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Neon is not the main reason they are doing it. It's a byproduct that gives them a little extra profit once they've distilled the air anyway for other reasons.
by Jiro 5y ago
Neon is not the main reason they are doing it. It's a byproduct that gives them a little extra profit once they've distilled the air anyway for other reasons. Distilling the air just to get neon wouldn't be profitable.
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoNo. But if you're Air Liquide or somebody in the US, and you're distilling the air anyway, adding the capability to extract the neon might make sense.
- lazide 5y agoOnly if the soviets hadn’t already spent until billions adding the capacity to overproduce it due to a perceived national security need that didn’t pan out. It’s essentially free for the company to do this since the gov’t already sunk the cost decades ago. No one has done that for Air liquide, at least not yet.
- robertlagrant 5y agoSometimes even a non-invisible hand of the market can get it right, if only by accident.
- eru 5y agoWhat do you mean by 'get it right' in this case? How would getting it wrong look?
- robertlagrant 5y agoGetting it wrong would be something that was a waste of money or deadly.