Questions You Should Know about microbulk tank

Aug. 06, 2024

5 Questions to Maximize Your Beverage Gas Supply

Why You Need to Right-Size Your Beverage Gas Supply

Authored by Beau Hoy:

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The beverage gas industry continues to evolve in response to rapidly changing supply chain trends and challenges. Because of this, the food and beverage sector is constantly navigating endless questions of how best to optimize their gas supply and ensure the right amount of beverage-grade CO2 is always available when needed.

For businesses looking to optimize supply and ensure cost savings, it&#;s vital to right size based on your specific needs, operations, and usage. Let&#;s look at what questions to ask yourself about your current beverage gas supply and where opportunities may be to improve efficiencies and reduce costs via a more streamlined, proactive approach.

Does My Current Gas Supply Service Still Support My Needs?

We often see food and beverage businesses partner with a gas supplier and settle for higher costs due to limited supply options. While this partner may have been the best choice then, it&#;s essential to regularly evaluate their solutions and determine if it still meets your CO2 needs. Businesses can likely be guided into the wrong gas supply service because their supplier failed to understand these needs. The best partner is one who can provide a breadth of solutions to support your demands.

Some examples of support include optimizing supply based on your exact number of business locations, analyzing current demand to anticipate future needs, and/or adjusting the volume for better usage. This is where the idea of rightsizing comes into play.

How Can I Make Sure That My Gas Supply Is Right-Sized?

You discovered your business has too many unused gas cylinders on-site. This is causing rental costs to increase and can be addressed by reducing the number of cylinders delivered.

Or, in the case of a business with a microbulk tank, you learn that your tank is too large for the amount of gas needed. This increases your costs due to the amount of wasted gas and can be addressed by correcting your tank size.

What Should I Know About Microbulk Tanks and Gas Cylinders?

For many businesses, there will be times when microbulk tanks make sense and other situations where gas cylinders are a better fit. Both options have benefits and can be a fit depending on supply and demand chain trends.

Here&#;s more about the benefits of each:

Gas Cylinder Benefits

Easy to move throughout the building when needed.
Does not require installation, and no fill ports or vents are required outside the building.
Microbulk requires a five-year agreement).
No upfront costs for CO2 monitors (required for microbulk).

Microbulk Tank Benefits

Easy to use, and no need to change over tanks.
Can be installed outside of a building in some cases, saving space inside backrooms.
Does not require a person on-site to manage gas delivery &#; the supplier can fill up the tank on its own.

Is Microbulk or Cylinder a Better Fit for Me?

It&#;s worth noting that microbulk can be expensive if your business does not have enough CO2 usage to support the larger tank size. In addition, it&#;s critical to have a deep understanding of microbulk and if it&#;s the right fit because these contracts are typically five-year agreements. If you choose this option without doing your due diligence, it could mean being stuck with out-sized gas for your supply needs. Of course, if you are ordering large volumes of CO2 and struggling with manually handling, transporting, and maintaining gas cylinders, it&#;s worth investigating microbulk further.

Here are some additional questions to determine if cylinders or microbulk are the best fit for you:

If you have beverage-grade CO2 purchase history:

How much CO2 are you currently purchasing? You are best suited for gas cylinders if it&#;s less than 100 lbs. per month or 1,200 lbs. per year. If greater, then microbulk could be an option for your business.
Do you have backroom restrictions? If you have a smaller space, cylinders are probably the best option, but microbulk tanks installed outside help save space.
Are there property restrictions? Microbulk tanks must be on an exterior wall, which some properties do not allow or support.
How far does the gas have to travel to reach the beverage fountain? We do not recommend having cylinder lines run longer than 150 ft. If the line would need to run further than this, we recommend microbulk.

If you don&#;t have beverage-grade CO2 purchase history:

Are you open for both lunch and dinner? If yes, this means greater usage, so microbulk could be a fit.
Are you serving fountain drinks and/or draft beer using CO2? If you have both with more than one fountain machine and five draft beers on tap, then you could qualify for microbulk. If you have less, then cylinders are most likely your best option.

What Does Success Look Like for My Business?

As mentioned above, both gas cylinders and microbulk tanks have their benefits. It&#;s important to determine your business goals and supply needs to identify which is the best fit for you. Having a strategic, trusted gas supply partner is a great way to navigate some of these questions and find the service that best fits your goals.

Recently, our team at EspriGas partnered with a small convenience store chain based in Tennessee. We evaluated their current beverage gas supply and realized they were overpaying for bulk CO2, as their usage was much less than 100 lbs. per month. Our team quickly converted all 24 of their locations to cylinders and on average, each site is now saving $1,000 per year on supply expenses.

Ready to Get Started With EspriGas?

For more information, please visit microbulk tank.

Right-sizing gas supply is an excellent business strategy to optimize operations and streamline costs. By evaluating current supply and demand, as well as the needs of your organization, you can identify a beverage-grade CO2 service &#; and partner &#; that will support you today and tomorrow.

HOW WE MAKE ORDERING SIMPLE

The EspriGas Way

Fulfilling your beverage gas needs should be simple and easy. Our streamlined ordering process will help you get the right amount of gas, on-time with minimal effort.

Learn More

Proper Sizing of a Micro-Bulk Vessel.

For the benefit of space, I&#;m going to keep this simple. A good &#;rule of thumb&#; for Distributors to follow in sizing a vessel, is that a vessel should be sized so it is filled every three-four weeks. A careful review of your Customer&#;s consumption requirements (current and future), site considerations, and product availability will be essential information. Selecting the optimum size cryogenic storage vessel for your application need not be a difficult task.

First of all, what are the consumption requirements? Most importantly, what are the monthly usage requirements in cubic feet? If the customer is upgrading their current storage supply, they can simply review their current monthly consumption reports. This will tell their usage on a monthly basis. A review of future growth opportunities, as well as seasonal changes should also be included in your calculations. If the anticipated demand is projected to increase or change, you can adjust the storage capacity to better suit those requirements.

Today, there are many choices. You can find a cryogenic storage vessel that will allow you to maximize your operation. Once you have determined your customer&#;s monthly usage, look at the capacity of each vessel below and select the vessel that best covers your needs for a 3-4 week period.

Micro Bulk Capacity in Cu. Ft.

Size/Liters

450 L

Capacity

7.690 CU.FT.

29,470 CU.FT.

41,806 CU.FT.

59,940 CU.FT.

123,362 CU.FT.

For example, if my customer is using a laser system and they consume 40,000 cu. Ft. of nitrogen a month, I would install a -liter vessel. This will provide product at the recommended pressure and flow rate, plus give them plenty of cushion in case they need to run the Laser more than normal. However, if their usage is above 90,000 cu., a -liter vessel would be too small requiring a fill at least twice a month. If this is the case. the correct vessel choice would be a liter. Roughly ¾ of the vessel's capacity. A size liter would also work, but would also be too small and not provide any cushion if product supply were to be interrupted or demand ramps up.

What pressure, flow rate, and purity will you require? This information will be critical in designing the vaporization (flow rate), regulation (pressure), and filtration (purity) for the system.

Site Survey &#; Selecting the optimum location to install the vessel is the key to success. Typically, a site survey should be conducted to determine the acceptability of each potential install site. We recommend working with your product supplier on the evaluation. Pay close attention to utilities: avoid overhead wires, piping, flammable storage, chemical/corrosives outdoor vents, doorways, and other points of access. For best results, the micro bulk vessel should be installed in a secure area as close as possible to the tool. We recommend a fenced area with room for an external vaporizer and regulation. The Fill point/connectors should be located in an easily accessible area. Keep in mind, you will need to provide access for large trucks to enter and depart easily at any time of the day.

Product availability &#; When initially setting up the system, you will want to coordinate with your product supplier on topics such as Delivery information, monthly Use, bulk connections, site access instruction, and equipment compatibility. You want to ensure that your product supplier can fill your micro bulk without any issues.

Depending on your location, product supply, and delivery could be affected by several other factors: Weather, traffic, road conditions, product shortages, and equipment problems to name a few. During the middle of winter, it is much more difficult to coordinate all of these variables. If you are in a remote location, you might want to consider having a backup source of supply.

Vaporization &#;

The Arctic Fox L micro bulk has an &#;on-board&#; vaporizer that will deliver up to SCFH of Nitrogen at 500 PSI. This is typically adequate for most Lasers, however, newer lasers are requiring higher flow rates (+ SCFH). This typically requires a standalone vaporizer, so allow extra space for the upgrade in the future.

As you can see there are many variables to consider when selecting a micro-bulk. However, with accurate consumption information, proper site preparation, and co-ordination with your Cryogenic Supplier you will be able to install the optimum vessel for your Customer&#;s requirements

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