When a small gas company in the UK and an innovative cryogenic equipment company in Minnesota, US got together in the 1990s and started brainstorming a better way to deliver liquid molecules to the smaller user, microbulk was born.
The gas company was CryoService Limited and the manufacturer was Minnesota Valley Engineering (MVE) Chart Industries. The discussion revolved around the question, why can’t MVE make a small liquid delivery system for atmospheric gases like it did 10 years earlier with bulk carbon dioxide (CO2) for McDonald’s restaurants?
MVE had pioneered the use of fill-on-site liquid CO2 systems in restaurants as an alternative to exchanging high pressure cylinders on a full-for-empty basis. The reduction in cylinder handling and storage, as well as the elimination of residual losses, turned CO2 from a challenge into a utility. End-users embraced the convenience and safety benefits of a fill-on-site solution. At that time, the old delivery unit technology for atmospheric gases had pressure-building circuits and bolt-on pumps, and desperately needed efficiency gains.
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