How Liquid Oxygen is Made for Medical?

 

Oxygen makes up 65 percent of the human body. Yes, oxygen is required for respiration, which is the process through which energy is transferred from carbohydrates to cells. Every cell in our body, in fact, demands oxygen. When we take a deep breath, oxygen molecules enter our lungs and pass through the lung walls into our bloodstream.

Because COVID-19 decreases lung function, oxygen is critical in the treatment of individuals with severe COVID-19. One of the most common symptoms in people with severe COVID-19 is shortness of breath or trouble breathing. It also reduces the amount of oxygen delivered to different sections of the body. As a result, they require oxygen therapy, which is provided via medical oxygen. Liquid Medical Oxygen is one of the ways that this oxygen can be delivered (LMO).

Why is it a liquid state?

At room temperature, oxygen is in a gaseous state due to its low melting and boiling temperatures. Liquification allows for more storage space and easier transportation.

How is Liquid Medical Oxygen made?

There are a few options. The separation of oxygen in Air Separation Units (Asus) is the most frequent technique of production. Asus are essentially large-scale gas separation plants. They employ a technology known as fractional distillation to generate pure oxygen from atmospheric air, which is primarily composed of nitrogen and oxygen (78 percent nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% additional gases such as argon, carbon dioxide, neon, helium, and hydrogen). This method involves separating gases from the air into distinct components after chilling them to a liquid state and then extracting liquid oxygen from it.

The air in the atmosphere is first cooled to -181°C. At this stage, oxygen begins to liquefy. Nitrogen remains in a gaseous state because its boiling point is -196°C. However, because Argon's boiling point (–186°C) is similar to that of oxygen, a large amount of Argon liquefies with oxygen. The resulting mixture of oxygen and argon is drained, decompressed, and purified further in a second low-pressure distillation vessel. The end product is purified liquid oxygen, which is transported using cryogenic containers.

What are cryogenic containers?

The creation and behavior of materials at extremely low temperatures are known as cryogenics. A cryogenic liquid is one with a normal boiling point of less than –90°C. Cryogenic liquid containers are developed specifically for the safe and cost-effective transportation and storage of liquefied gases at cryogenic temperatures below –90°C. Liquid gases are held at extremely low temperatures in these highly insulated containers.

What is the Pressure Swing Adsorption Technique, and how does it work?

Selective adsorption can be used to produce oxygen in a non-cryogenic, gaseous form. This approach takes advantage of the fact that gases are attracted to solid surfaces at high pressure. The greater the pressure, the greater the gas adsorption.

When a gas mixture, such as air, is forced through a vessel containing an adsorbent bed of 'zeolite,' which attracts nitrogen more strongly than oxygen, a portion or all of the nitrogen will remain in the bed, and the gas exiting the vessel will be richer in oxygen than the mixture entering the vessel.

Hospitals can also use this technology to generate oxygen on-site, where oxygen is produced by concentrating ambient air. Producing oxygen close to hospitals has the added benefit of removing the need for transportation.

There are additional portable oxygen generators known as Oxygen Concentrators that can be used at home in addition to the foregoing sources of medical oxygen.

For more updates: ANP Pharma