Inert gas

Though inert gases have a variety of applications, they are generally used to prevent unwanted chemical reactions with the oxygen (oxidation) and moisture (hydrolysis) in the air from degrading a sample.

Because of the non-reactive properties of inert gases, they are often useful to prevent undesirable chemical reactions from taking place.

In such plants and in oil refineries, transfer lines and vessels can be purged with inert gas as a fire and explosion prevention measure.

At the bench scale, chemists perform experiments on air-sensitive compounds using air-free techniques developed to handle them under inert gas.

The inert gas system is used to prevent the atmosphere in cargo tanks or bunkers from coming into the explosive range.

[9] Inert gases keep the oxygen content of the tank atmosphere below 5% (on crude carriers, less for product carriers and gas tankers), thus making any air/hydrocarbon gas mixture in the tank too rich (too high a fuel to oxygen ratio) to ignite.

Inert gases are most important during discharging and during the ballast voyage when more hydrocarbon vapor is likely to be present in the tank atmosphere.

Various safety devices prevent overpressure, the return of hydrocarbon gas to the engine room, or having a supply of IG with too high oxygen content.

Inert gas is produced on board commercial and military aircraft in order to passivate fuel tanks.

They are fed compressed air that is extracted from a compressor stage of a gas turbine engine.

In contrast to the oxygen concentration of 21% in air, 10% to 12% in the ullage of a passivated fuel tank is common over the course of a flight.

It also shields the fluid metal (created from the arc) from the reactive gases in air which can cause porosity in the solidified weld puddle.