Demand far outstrips oxygen industry capacity in region

Nagpur: Despite as much as 16,000 cylinders refilled each day by gas manufacturing units in the city, and another gas for 3,000 cylinders coming from Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, there remains a significant shortage of medical oxygen, say hospital and industry sources.
There are six oxygen manufacturing units in the city and two major refillers. There are two types of oxygen makers — bulk liquid plants and air separation units. The bulk liquid plant has a larger capacity as compared to a separation unit.
There is a single bulk liquid manufacturer in the region, Inox Air Products Limited, Butibori. It produces liquid oxygen, which is converted to gaseous state and administered to patients. Even in an air separation unit, oxygen is first taken out from air in liquid form and then turned into gas and filled in cylinders.
A bulk liquid maker can cater to a larger consumer base. The single Inox plant not only caters to hospitals in Nagpur but also other centres in the region. The liquid oxygen supplied by Inox is turned into gas by hospitals.
The rest depend on cylinders that come from air separation units. Refillers also get liquid from Inox and fill gas into cylinders and supply to hospitals.
Patients not on ventilators require 5 litres of oxygen a minute on an average. This translates to one cylinder per day. Those on ventilator need 10 cylinders and those on bi-pap need 5 cylinders at least, said a hospital source. GMC alone has 850 patients needing different quantities of oxygen.
Industry sources say Inox is contributing to oxygen equivalent to 8,500 cylinders. This not only goes to major hospitals like GMC and Mayo, but also elsewhere in the region apart from supplies to major private hospitals with their own liquid oxygen storage plants.
The five air separation units contribute around 7,500 cylinders in all. Apart from this, liquid equivalent to 3,000 odd cylinders is being procured from Praxair India Private Limited, Bhilai. Praxair is the supplier to SAIL’s Bhilai Steel Plant.
The supply from Bhilai has been cut as demand in Chhattisgarh has gone up, said a source. Now much depends on fresh consignments coming by rail from the Vizag steel plant.
There is no fixed estimate of the demand from hospitals. To get a perfect estimate the requirement of home quarantine patients, Covid care centres and other smaller hospitals need to be calculated, said a source in the industries.
Dr Anup Marar, convenor of Vidarbha Hospitals Association (VHA), said, “There is a shortage. Due to this, a number of hospitals have kept their plans to expand their Covid treatment facility on hold.”
Hospitals like Kingsway have their own oxygen extraction unit. An official at the hospital said they can make oxygen enough for 150 cylinders from their plant but their requirement stands at 350 cylinders. The plant’s capacity will be augmented by another 60 cylinders, for which the order had been placed over a month ago. The new machinery is expected to reach in week.
Setting up an air filtration plant at the hospital can be another option to deal with the crisis. However, this is not an overnight process. It also depends on availably of the equipment and approvals. The whole process from producing the unit, which includes a compressor, takes at least one-and-a-half-months, said a source.
There are plans to get oxygen supply from Uttam Galva’s steel plant. A source in the management here said they are searching for a compressor, without which medical oxygen cannot be supplied.