Without gases a barbecue on a beautiful summer's day wouldn't be half as nice: anything that is tasty, aesthetic or practical almost always owes its pleasant properties to one or more gases. Gases for Life are omnipresent here too.
Summer delicacies
As soon as the temperatures start to rise and the sun is still shining in the evening the barbecue season begins. In summer many people like to spend their evenings socializing with friends or family, enjoying delicious food and cool drinks. Opinions differ when it comes to the question of charcoal or gas barbecues. Some don't want to do without the aroma of charcoal. Others appreciate the fast, even and smoke-free heating of the gas barbecue thanks to propane.
Nitrogen and CO2 protect the food from oxidation, cool it during transportation and perform other useful tasks to ensure that the taste, freshness and consistency of the food are pure enjoyment. Thanks to the inert gas packaging the meat remains appetizing until the grill master swings the tongs. The fact that the spices have a strong flavor is not least thanks to cryogenic nitrogen: it helps to preserve the aromas during grinding.
Dry ice keeps sausages and fish cool on their way from the producer to the supermarket. It also ensures the optimum dough temperature for kneading and shaping baguettes. Ice cream on a stick only gets a crispy thin coating of chocolate through cryogenic nitrogen because the gas causes the warm, soft chocolate to solidify immediately after contact with the ice cream.
Refreshing drinking pleasure
The beer tastes tangy and forms a beautiful head because CO2 is added to it in the brewery. To ensure that the wine does not oxidize in the tank and retains its fruity aroma, the winemaker fills the headspace with an inert gas such as CO2, nitrogen or argon. A drop of liquid nitrogen is added to the juice bottle during bottling. Because it evaporates immediately and expands the PET bottle retains its shape and the juice is protected from spoiling. Even tap water would not be as we know it without gases. Among other things, CO2 provides the necessary hardness, while oxygen and ozone remove unwanted substances so that it flows fresh and clear from the tap.
And everything that goes with it
Why we don't cut our lips when drinking from glasses: The rim surfaces of the finished glasses are slightly melted to make them smooth and the edges round. Smoothing the edges has to be done very quickly, which is why pure oxygen (O2) is added to the special burners to increase the temperature. This also helps to save fuel and reduce emissions. O2 also makes ceramic firing much more efficient and environmentally friendly.
Without gases, knife blades would not be as sustainably sharp and attractive as we know them. Thanks to the cold treatment of metals with cryogenic nitrogen, they remain stable without changing their shape in the long term. Acetylene and pure oxygen are used to solder the handle and blade. Messer's three-substance mixtures - for example of argon, oxygen and CO2 - ensure perfect weld seams on the steel parts of bicycles, barbecues, awnings and parasols.
For more than 125 years, Messer, the today’s world's largest privately owned company for industrial gases, medical gases, specialty gases, and gases for electronics, committed to its guiding principles of safety, focus on customers and employees, responsibility for our society, sustainability, trust, and respect. Messer's Gases for Life and patented gas applications are essential for environmental protection, climate protection, decarbonization, and innovation.
