Demand
Annual quantity, base, peak, duration and simultaneity.
Full cost and payback
When does a nitrogen generator pay?
Only full cost can answer.
A blanket “few years” payback is not responsible advice. Demand, quality, pressure, operating profile, current supply, energy, maintenance, investment and backup must be combined for the site.
01 Credible answer
A generator pays
when the full-cost case works.
Onsite generation is economic when its total cost over the selected period is below the comparable cost of current supply and it meets required quality, demand, pressure and availability. A generic payback period would be misleading.
No shortcut: “Gas price minus electricity” omits compressor, treatment, pressure loss, storage, booster, maintenance, reserve and investment. A delivered-gas case without rental, transport, surcharges, losses and handling is equally incomplete.
02 Full-cost model
Calculate both routes
to the same boundary.
| Cost block | Delivered gas | Onsite generation |
|---|---|---|
| Gas and energy | gas price, surcharges and residual or vaporisation loss | compressor, dryer or regeneration, pressure loss and boosting |
| Capital | cylinder, bundle, tank or vaporiser rental | generator, treatment, storage, measurement, pipework, installation and finance |
| Operation | delivery, changeover, storage, internal transport and inspections | filters, valves, sensors, separation media as required, labour and measurement |
| Availability | delivery window, minimum stock, emergency delivery and outage | redundancy or delivered backup, spares, downtime and restart |
03 Inputs
Eight data groups create
a reviewable result.
Where values are missing, record a range or measurement need rather than producing false precision.
Quality
Purity or residual oxygen and moisture.
Pressure
At handover, line route and boosting.
Time
Hours, shifts, service windows and period.
Current cost
Invoices, rental, surcharge, logistics and handling.
Compressed air
Reserve, energy, pressure, temperature and quality.
Scope
Treatment, storage, measurement, pipework and installation.
Reserve
Tolerable interruption, backup and failure consequence.
04 Sensitivity
Economics change
when operation changes.
A useful result shows which assumptions drive it, not only one number.
A
Current duty
Current demand, prices and confirmed process requirement.
B
Growth
New machines, more shifts or additional consumers.
C
Quality
Compare only confirmed purity variants and reveal over-quality.
D
Reserve
Assess base-load, hybrid and redundant routes separately.
05 Common questions
Price and payback
without a teaser number.
What does a nitrogen generator cost?
A credible price follows design. Compressor capacity, filters, dryer, storage, booster, pipework, measurement, installation and backup may be required in addition to the generator.
When does a generator pay?
When onsite full cost over the study period is below comparable current supply cost and the concept meets required availability. The result is calculated from actual data.
Which operating costs apply?
They can include compressor power, drying or purge, pressure loss, filters, valves, sensors, labour, measurement, boosting, cooling, leakage, backup and downtime.
Is onsite always cheaper?
No. Very small, occasional or highly variable demand can favour delivered gas. Infrastructure and reserve requirements can also change the result.
Next step
Have invoices and operating data?
Then MX Solutions can identify the gaps.
The first review shows what is reliable, what should be measured and which variants can be compared.