Delivered gas pricing
How Much Does Liquid Nitrogen Cost?
Bulk liquid nitrogen runs roughly $0.47 to $1.40 per gallon for the gas itself. Delivered in dewars it runs $3.72 to $5.59 per gallon. Neither figure is what you actually pay, because rental, delivery, hazmat fees and boil-off sit on top of both. Here is the full picture, and what the same nitrogen costs generated on site.
$0.47 to $1.40
Per gallon, bulk liquid nitrogen, gas only
$3.72 to $5.59
Per gallon, delivered in dewars
5 to 15%
Typical dewar boil-off loss before you use it
$0.05 to $0.14
Per gallon-equivalent, generated on site
The short answer, and why the number moves so much
Liquid nitrogen costs between $0.47 and $5.59 per gallon depending entirely on how it is delivered. Bought in bulk by the tank it sits at the bottom of that range. Bought in dewars it sits near the top. That is an eight-fold spread for the identical product, and the container is the reason.
Per litre the same figures are $0.12 to $0.37 for bulk and $0.98 to $1.48 in dewars. Suppliers usually quote the price of liquid nitrogen by the hundred cubic feet (CCF) of gas rather than by liquid volume, which is why one quote can be hard to compare against a competing one.
Those numbers cover the nitrogen only. What lands on the invoice also includes container rental charged monthly whether or not the vessel is full, delivery and hazmat fees on every drop, and boil-off, which is nitrogen you paid for that evaporates before you use it. On dewars that loss commonly runs 5 to 15 percent.
Generated on site from compressed air, the same nitrogen costs $0.05 to $0.14 per gallon-equivalent. There is no rental, no delivery, no hazmat fee and no transit loss, because no truck is involved.
Price by supply format
What liquid nitrogen costs per gallon, per litre and per CCF
Gas cost only. Container rental, delivery, hazmat fees and boil-off are additional on every delivered format.
| Supply format | Per gallon | Per litre | Per CCF | Also pay for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bulk liquid, own tank | $0.47 to $1.40 | $0.12 to $0.37 | $0.50 to $1.50 | Tank rental, scheduled deliveries, monthly minimums, 1 to 2% tank vent loss per month |
| Dewars | $3.72 to $5.59 | $0.98 to $1.48 | $4 to $6 | Dewar rental per unit per month, delivery and hazmat per drop, 5 to 15% boil-off |
| High-pressure cylinders | Not applicable | Not applicable | $6 to $10 | Cylinder rental, delivery, demurrage, residual gas returned unused |
| Generated on site | $0.05 to $0.14 | $0.01 to $0.04 | $0.05 to $0.15 | Electricity only. No rental, no delivery, no hazmat, no transit loss. |
Cylinders hold compressed nitrogen gas rather than liquid, so a per-gallon-of-liquid price does not apply to them. Their per-CCF cost is shown for comparison on a gas basis. Per-gallon and per-litre figures are converted from per-CCF pricing at the standard expansion of one gallon of liquid nitrogen to 93.11 cubic feet of gas, and one litre to 24.6 cubic feet. On-site figures are gas-equivalent, since a nitrogen generator supplies gas directly rather than liquid.
Five things that move the price on your invoice
Two plants buying identical nitrogen can pay very different amounts. These are the reasons.
Driver 01
The container, not the nitrogen
Dewars cost roughly eight times per gallon what bulk costs. The nitrogen inside is the same. You are paying for the vessel, the handling and the delivery frequency that small vessels force.
Driver 02
Volume and contract minimums
Bulk pricing depends on committed monthly volume. Fall below the minimum and you are billed for it anyway, which quietly raises your true cost per gallon on a slow month.
Driver 03
Distance from the plant
Liquid nitrogen is heavy and cold, and trucking it is a large share of what you pay. Two identical plants a few hundred miles apart can see materially different delivered pricing.
Driver 04
Boil-off you never use
Cryogenic vessels warm up. Dewars commonly lose 5 to 15 percent to boil-off, and a bulk tank vents roughly 1 to 2 percent a month. You bought that nitrogen. It left through the relief valve.
Driver 05
Annual escalators and surcharges
Supply agreements commonly carry annual price escalators, plus energy or transport surcharges applied on top of the contracted rate. The price you signed is rarely the price you are paying three years later. This is the single most common reason a plant that was comfortable with delivered gas starts pricing on-site generation.
What the same nitrogen costs generated on site
A worked example for a plant currently on dewars, running a normal two-shift schedule rather than around the clock.
Worked example, dewar customer
- Usage pattern16 hours a day, 21 days a month
- Delivered cost, dewars$4 to $6 per CCF
- Plus dewar rental, delivery, hazmatMonthly, per vessel
- Plus boil-off never used5 to 15%
- On-site cost, electricity only$0.05 to $0.15 per CCF
- Typical reduction in nitrogen operating costUp to 90%
- Typical payback on the equipment12 to 14 months
Payback depends on your actual consumption, your purity requirement and your power rate, which is why the honest first step is measuring what you use rather than estimating it. A generator is designed to run for 20 years or more, so the comparison after the payback period is electricity against a delivered invoice that carries an annual escalator.
Liquid nitrogen cost questions
How much does liquid nitrogen cost per gallon?
Bulk liquid nitrogen delivered to your own tank runs about $0.47 to $1.40 per gallon for the gas itself. Delivered in dewars it runs about $3.72 to $5.59 per gallon. Both figures exclude container rental, delivery and hazmat fees, and boil-off loss, all of which are additional.
How much does liquid nitrogen cost per litre?
About $0.12 to $0.37 per litre in bulk and $0.98 to $1.48 per litre in dewars, for the nitrogen only. A standard 180 litre dewar therefore holds roughly $180 to $270 of nitrogen before rental and delivery are added.
Why is dewar nitrogen so much more expensive than bulk?
The nitrogen is identical. You are paying for the vessel, the handling and the delivery frequency that small vessels require. Dewars run roughly eight times the per-gallon cost of bulk, and they also lose 5 to 15 percent to boil-off before the gas is used.
Why do suppliers quote per CCF instead of per gallon?
Industrial nitrogen is priced on the gas it produces rather than its liquid volume, because that is what you actually consume. One CCF is 100 cubic feet of nitrogen gas. One gallon of liquid nitrogen expands to about 93 cubic feet, and one litre to about 24.6 cubic feet, which is how the two units convert.
What does nitrogen cost if you generate it on site?
About $0.05 to $0.15 per CCF, which is roughly $0.05 to $0.14 per gallon-equivalent. That figure is electricity. There is no container rental, no delivery charge, no hazmat fee and no transit loss, because no truck is involved. Most plants reduce nitrogen operating cost by up to 90 percent and see payback in 12 to 14 months.
How do I work out what I am really paying?
Take twelve months of invoices, add the gas, the rental, the delivery and hazmat lines together, then divide by the nitrogen you actually used rather than the nitrogen you were billed for. The gap between those two numbers is boil-off. If you do not know your real consumption, measure it first: Gas Generation Solutions lends flow meters free to anyone sizing a system.
Next steps on cost
This page covers what delivered liquid nitrogen costs. These cover what replacing it costs and what it saves.
Equipment cost
How much does a nitrogen generator cost?
Equipment price bands, the per-CCF operating math, and three worked payback examples.
Why switch
The case against bulk gas
Where delivered nitrogen leaks money beyond the price per gallon: rental, demurrage, vent loss and supply risk.
Measure first
Free flow meter loan
Borrow a meter at no cost and find out what you actually consume before anyone quotes you a system.
Liquid on site
Liquid nitrogen generators
If you need the liquid rather than the gas, these produce LN2 on site instead of taking deliveries.
By model
Nitrogen generator price by size
Price bands by flow rate and purity tier, for sizing a replacement against your current spend.
Start here
On-site nitrogen generators
How on-site generation works, what purity you can reach, and which industries run it.
Measure before you switch
Find out what you actually use
Most plants are surprised by the gap between the nitrogen they are billed for and the nitrogen they consume. Borrow a flow meter, run it on your line, and size a system against real numbers rather than an estimate.
Flow meter loans are free and we cover shipping to you. You cover return shipping. Gas Generation Solutions supplies on-site nitrogen and oxygen systems across the United States, Mexico and Canada.