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As India gasps for oxygen, Linde India, one of the major producers of the gas in the country and associate company Praxair India, have outlined a three-pronged strategy to tackle the shortage.

“Linde is collaborating with its operations in the Asia Pacific, including in Singapore, China and Thailand, as well as various Indian industry partners to transport ISO cryogenic tankers from across the region to India. These containers can carry up to 20 tons of Liquid Oxygen over long distances, and upon arrival the containers will be conditioned and certified for liquid medical oxygen transport from Linde facilities,” Linde India authorities said in a statement on April 28.

These tankers can also act as interim oxygen storages in remote areas that are facing oxygen scarcity.

Eight containers have arrived in India and several more are expected over the next few weeks.

Other major oxygen producers in the country are National; Oxygen, Goyal M G Gases, Inox air Products and Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation.

Industrial to medical

Linde India has also taken steps to convert industrial volumes to medical oxygen ready to cater to the increasing need.

Linde India and Praxair India between themselves manage several plants with air separation capabilities that have a combined capacity of more than 2,000 metric tonnes per day (MTPD) and are located across India.

Both companies are deploying their liquid nitrogen and liquid argon tankers to help in oxygen transportation.

On the rails

Linde is also collaborating with Indian Railways for its roll-on-roll-off service for faster transportation of medical oxygen to different regions.

Empty tankers are being ferried closer to the plant locations, where they are filled-up and then the refilled tankers are transported by road to various parts of the country.

The two companies are also expediting oxygen plant installation works in various hospitals such as GMERS Medical College, Junagadh, Gujarat and Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute, Lucknow. Both have template capacities of 20 kilolitres.

The numbers

According to reports, the country has production capacity of 7,127 tonnes of oxygen a day. But it is estimated that the requirement of medical oxygen has risen from 3,842 tonnes on April 12 to 6,785 tonnes on April 22, or by 76% in 10 days. Before the pandemic India’s daily requirement of medical oxygen was estimated around 800 tonnes.

Though on paper the country still has sufficient oxygen, while the requirement is more in the North and West, the generation is more in the east. Quick transportation of oxygen is a logistical challenge.

The shortage has led to black marketing of oxygen cylinders all over the country.

“All possible efforts are being undertaken to address supply and transportation challenges and we are thankful to our international counterparts and industry partners such as the ITC Group, Tata Group and many more such organisations that are coming forward to lend their support in executing these initiatives. We are committed to support the government in this fight against the debilitating pandemic and will continue to explore other avenues to help address the challenges emerging during these trying times,” said Moloy Banerjee, Head Gases – South Asia, Linde South Asia Services.

Linde India Limited and Praxair India are subsidiaries of Linde Plc, which was created in October 2018 by merger of Praxair Inc and Linde AG.