With hospitals running out of oxygen, oil refineries of the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) in Panipat and the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited’s facility in Kochi are supplying the gas to them.
Is oxygen an important gas in refineries?
More than oxygen, refineries require high-purity nitrogen to maintain inert atmosphere in certain processes to prevent air ingress into hydrocarbon-containing vessels and for purging purposes. Nitrogen is mostly produced in cryogenic air separation units. Some refineries have the facility to produce oxygen of 99.7% purity, too, in these cryogenic air separation units. Some of the refineries have VPSA oxygen units that produce oxygen of 90% purity.
Where do refineries use oxygen?
Refineries use oxygen to enrich the air used in sulphur recovery units and catalytic cracking units. In the former, high-purity oxygen is added to the air for combustion. The latter units help convert vacuum gas oil to value-added products such as LPG, petrol and diesel.
What is the process in IOCL, Panipat?
IOCL has been supplying oxygen to various hospitals in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. It has a high-purity oxygen production unit, which is used in its mono ethylene glycol (MEG) unit to produce medical-grade liquid oxygen. It has reduced production of MEG and is supplying the oxygen to hospitals.
What is BPCL Kochi doing?
The build-own-operate unit of Kochi Refinery has a provision to produce and store liquid oxygen of 99.7% purity. When the oxygen crisis started, the facility was put to use. The unit can produce oxygen in both gaseous and liquid forms. So far, it has supplied for free 66 tonnes of oxygen from October 2020.
Is the CPCL refinery in Manali supplying oxygen?
No. The CPCL refinery does not supply oxygen to hospitals because it does not have the facility to bottle or store it. It does get a small quantity of oxygen from the unit that produces it. It also procures nitrogen from outside.
