What Size Acetylene Plant Do You Need?

Start from your demand, not the plant

Acetylene plant capacity is measured in normal cubic metres per hour (Nm³/h). To size a plant, work back from how much acetylene you consume or sell: the cylinders you fill per day, your pipeline draw, or your projected demand as you grow. IIGAS plants range from compact 8 Nm³/h portable units to 200+ Nm³/h direct-to-pipeline installations, and each is engineered to the individual customer rather than sold as a fixed catalogue unit.

IIGAS acetylene plant models

The KIGL-DA series covers the common capacity bands. Intermediate models (for example 70 Nm³/h) and custom capacities are built to order.

Sizing your cylinder-filling manifold

A useful rule of thumb from our O&M practice: size the charging manifold to about eight times the plant’s hourly capacity in cylinders. So a 25 Nm³/h plant that fills roughly 40 cylinders per batch pairs with a manifold in that range. Getting this ratio right keeps the plant running continuously instead of waiting on cylinder turnaround.

Utilities and consumables to budget for

• ✓Carbide — to IS 1040, recommended 25–50 mm, max 15% dust; plants can also run low-cost carbide dust
• ✓Water — 6–10 litres per kg of carbide for generation and cooling
• ✓Power — from a safely located MCC; connected load 12–38 kW by model
• ✓Nitrogen — a 4–6 cylinder bank for purging and flushing (acetylene is never run with air present)
• ✓Acetone or DMF — solvent charge for the dissolved-acetylene cylinders

Room to grow

Because IIGAS plants are modular and extended incrementally, you can install for today’s demand and add capacity, purification (up to 99.96% UHP) or extra cylinder positions later. Many IIGAS plants installed over 50 years ago are still in service, so the plant you buy is a long-term asset, not a short-term purchase.