Contamination-free CO₂ compression in continuous operation for Linde Group

1. The Challenge

Linde required CO₂ of the highest purity for cleaning sensitive electronic components—in continuous 24/7 operation. The gas had to be compressed from 6–8 bar to 60 bar and temporarily stored without absorbing even the slightest amount of contamination. At the same time, the process could not depend on individual units, as downtime would immediately jeopardize the supply. Conventional compression concepts involving lubricants or posing leakage risks were out of the question. The company was looking for a contamination-free and highly available solution.

2. The sera Solution

sera implemented a CO₂ compression system featuring three metal diaphragm compressors from the PU series. Two units operate continuously, while a third serves as a backup, enabling maintenance work without interrupting the process. The system compresses the CO₂ from 6–8 bar to 60 bar and feeds it into a storage tank. The metal diaphragm compressors used operate lubricant-free, abrasion-free, and hermetically sealed, thereby eliminating any risk of gas contamination. Additionally, the system requires no purge or inert gases, which reduces complexity and potential sources of error.

3. Customer Benefits

• Contamination-free compression of CO₂ for sensitive cleaning processes
• 24/7 operation with high system availability thanks to a redundancy concept
• Stable supply despite maintenance work on individual units
• Robust, corrosion-resistant, and low-maintenance system design

4. Brief Summary

The project demonstrates how high-purity CO₂ can be reliably supplied in continuous operation using only consistently hermetically sealed and redundant compressor technology.