The industrial gases industry literally touches everyday people’s life in more ways that anyone realizes. Yet this industry, is little known by the general public, and even by many users of the various gases. The average citizen is somewhat familiar with oxygen; after all, that’s what hospitals, specialists and paramedics provide to patients. They probably have heard of carbon dioxide because that’s what puts the “fizz” in soft drinks and beer. But the average person generally does not associate those two with the term “industrial gases”.
The story of the formation of the industrial gas industry and its growth in applications and uses for the gases is told in the report “The Invisible Industry” published by IOMA. From two patents related to the liquefaction of air into its major components – oxygen and nitrogen, grew the attractive worldwide industrial gas industry and all of the applications for the gas products which the industry has continued to develop and grow.
