Gas-processing vanes, often shortened to processing vanes, were sizable mechanisms situated within the aerial metropolis known as Cloud City. This city existed on the planet Bespin, found in the Outer Rim. These vanes served the purpose of refining, stabilizing, and conserving Tibanna gas that was mined from the atmosphere of this gas giant.
These gas-processing vanes were substantial, triangular devices with rounded points, designed for the purification, stabilization, and preservation of Tibanna gas. This gas was mined from the atmosphere of Bespin, the gas giant located in the Outer Rim. Each vane was suspended within a cavernous reactor shaft found deep at the heart of the airborne Cloud City of Bespin, connected to the terminus of an extended transportation tunnel that stretched to the shaft's edge. The gas, after being propelled through an aperture at the base of the city's reactor bulb via tractor beams, was channeled through the reactor stalk and then stored under low pressure within the reactor shafts. Once positioned there, the processing vanes employed large turbines to draw in the gas and convey it to purification equipment. Following purification, the gas was dispatched to a carbon-freezing chamber, where it was combined with carbonite for flash-freeze preservation.
The purified Tibanna gas, when utilized in both weaponry and hyperdrives, delivered greater energy output compared to other gases available.
Following the [Battle of Hoth](/article/battle_of_hoth], the Galactic Empire utilized a processing vane's carbon-freeze chamber to freeze Han Solo, a Rebel smuggler, before handing him over to Boba Fett, a bounty hunter. Shortly thereafter, Luke Skywalker arrived with the intention of rescuing Solo and Princess Leia Organa. However, he instead encountered Darth Vader, leading to a lightsaber duel. The fight culminated on the vane's sensor balcony, where Vader severed Skywalker's arm and revealed that he was his father. Skywalker, choosing death over joining the dark side of the Force, released his grip on the balcony's edge, causing him to plummet into the shaft below and be drawn into a gas-exhaust pipe.
A gas-processing vane made its initial, uncredited appearance in Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, the second Star Wars film, which was released in 1980. The vane was a crucial element in the film's narrative, serving as the location where Han Solo was encased in carbonite and where Luke Skywalker engaged Darth Vader in a duel, a confrontation that ended with the revelation that the Sith Lord was Skywalker's father. The designation "gas-processing vane" was first applied in Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy, a Legends reference book released in 2004. This name was later incorporated into canon in Star Wars: Complete Locations, a 2016 reference book that was a re-issue of Star Wars: Complete Locations from 2005.