Majority of India's oxygen capacity idle, unused: Report

Pressure swing adsorption plants are working at a capacity of over 20,000 tonnes a day, whereas India's oxygen requirement currently stands at around 1,300 tonnes

After the nationwide scare by oxygen scarcity during the Covid-19 pandemic's deadly second wave last year, India has vastly enhanced its medical oxygen capacity, to the point where a majority of it is currently laying idle and unused.

According to a report on Business Standard, pressure swing adsorption (PSA) plants are working at a capacity of over 20,000 tonnes a day, whereas India's oxygen requirement currently stands at around 1,300 tonnes.

Saket Tiku, President of AIIGMA and a member of the Oxygen Committee by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), told the publication that there were problems with the procurement of PSAs, and one needs clarity on how many are operational.

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Tiku’s concern stems from the fact that several incidents of breakdowns have been reported for these PSA plants in hospitals.

"Several government hospitals received these PSA oxygen plants for free. Since they didn't pay for these plants, many hospitals are not concerned even as they lie idle. Also, with many of such plants having been imported, spare parts are not available for maintenance, making it worse," an oxygen manufacturing industry official in Gujarat told the publication on condition of anonymity.

On the other hand, it appears that private hospitals are using a different approach, mainly due to PSA oxygen being of lower quality than liquid medical oxygen (LMO). While one Delhi hospital said that it was "straddled" with a PSA, corporate hospitals like Manipal said that they didn't opt for PSA plants due to having long-term LMO contracts. Fortis and Apollo hospitals, however, were more optimistic about the use of PSA plants.

A senior official of Inox Air Products told the publication that for major oxygen producers, over 95 per cent of the production was for industrial purposes before Covid-19, and has now been diverted for it after the pandemic subsided.