State-run oil firms setting up PSA oxygen plants across India, says oil minister
Oil and gas firms are setting up PSA medical oxygen generation plants at 100 locations, says Dharmendra Pradhan
He also inaugurated a PSA-based Medical Oxygen Generating Plant and Booster Unit at Maharaj Agrasen Hospital in Delhi
NEW DELHI : New Delhi: As part of India’ strategy to be ready for any possibility of a third wave of coronavirus pandemic, Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) medical oxygen generation plants are being set up across the country, steel and petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Sunday.
State-owned oil and gas companies are setting up PSA medical oxygen generation plants at 100 locations, to help meet the oxygen need in the hospitals of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
As part of this plan, Pradhan on Sunday “inaugurated a PSA-based Medical Oxygen Generating Plant and Booster Unit at Maharaj Agrasen Hospital in Punjabi Bagh, New Delhi.”
Around 1,500 PSA oxygen plants are being set up through contribution of PM -CARES Fund and state-run firms, among others.
“The plant has been set up by Indraprastha Gas Ltd, the largest CNG distribution company of the country as a part of its CSR programme. This plant can also be used to fill oxygen cylinders. Six more PSA-based plants are being set up in Delhi by various oil and gas PSUs,” IGL said in a statement.
This comes in the backdrop of an acute oxygen availability crisis in the country amid a surge in covid infections, that saw hospital beds and medicines running out. The situation was alarming with the reported deaths of critically ill covid-19 patients due to low oxygen.
“The plant is unique in nature and has a dual facility of filling cylinders as well as feeding hospital manifold. Capacity of this plant is 60 NM3/Hr and can give Oxygen with purity of up to 96%. This plant is one of its kinds in the entire Delhi NCR region, which can also fill 12 Jumbo Type-D Medical oxygen cylinders per hour through an oxygen compressor at 150 bar. Apart from providing medical oxygen support to the beds connected to hospital manifold through pipes, this plant can also provide oxygen in the empty Oxygen Cylinders,” the statement said.
Also, India’ state-run steel and oil and gas firms are supplying oxygen and procuring cryogenic containers for transporting liquid medical oxygen. State-run oil and gas firms are also setting up 10,500 beds for the treatment of covid-19 patients near their plants and refineries.
“The steel companies played a major role by supplying LMO (Liquid Medical Oxygen) across the country by diverting their oxygen producing capacities towards producing LMO and by reducing steel production,” Pradhan said according to the statement.
