Atmosphere control is needed whenever the gas composition at a sample or instrument is the variable being set, rather than just a background condition. Two use patterns cover most applications.
Calibration on demand
One certified parent gas plus a diluent replaces a set of pre-mixed standards. Any target concentration within the parent cylinder range is generated on demand, at any number of calibration points, to the protocols required by environmental and industrial standards: EN 14212, EN 14211, EN 14626, EPA Method 205, and ISO 6145. Environmental monitoring analyzers, process gas chromatographs, gas sensors, refinery analyzers, and emissions monitoring systems are all calibrated this way. On-site mixing is usually faster, cheaper, and more flexible than ordering a separate certified cylinder for each required concentration.
Defined atmosphere for measurement
Many experiments require a sample to sit in a known gas environment while a measurement is made, and for that environment to change systematically during the experiment. Partial pressures of O2, H2, H2O, CO2, and trace components are set independently, with programmed ramps and steps running unattended. This is the working mode in high-temperature electrochemistry, fuel cell testing, catalysis research, corrosion studies, and materials characterization under reactive or inert atmospheres.
Humidification, adding water vapor to the gas stream at a defined partial pressure, extends both use patterns: wet calibration gases for atmospheric analyzers, and humid reactive atmospheres for fuel cell research and proton-conducting material characterization.
The pages below describe how these capabilities apply in each field. The depth of relevance varies. Environmental monitoring, electrochemistry, fuel cell research, and analytical chemistry are central markets. Others overlap with part of the system capability, and those pages say so directly.
- Environmental Science: calibration of SO2, NOx, CO, and O3 monitors; EN and EPA compliance; atmospheric chemistry research
- Materials Science: CVD and ALD, corrosion testing, high-temperature electrical characterization under controlled atmosphere
- Chemical Engineering: catalysis testing, reaction kinetics, process development
- Energy Research: fuel cell development, hydrogen production, electrolysis, bioenergy
- Petrochemical Industry: GC and process analyzer calibration, refinery gas analysis, sulfur monitoring
- Combustion Research: fuel combustion under defined oxidizer conditions, ignition studies, emissions characterization
- Biomedical Engineering: hypoxia research, bioreactor atmosphere control, 3D tissue engineering
- Pharmaceutical Research: bioreactor gas management, inhalation product testing, stability study atmospheres
- Food Science: calibration of modified atmosphere analyzers, post-harvest research, controlled atmosphere storage studies
- Agricultural Research: plant gas exchange and photosynthesis studies, CO2 response curves, post-harvest physiology
- Space Science and Aerospace: planetary atmosphere simulation, propulsion research, spacecraft sensor calibration
- ProboStat: atmosphere control for high-temperature electrochemistry with the NorECs ProboStat sample holder
