Steel plants in India enhance oxygen productionAs the Government has allowed setting up of 551 plants for producing liquid medical oxygen (LMO) across the country, the Ministry of Steel has informed that there are 33 oxygen plants in India including those in the private sector and against the2,834 metric tonnes of daily LMO production capacity in the steel sector, the production as on April 24 was 3,474 metric tonnes.Official sources said that the average delivery of LMO by Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has been raised to more than 800 tonnes per day.Around 1,150 tonnesof LMO was delivered on April 23, and the quantity delivered on Saturday (April 24) was 960 tonnes.Total LMOsupplied from SAIL integrated steel plants at Bhilai, Bokaro, Rourkela, Durgapur and Burnpur from August, 2020 till April 24has been 39,647 tonnes.State-owned Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) supplied8,842 tonnes of LMO in 2020-21.
During the current fiscal, from April13till the morning of April 25,more than 1,300 tonnes of medical oxygen has been dispatched, official sources informed.
Also thereis an increase from 100 tonnes to 140tonnes during the last three days.The first Oxygen Express had chugged offRINL Vizag Steel Plant site on April 22, carrying 100 tonnes of LMOto Maharashtra to meet medical exigencies of Covid patients.Steel plants needgaseous oxygenprimarily for steel making and for oxygen enrichment in blast furnaces, apart from some general purposes like lancing and gas cutting.
Hence captive oxygen plants in integrated steel plants are designed to produce mainlygaseous products of Oxygen, Nitrogen and Argon, which are and then routed through Pressure Reduction - Management System (PRMS) to meet the process need at desired pressure.