Nitrogen generator used in contract food packaging plant

La Naval Services are a contract food packaging company operating in Melbourne Victoria.  The company is involved in modified atmosphere packaging.  La Naval Services works with foods in liquid, sauces, solids, granules and cereals.

La Naval’s application called for a special mix of food grade Nitrogen and CO2, blended, for the purpose of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP).  On Site Gas Systems application engineers were called in to design a system that would enable La Naval to generate their own N2, mix this with CO2 from their current gas company allowing them to save on costs and introduce a level of convenience and time saving not before seen by the customer.

On Site Gas Systems supplied one of their class leading nitrogen generators along with a N2/CO2 gas blender manufactured by WittGas.  La Naval now produces nitrogen gas onsite then automatically mixes this with CO2 from a dewar that is supplied by the gas company.  This all happens automatically with no intervention by La Naval staff.

Simply put, when the packaging machines require gas, the Nitrogen generator senses flow downstream from the Nitrogen tank and begins to generate, re-filling the tank.  The blender correctly delivers blended N2/CO2 gas until the gas is no longer needed, at which point the generator will go back into standby.

Before On Site Gas Systems were involved, the customer was paying heavy costs for mixed gas and was constantly having to halt production and change gas bottles costing even more in lost time.  However since installation, nitrogen is no longer an issue and the CO2 is replenished by the gas company.

On Site Gas Systems’ Australian General Manager, Rodney Rodrigues said  "this is yet another demonstration of the benefits on site gas generation will deliver to a customer.  We are very proud to be selling systems that offer such savings and convenience to industrial gas users."

"The customer confirmed with our Melbourne office, one month after system installation that their gas costs have been cut in half!  This is the rewarding part for us."

The installation was completed in March 2008.