Oxygen, the abundance, and the lack of it!

The second spurt of Covid with more lethal mutations are witnessing a hitherto unseen demand for medical treatment, bed, Remdesivir or Tocilizumab and Oxygen. The air in Earth’s atmosphere is made up of approximately 78 per cent nitrogen and 21 per cent oxygen. Air has small amounts of lots of other gases, such as carbon dioxide, neon, and hydrogen. Medical oxygen must be at least 82% pure. Oxygen is ordinarily produced in plants by splitting, separating and filtering various gases present in the air. The simpler Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) draws the oxygen from the atmosphere and increasing the concentration onsite at large hospitals.

India’s total Covid cases are 17 million, of which 14 million have recovered, and the active cases are 2.75 million. The number of dead is close to 2 lacs as of 24th April 2021. India is adding almost 250000 new cases daily in the last 4-5 days. Covid depletes oxygen levels in the body, causing multiple organ failures and often death.

India produces 7200 metric tons of oxygen every day, now the most diverted for medical use. The demand has outstripped production capacity, the daily demand rising to 8000 Metric Tonnes. The pre-Covid level of medical oxygen demand was 700-800 tonnes a day. Ordinarily, 15% of the oxygen goes for medical use and the rest for industrial uses. The Union Government, in October 2020, invited tenders for 150 PSA oxygen plants with a cumulative capacity of 80,500 litres per minute.

In January, the PM Cares fund allocated Rs.201.58 crores for setting up a total of 162 PSA plants across India, of which 33 have been set up already. Further, 59 plants are expected to go on stream by April end and 80 by May end. Even though the PSA has a faster return on investment, fewer hospitals had opted to set up their oxygen plants until the crisis shook them. The situation could be different now.

Oxygen is liquified at temperatures less than minus 183 degrees Celsius and requires special tankers. Nearly 500 factories purify oxygen to its liquid form and send it to hospitals around the country, most through tankers.

The Union Government also has provided its Airforce planes for returning Oxygen tankers to the factories for a refill. In a rare deviation, the Defence Ministry has permitted all hospitals under its command to treat Covid patients.

The oxygen tankers are mandated for a maximum of 40 km and avoid night travel to avoid accidents. The Government has also initiated ‘Oxygen express trains’ carrying tankers. The first train carrying oxygen cylinders from Vishakapatnam last week left for Maharashtra. A second train from Bokaro reached Lucknow in UP yesterday. Each train carries 16 tonnes of medical oxygen and can travel at 65 km. Odisha and Kerala have come forward to assist Delhi, a distressed state, where many deaths are reported from hospitals for lack of oxygen.

The Government also has done away with import duties for the life-saving gas. India plans to import 50000 Metric tonnes of oxygen immediately.

The 28 steel plants in both the public sector and private are supplying 1500 Metric tonnes of oxygen every day. The steel mills have so far diverted 1.3 lac Metric tonnes of oxygen for medical use. Private corporate houses have chipped in as well, ITC, a multiproduct company tying up with Linde to import cryogenic tankers from Asian countries. Many others, the Tatas and Reliance, have diverted some of their oxygen supplies to the cause of saving lives. The Government is also planning to airlift 23 mobile oxygen generating plants from Germany. Each plant can produce nearly 50000 litres of oxygen per month. Inox Air caters to 60% of the total Indian demand for medical oxygen. With their 44 manufacturing locations across the country, their tankers are running round the clock to various hospitals to save precious lives.

An insider in the oxygen trade, seeking anonymity, confides that the present shortage is due to a shortage of tankers and cylinders and not oxygen itself. A tanker costs Rs.45 lacs. An oxygen cylinder costs Rs.10000. The cost of oxygen-filled fetches a mere Rs.300 per cylinder costing Rs.10000/-. The Covid cases concentrated on a few places like Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi. The tankers need to cover 2000 km and 7-10 days for a round trip on average.

The sudden and unprepared second wave has taken the nation by surprise and shock. The deaths are sad and cannot be justified. The question is: Could the Government not foresee a second or even a future third wave and prepare to combat well in advance. Could the election rallies have been avoided in the wake of a spurt of Covid in West Bengal? Who will be responsible for the deaths and lack of planning?

Who is the angel of death and despair?

Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix