nitrogen Generator Work?

Nitrogen generators draw in compressed air and analyze it to determine the proportion of oxygen and nitrogen. They then separate nitrogen molecules from oxygen molecules—an essential step toward producing high-purity nitrogen.

The nitrogen production phase uses either membrane technology or PSA (Pressure Swing Adsorption). For achieving the highest purity levels, PSA nitrogen generators are recommended.

You can input the required nitrogen purity and production amount depending on the application—for example, fire suppression systems may require lower purity, while food packaging requires very high purity levels. All necessary nitrogen parameters can be easily entered into the PLC control system. After entering the desired values, the nitrogen generator begins production immediately. Excess nitrogen can be safely stored in the built-in tanks.

What Are PSA Nitrogen Generators?

PSA (Pressure Swing Adsorption) nitrogen generators remove ions, molecules, and other impurities from compressed air as these contaminants adhere to the adsorption media—resulting in exceptionally pure nitrogen production.

A critical component of PSA systems is the molecular sieve. This sieve allows nitrogen to pass through while preventing oxygen from doing so. During operation, compressed air enters the A tower, where oxygen and nitrogen are separated using the molecular sieve. The nitrogen then moves to the B tower, which contains the adsorption layer that removes remaining impurities and molecules—producing ultra-pure nitrogen.

PSA nitrogen generators are specially designed to deliver high-purity nitrogen for applications such as food packaging, laser cutting, electronics, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.

Even after multiple stages of purification, not a single molecule of nitrogen is lost, ensuring maximum efficiency with zero nitrogen waste.

Özen Kompresör takes pride in offering PSA nitrogen generators equipped with state-of-the-art technology and advanced control panels that ensure maximum safety and efficiency. Compared to conventional nitrogen production methods, PSA generators operate significantly quieter and with superior purity performance. If you would like to learn more or purchase a nitrogen generator, feel free to contact us through our website.