Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) commonly produced from Air Separation Plants (ASP)

12

Jan

Rakesh Dixit

Liquid Medical Oxygen or LMO is oxygen which has been liquefied by cooling it at its boiling point of -183 degrees Celsius. The liquid form is easier to transport, store and breathe than the gas form.

Liquid medical oxygen is colourless and odourless, and it only remains a liquid at the low temperature of -190 Degrees Celsius to -183 Degrees Celsius. When stored at room-temperature, the liquid will re-turn back into its gaseous molecular state. It is usually sold in PET bottles, plastic cylinders or glass containers.

Concentrated Oxygen is the most commonly used form of medical oxygen. It comes in higher concentrations than room air that is at 21% oxygen. It is sometimes referred to as 40 volume or 40%. This type of medical oxygen is used by patients who have developed problems using air due to lung disease.

The most common production method for separation of oxygen is Air Separation Plants or ASPs. ASPs are primarily used for production of medical oxygen from nitrogen and oxygen-rich air.

ASP are more expensive than air separation membrane systems, but they have the highest conversion efficiency.

In an ASP, air from the surroundings is mixed with a large amount of pure oxygen (generally in terms of mole fraction: O2 ≥ 99.5%) under high pressure and carried into a low-pressure area where the oxygen is released and stored.

Oxygen is processed in large volumes at Air Separation Plants. The main method used to produce oxygen is called pressure swing adsorption and uses oxygen-lean feed gas to 'swing' the residual oxygen to separate it from the nitrogen.

Bhartiya Cryogas is a well-known air separation plant manufacturer and exporter in India. Air separation plants include Nitrogen Plant, Oxygen Plant, Compressor, Water Cooler etc. The company supplies technologically advanced Air Separation Plants and Cryogenic Oxygen Plants, Nitrogen, Argon. It has designed and supplied a complete range of Air Separation Plants for our domestic clients in the Indian market and are exporting Air Separation Plants to Saudi Arabia, Middle East, Asia and Africa.

The Air Separation Plant (ASP) is one of Cryogas' specialities. The plant uses cryogenic technology to produce Nitrogen and Oxygen, both primarily used in GAS applications. ASP's are used by large industrial and power plants for producing process gases for use in boilers, turbines, and other power generating equipment. These process gases are produced from air in the range of gaseous purity from 99.95% N2+O2 to 99.99% N2 or O2 by blendng the incoming air with lower purity synthesis gas obtained from a syngas generator feeding steam methane reformer, at low pressure (1-150 psig) provided by a condensing steam reforming unit, with cryogenic separation necessarily taking place at ambient temperature and pressure (0-60 psig).