As Purity Gas celebrates its seventh year of empowering manufacturers to generate their own nitrogen gas, as well as a recent doubling of its development and production space, its co-founders say they are perfectly positioned to serve their evolving market well into the future.

In 2017, Alan Hopkins and Chris Styles not only believed in the technology that powers on-site nitrogen generation, but they also understood that there was no one in Canada that an industrial nitrogen gas user could go to for expert advice and a consultative approach to implementing a suitable system, throughout design, installation, and maintenance.

“We took a leap in starting Purity Gas, but we knew it was a thoughtful one,” Hopkins said. “We save businesses hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars when they switch from delivered nitrogen gas to on-site nitrogen gas generation. Solving big problems is always a compelling and sustainable business model.”

Customized systems across industrial sectors

Using Purity Gas’s turnkey NITROCENTER® system, industrial users of nitrogen gas can generate their own supply as needed, either inside their facility or in the NitroVault™ first-of-its-kind outdoor enclosure. Purity’s technical experts assess a client’s needs and engineer a system for their unique infrastructure and application.

Common industrial uses for nitrogen gas include laser cutting, metal fabrication, food and beverage production, oil and gas, and chemical manufacturing. The associated finished materials are all around us – potato chips packaged for freshness, smoothly cut edges on stainless-steel surfaces for BBQs and fridges, and mobile phone components.

Educating and supporting a changing market

Even after millions of dollars in sales, Purity Gas has only scratched the surface of its potential market.

“Yes, we still educate people about how nitrogen gas generation works,” Styles said. “But it’s more than that. The customer has to understand that they have a problem we can solve. When manufacturers realize that nitrogen delivery is not actually ‘a cost of doing business,’ they see they are no longer stuck where they’ve been for decades.”

He added that customers’ leadership teams increasingly want to talk about the broad impacts of the switch to a Purity Gas system.

“When a business takes complete control over their nitrogen supply, the C-suite meets goals far beyond cost savings, all across the organization. We talk about employee safety. We talk about carbon footprint and sustainability.”

One U.S. manufacturer that switched to using NITROCENTER® reduced its annual nitrogen gas expense by 93%, a savings of $372,000 USD per year, and reduced their carbon footprint by 27t CO2e annually. Return on investment was realized in just seven months.

A story of resourcefulness

It is indeed the “lucky seventh” anniversary for Purity Gas, but luck has had nothing to do with their success. Theirs is a story of made-in-Canada ingenuity that began at a kitchen table.

Throughout the years, the dedicated people at Purity Gas have shown they’ll do whatever it takes to deliver. When they needed extra space, quickly and short term, they worked in a barn in the southern Ontario countryside. Today, the business employs 18 and recently doubled its footprint in Ancaster, Ontario to 16,000 square feet.

“When we first met with a leading food and beverage company that is now a client, it was in a co-working space, and we had a team of just five,” Hopkins recalled. “The fundamentals of the technology, combined with our vision, were compelling enough for them to buy in with a multi-million-dollar order and make a massive switch to a new supplier.”

He added that the Purity Gas team never rests on their past achievements and will continue to evolve.

“Around here we often say that what got us here isn’t going to get us where we’re going. We are always looking forward to what’s next.”

For more information, visit puritygas.ca.