Industrial gases play an important role in the chemical industry. Key applications include purging, inerting, maintenance, safety measures and environmental protection. Chemical process and plant inerting are often critical to personal, material and plant safety. 

Inerting is used to reduce and inhibit undesirable chemical reactions with oxygen, while purging involves the addition of a gas, usually nitrogen, to displace atmospheric gases with an inert atmosphere. For most applications, pure, dry gaseous nitrogen offers the optimum combination of low reactivity with good economy. There are many situations in which inerting is the only way to meet safety standards during industry processes and maintenance. In other cases, inerting is used to maintain and improve product quality. Besides nitrogen, carbon dioxide and argon are also used.