On-site nitrogen and hydrogen generators deliver the controlled-atmosphere gases your cell culture and fermentation systems demand — without cylinders, without interruptions, without compromise.
Cell culture, fermentation, and anaerobic microbiology each demand precise atmospheric control. Here’s how on-site generation covers every gas role in your biotech workflow.
Displaces ambient O₂ to create physiological hypoxia (1–5% O₂) for stem cell culture, cancer research, and IVF embryo culture. Tri-gas CO₂ incubators with O₂ control require continuous, dry N₂.
A palladium catalyst converts residual O₂ + H₂ → H₂O, achieving <1 ppm O₂ inside anaerobic chambers. Essential for obligate anaerobes, gut microbiome studies, and strict fermentation protocols.
Sparge N₂ through culture media to strip dissolved O₂ before inoculation and fine-tune DO set-points during fed-batch fermentation. High-flow CASTORE models scale from bench to pilot vessels.
CO₂ incubators, bioreactors, and anaerobic workstations cannot tolerate power interruptions. NXT Power conditions voltage and provides battery backup to protect living cultures from any grid event.
Most mammalian cells in vivo experience 1–5% O₂ — far below the 21% ambient air used in standard CO₂ incubators. Tri-gas incubators address this by blending CO₂, O₂, and N₂, using nitrogen to precisely dilute oxygen to target set-points. The quality of your nitrogen determines how accurately and reproducibly you can hit those levels.
PSA generators from LNI Swissgas deliver 99.999% purity N₂ with dewpoints below −40°C — dry enough to prevent condensation in incubator gas lines and consistent enough to hold ±0.1% O₂ set-points throughout long culture runs.
Strict anaerobes — Clostridium, Bacteroides, Fusobacterium, and many gut microbiome species — die within minutes of O₂ exposure. Anaerobic workstations and glove boxes maintain <1 ppm O₂ by combining a specialized gas atmosphere with a palladium catalyst: residual oxygen reacts with hydrogen to form harmless water vapor.
A typical anaerobic atmosphere uses 5–10% H₂ balanced with 5–10% CO₂ and the remainder N₂. The hydrogen component must be high-purity and hydrocarbon-free to protect the catalyst. LNI Swissgas HG Series generators deliver 99.9999% (6N) H₂ from deionized water — no cylinders, no delivery scheduling, no compliance headaches from stored compressed gas.
Dissolved oxygen (DO) control is one of the most critical bioprocess parameters. N₂ sparging deoxygenates media before inoculation, lowers DO set-points during anaerobic or micro-aerobic phases, and strips CO₂ during high-density mammalian cell culture. Running out of gas mid-run means lost batches and wasted weeks of work.
LNI Swissgas CASTORE membrane generators deliver high-flow N₂ from a single compact footprint. The iQ-controlled models feature automatic pressure and purity adjustment, adapting to changing demand as your culture scales. For pilot-scale bioreactors exceeding 50 L, the CASTORE BASIC and PRO models support external compressor connections for up to 200–350 L/min output.
Purity and flow specifications for common incubator and bioreactor workflows. Contact SLI for instrument-specific sizing.
Gas cylinders are a liability in life science labs. On-site generators eliminate the operational, safety, and financial burden — permanently.
A gas-out during a 7-day cell expansion run means losing your entire culture. Generators produce gas continuously — no manual swaps, no scheduling, no lost experiments.
Cylinder purity can degrade as gas is consumed and contaminants concentrate. On-site generators deliver the same purity specification from the first cc to the last, run after run.
High-purity N₂ and H₂ cylinders for life science applications carry a significant premium. After equipment payback — typically 12–24 months — your generation cost drops to electricity and water only.
Hydrogen generators store minimal gas volume at low pressure, eliminating the explosive hazard of large compressed H₂ cylinders stored in or adjacent to tissue culture rooms.
From a single HG MINI for one anaerobic chamber to a CASTORE PRO supplying an entire bioprocessing suite — SLI sizes and configures the right generator for your actual usage profile.
Pair any generator with an NXT Power Integrity UPS. If the grid fluctuates, your generator keeps running — and so does your culture. Critical for GMP and regulated bioprocess environments.
LNI Swissgas generators connect to standard gas fittings and are brand-agnostic. If your instrument runs on N₂ or H₂, it works.
Heracell VIOS 160i / 250i tri-gas incubators, HERAcell CO₂ incubator series
Galaxy 170R / 48R tri-gas incubators; BioFlo 120, 320, CelliGen bioreactor platforms
BIOSTAT A, B, STR, and CultiBag bioreactor platforms; Stedim fermentation systems
Innova S44i shaking incubators; BioFlo 310 and 610 stirred-tank bioreactors
MACS MG anaerobic workstations; MINI and MAXI anaerobic cabinets with H₂ palladium scavenging
Vinyl anaerobic chambers, glove boxes, and controlled-atmosphere workstations requiring H₂/N₂ gas mix
Anaerobic and microaerobic workstations; hypoxic chambers for O₂-controlled cell culture
INC CO₂ incubator series; MCO multi-gas incubators with N₂ injection for O₂ control
Tell us what you’re running — incubators, bioreactors, anaerobic chambers — and we’ll spec the right generator at the right size.