Question

Q. A chips manufacturing company needs nitrogen for food preservation and packaging? Help them by suggesting the steps to obtain nitrogen from air.

Answer 1

We can obtain nitrogen on fractional distillation of air by following the steps given below:
1. Air is liquified by applying high pressure and lowering the temperature. Dry ice is obtained which is first discarded.
2. The remaining mixture of air mainly consists of nitrogen, argon, and oxygen at about– 200 ${}^{\circ }$C.
3.The boiling points of liquid nitrogen, argon and oxygen is – 195 ${}^{\circ }$C, -185.8${}^{\circ }$C, and – 183 ${}^{\circ }$C respectively.
4.The cold mixture of air is gradually warmed to -195 ${}^{\circ }$C and nitrogen starts boiling off from the liquid air.
5. The nitrogen gas so formed, is compressed and filled is steel cylinders which can be used by chips manufacturing company.