1. Produce nitrogen gas

Industrial nitrogen can be produced either by cryogenic fractional distillation of liquefied air, or by separation of gaseous air using adsorption or permeation. Cryogenic air distillation – the oldest method used to produce nitrogen – was developed by German engineer Carl Von Linde in 1895 . Over the years, this technique has been refined. Today, it is used in the world's largest air separation plants, and accounts for some 65-70% of the world's nitrogen production.

The concept of "on-site" industrial gases was introduced in the early 1940s. On-site cryogenic plants were built...