MagneGas

SPECIAL FEATURE

MagneGas

The green, no compromise alternative to acetylene? With a green agenda in focus this month, gasworld talks to the corporation behind MagneGasTM, a hydrogen-based fuel and green alternative to acetylene.

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ucked away in Tarpon Springs, north of Tampa in the US, is MagneGas Corporation, an innovative producer and rapidly expanding retail distributor of metal cutting gases with global ambitions. The company has been developing its hydrogen-based fuel MagneGas, a product that it claims has been ‘quietly but steadily’ making a name for itself in the industrial gas industry. A compact, smokeless and quiet system that uses only liquid, electricity and electrodes to produce a metal cutting gas, MagneGas is a patented system pioneered by Dr. Ruggero Santilli a Nobel Prize nominated scientist who taught at both Harvard and MIT and is CEO and Chief Scientist at the company. The company is driving its namesake product as a no compromise, green alternative to acetylene and is keen to point out its many positive attributes. As a hydrogen-based fuel, MagneGas has advantages over acetylene – namely it can operate in cold environments and is inherently stable. The gas itself also burns cleaner than most existing gases. Further still, unlike other gases promoted as alternatives to acetylene, MagneGas has a comparably high flame temperature, 3260ºC according to independent tests. Dr. Santilli explained to gasworld, “Acetylene and other metal cutting gases are polluting legacy gases coming from non-renewable sources. MagneGas is a green, clean burning gas which can also be renewable if produced by waste liquids.” “Additionally we are revolutionising the metal cutting gas industry by allowing the

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local production of a metal cutting gas onsite and on-demand.” Poised While MagneGas may have been growing quietly but steadily up until now, the corporation believes that a new window of opportunity is firmly opening up in the industrial gases industry. The company puts forward a convincing case; a number of factors are converging on the use of MagneGas, it claims. Firstly, we understand, recent accidents linked to calcium carbide and acetylene, coupled with raising awareness to the toxic emissions from existing gases, means the industrial gas industry is poised to accept a replacement product. Secondly, costs and economics are described as stacking up in favour of MagneGas. A typical 300kW MagneGas unit fits into a 200 square foot space and produces approximately 5,000 cylinders per month of MagneGas, working two shifts. The company claims that a typical acetylene plant would need four times that square footage to produce an equivalent volume of acetylene. MagneGas says that customers can attest to this and one such client, OneSteel, did just that. “OneSteel has a corporate vision to be an environmentally responsible company and this was what initially led us to find Magnegas,” commented Steve Ryan, General Manager of OneSteel Ltd.’s U.S. operations. “Not only is MagneGas cost competitive, it is a greener alternative than what we are currently using for metal working and

it has exceeded our expectations in terms of its metal cutting performance. Our commitment to the environment made the decision to switch to Magnegas the right choice for us.” It’s not just customers who are ‘sitting up and taking notice’ as MagneGas in the US, Europe and Asia has received visitors from ‘top industrial gas companies’ in the world. The company’s ambitions are global, we understand, with a joint venture in China and an independent sister company in Brussels, Belgium to support

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“Our technology gives gas distributors a totally new revenue stream opportunity...” the European market. And CFO Luisa Ingargiola explains the benefit of switching to this green alternative, “Our technology gives gas distributors a totally new revenue stream opportunity, to produce and sell their own gas without relying on larger manufacturers. In particular, existing distributors of gas and welding supplies see that offering MagneGas to complement their current products is potentially very lucrative.” Moreover, the system’s compact integrated unit makes the metal cutting gas capability deployable on a mobile basis, for example in the military, on oil rigs, ships or for large dismantling applications. In closing, MagneGas President Scott Wainwright points out that companies looking to invest in expanding or settingup new gas production capacity should take particular notice. “Why invest more money to produce a dirty obsolete gas? It’s like pouring your money into horse drawn carriages after the car was invented!” “We can drop a 300kW unit anywhere you want and in no time you can start making your own gas. Not only is MagneGas cheaper than acetylene, but it is more productive, safer to use and burns much cleaner.”

get in touch MagneGas Corporation 150 Rainville Rd, Tarpon Springs, FL 34689 Phone: +1 727-934-3448 Fax: +1 727-934-6260 Email: [email protected] www.magnegas.com

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