There are public companies which produce nitrogen gas:
I foresee a big uptake in use if this experiment works out, especially in the South:
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Is this going to be used on Alabama politicos or on the more honest inmates?
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Geez you think they would just make them eat a Tub of Kentucky Fried Chicken, it would be cheaper.
Andy
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One would think that the hype about inflating car tires with nitrogen would have done more for nitrogen demand that executing a few prisoners.
The joke is, air is mostly nitrogen anyway. What difference does it make by paying extra to have your tires inflated with nitrogen?
Steve
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Really, goofy? You’ve got nothing better to do that make jokes about a heinous murder case and the execution of death sentences?
–Peter
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Air is mostly nitrogen. Nitrogen companies make it by air separation. Distillation of liquid air very much like oil is refined but at very low temperature.
The German company Linde is the original but Air Products is best known in the US.
Companies that supply acetylene as for welding and cutting torches often also supply oxygen, the other major ingredient of air. They also have nitrogen. Fast freezing food seems to be a major market for nitrogen. Also for inerting tanks to keep their vapor space from becoming explosive. Protect things from air.
As to an execution method, its hard to beat the Kashogi method. Plastic bag over the head tied with a string. Ideally while patient is sedated or handcuffed.
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Nope. High tech mfg company where I worked had TWO large tanks for liquid nitrogen. Used in R&D and mfg, particularly with a vacuum furnace (several small ones in various locations around the building). The tanks were connected to an internal distribution pipeline to wherever it was needed/used. The upper tank fed the lower tank, so when the upper tank hit a certain level, it would “call home” and a liquid nitrogen truck would be sent to refill the upper tank. Maybe 7000 gallons, more or less. Other gases were used, but only nitrogen was used in volume sufficient to justify delivery via tanker of liquid gas. The other gases were delivered in standard metal bottles.
From memory, BOC? Now part of Linde.
The person would have to be heavily sedated. Otherwise the brain detects the buildup of CO2 and starts screaming it is suffocating.
Lots of easy ways to off people without controversial drugs. You can use a decompression chamber. Simulate an unpressurized aircraft at high altitude. Plenty of people have died in airplanes because they don’t even realize what is happening to them.
Some decades ago, Johnathan Miller, an MD, did a TV series about human physiology, called “The Body In Question”. In one segment, he demonstrated oxygen starvation, using an apparatus that included a chemical canister that removed the CO2 from the system, so his brain would not pick it up. He slowly started to lose consciousness, on camera. In his narration, added after the experiment, he said he really did not realize what was happening. With a last flicker of awareness, he tore the face mask off, and an aid rushed onto the set with an oxygen tank.
Or, carbon monoxide. Plenty of people kill themselves without realizing it by using a leaking furnace or running a generator inside the house.
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“The difference in paying for nitrogen in your tires.”
If you have ever worked with a compressor, compressed air is saturated with water vapor. You are forever draining water from the compressed air tank. Nitrogen from liquid air should be very low moisture.
Wet air in tires can give ice in low spots giving you tires out of balance.
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Oxygen is weakly corrosive and compressed air has plenty of water in it. Your tires are built to withstand it, but it isn’t a great combination. Pure, dry nitrogen is better. But as you say, the kicker is the cost and inconvenience so it is probably not worth it.
That said, Costco (most of them anyway) has free self-serve nitrogen filling so it is a good place to top off your tires if you are going to be there anyway.
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