SPECIAL FEATURE on Cryogenic tanks : Evolving the cold converter (gasworld Feb 2014 issue)

In the air gas industry the distribution of liquefied air took off in a major way during the 1980s and 1990s. From the ASU via trailers or railcars, to filling stations or end-users where cold converters were awaiting, the basic solutions were found and implemented.

From 2000-2010 the market went through a phase of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity whereby competition grew and yet became increasingly refined, with more optimised cryogenic tank solutions developed as a result of changing demands.

For the industry this has been an evolutionary process. The basic tank function has been the same, but there have been ways of maximising the payload on trailers and increasing rail/road/sea flexibility with containers. Within cold converters the evolution has meant standardisation on 18 and 36 bar MAWP, plus a flow schematic that fulfills most needs. The trend has been to regard cold converters as commodity, to simply buy at the regional/global price curve in price per litre.