Oxygen units boost output, but storage a worry

BENGALURU: Air cannot be produced from hot air, or out of thin air. But a bit of solid groundwork always helps.A day after Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar and Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar met oxygen manufacturers in the state, requesting them to scale up oxygen supply, the latter have almost doubled their output and supply of medical oxygen and are now running at their “maximum” capacity, according to industry sources. 

“The plants can further accelerate oxygen manufacture, but there is no infrastructure, not only in the state, but also in the rest of the country, to support the additional oxygen availability. There aren’t enough tankers, storage spaces, oxygenated beds, hospitals, health facilities and technicians to make use of inflated medical oxygen supply,” sources told TNIE.

According to sources, the four oxygen plants in Ballari - Air Water India (formerly known as Praxair India), JSW Industrial Gases Pvt Ltd, Linde India Ltd Pvt Ltd and Bellary Oxygen Company - have doubled their daily output from 200 metric tons (MT) to 400 MT per day. “Out of this, 35 per cent is reportedly being supplied to the neighbouring states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. The remaining 65 per cent of medical oxygen is reportedly being supplied to Karnataka, out of which, at least 40 per cent is said to be given to Bengaluru, where the demand for oxygen is very high,” the sources pointed out.According to government sources, the augmented oxygen supply from Ballari in the last two days has come as a succour to hospitals, which were running short of oxygen to treat Covid-19 patients. 

“The plants had increased the manufacture of oxygen in September last year to 400 MT daily. Earlier, up until July 2020, their daily output was between 120 and 150 MT. Liquid or medical oxygen is the purest form of industrial oxygen, which is largely used in steel plants,” said sources.There are seven liquid oxygen plants in Karnataka, which, till two days ago, were manufacturing around 812 metric tons of oxygen per day. Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa wrote to the Centre to increase its quota, after the latter capped Karnataka’s allocation to only 300 tons out of 812 tons that was being produced in the state.