Degasses

Degasses, or degassing, refers to the removal of dissolved gases from liquids or gases from a system. It is used in fields such as chemistry, food and beverage, water treatment, electronics manufacturing, and metallurgy to improve product stability, taste, safety, or processing performance. Liquids commonly contain dissolved gases like oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, or hydrogen that can come out of solution under certain conditions, causing bubbles, corrosion, or off-flavors.

The process relies on principles of gas solubility, including Henry’s law and the influence of temperature and pressure. Lowering pressure, raising temperature, or providing a surface for gas to escape accelerates degassing. In industrial contexts, degassing is often deliberate and controlled to achieve specific gas contents or to prevent gas-related defects.

Common degassing methods include vacuum degassing, which reduces ambient pressure to drive dissolved gases out; sparging, where an inert or nonreactive gas is bubbled through the liquid to strip gases; ultrasonic or sonic degassing, which uses high-frequency waves to form and coalesce bubbles; steam stripping or distillation for volatile components; and membrane-based degassing, which uses gas-permeable membranes to remove gases while retaining liquids. Mechanical agitation and controlled heating are also used in some systems.

Applications span winemaking and brewing (removing excess CO2 and unwanted aromas), water treatment (oxygen and radon removal), pharmaceuticals and cosmetics (gas removal to improve stability), metallurgy (reducing dissolved hydrogen or nitrogen in molten metals), and electronics manufacturing (degassing solder and solvents to prevent porosity).

Measurement and quality control involve assessing dissolved gas content, typically by headspace analysis, dissolved oxygen meters, or gas chromatography, to ensure process targets and prevent re-gassing during storage or use.