Traditionally (except in a few instances) cryogenically delivered gas system users have had total responsibility for managing onsite operation of a gas system.  Since the late 20th century the only change to this paradigm has been the addition of telephone/cellular telemetry to monitor the volume of product in the storage vessel for delivery dispatch requirements.

In the 21st Century the world is becoming more connected and innovation is responding.  VMG, Vendor Managed Gas, allows for the affordable remote monitoring and control of many key parameters in a cryogenic gas system including the process and equipment requiring the gas product.  Some examples beyond cryogenic tank volume are:

• Cryogenic Tank head pressure
• Activation and shutdown of tank pressure safety devices
• Temperature of gas system delivery piping at any point including use point
• Pressure at any point including use point
• Flow at any point including use point
• High flow alarm
• Key parameters of gas use equipment such as up time
• O2 and CO2 detection

Hence the VMG paradigm expands the concept of cryogenic bulk storage system from a storage system to a fully integrated and monitored gas supply system.  This change in paradigm expands the market for cryogenic systems as gas users embrace the concept of their gas supply being a turnkey
vendor managed gas supply.

Monitoring and Managing Cryogenic Gas Delivery Equipment

In the past cryogenic gas delivery via tanker truck has been rather traditional.  Recently GPS has become a tool to monitor the truck or tractor.  The VMG paradigm for gas delivery includes all of the traditional GPS monitoring through the new VMG GPS enabled Collector plus:

• The volume and the pressure in the deliver vehicle’s storage vessel
• Pump and off loading monitoring
• The unique identity of the cryogenic trailer that is attached to the uniquely identified tractor

In a VMG cryogenic gas delivery world it is not just “where is my truck?”  It’s total distribution management.