Hydrogen Performance for Carrier Gas

Introduction

Owing to the worldwide helium shortage, many labs are facing supply difficulties of helium, one of the most commonly used carrier gases and as a consequence are facing rapid price increases. Many chromatography labs are therefore looking for alternative carrier gases and for many GC applications, hydrogen provides a good, in some cases better, alternative to helium. The perceived danger of having hydrogen in the lab can be mitigated by using a hydrogen generator which can fulfil the requirements of a lab whilst storing a fraction of the volume of gas. Here we show the reasons behind the helium shortage, what hydrogen offers the chromatographer and show how hydrogen can improve the separation of analytes in a complex mixture of compounds whilst improving the throughput of sample.