Steel Cos rise to the occasion, divert Oxygen supply to hospitals

Government works with public and private sector steel companies to boost production of medical oxygen and ensures maximum supply for the people of India.

The production of medical-grade oxygen from all the steel plants across the country was around 1500/1700 MT per day last week. The Ministry of Steel has directed all captive oxygen plants of these steel companies to operate at maximum capacity and has been able to raise the output to 3474MT on April 24. About 2900MT of medical-grade oxygen was dispatched from several plants across the country to reinforce the supply of oxygen to states facing shortage due to the unimaginably high peak of the second COVID-19 wave.

Steel plants require gaseous oxygen, primarily for steel making and for oxygen enrichment in Blast Furnaces, apart from some general purposes like lancing and gas cutting. Hence Captive Oxygen Plants in Integrated Steel Plants are designed to produce primarily gaseous products of Oxygen, Nitrogen and Argon and then routed through Pressure Reduction & Management System (PRMS) to meet the process need at desired pressure. Such plants can produce 5-6% maximum Liquid Oxygen (LOX) at the peak capacity, which is a highly pure product compared to the industrial oxygen. Plants can only optimize LOX production by sacrificing some gaseous Oxygen and optimize process parameters.

The Average delivery of Liquid Medical Oxygen by SAIL has been raised to more than 800 tonnes per day. Around 1150T of LMO was delivered on 23rd April, and the quantity delivered yesterday was 960 Tonnes. SAIL has been continuously enhancing LMO supply. Total Liquid Medical Oxygen supplied from SAIL integrated steel plants at Bhilai, Bokaro, Rourkela, Durgapur and Burnpur from August, 2020 till yesterday has been 39,647 Tonnes.

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