Gases

The gases market refers primarily to the market for the production and supply of industrial gases such as nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and other specialty gases used in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductor device manufacturing as well as food processing, oil & gas, and power generation industries. Industrial gases such as oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen are produced through air separation by membranes, pressure swing adsorption (PSA), vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA) or cryogenic fractional distillation due to their high atmospheric availability.

Hydrogen gas is produce and consumed during downstream oil and hydrocarbon refining and processing operations. Carbon dioxide can be captured from waste streams of natural gas processing facilities, underground deposits, power generation and industrial emissions, and other industrial sources. Carbon dioxide has diverse applications including injection for enhanced oil production (EOR), which have garnered attention for developing it as a commodity rather than waste gas.

Specialty gases such as argon, xenon, neon, helium and krypton can be produced through cryogenic fractional distillation of liquefied air, and are at slight atmospheric levels making production very intensive due to the volumes of air required for sizable production. Helium can alternatively be produced from gaseous hydrocarbon deposits. Various synthesis reactions and production processes are used for the supply of fluorocarbon gases, halocarbon gases, nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen bromide, chlorine, acetylene, ethane, ethylene, silane, acrylic hydrocarbons, and other specialty gaseous compounds. Various hydrocarbon gases are produced by the oil & gas sector. Methane also represents an economically-significant commodity gas.