(272b) Production of Adsorption-based Medical Oxygen Generators: Challenging the Supply Chain in the Corona Pandemic

With the spread of the corona pandemic, the demand for medical oxygen (MOX) in all regions with high corona infections rates increased dramatically. Spontaneous delivery of liquid medical oxygen from abroad made it possible to solve the supply situation in many regions short term, but couldn’t solve the continuous growing demand for medical oxygen especially in developing countries. Several governments globally decided to solve the problem in a sustainable way by purchasing MOXgenerators, which resulted in a huge challenge for the supply chain of producers for MOX on-site units.

PSA technology is a widespread application that is used to remove CO2 from biogas to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) or to remove water from compressed air. The technology is also used in recent years to produce industrial gases (oxygen and nitrogen) with reliable quality on-site. In contrast to the classical air separation technology based on the Linde cycle, PSA technology allows to produce different gas qualities depending on the requirements given by industrial clients.

Since many years, the PSA technology is further developed to meet the demand of hospitals to produce medical oxygen in reliable quality. This application required additional features on the final units and the MOX generators had been only a small portion of all PSA units produced globally. The presentation will demonstrate the evolution from industrial oxygen PSAs to medical oxygen units and the critical supply situation within the supply chain during the pandemic.