The project report includes Present Market Position and Expected Future Demand, Market Size, Statistics, Trends, SWOT Analysis and Forecasts. Report provides a comprehensive analysis from industry covering detailed reporting and evaluates the position of the industry by providing insights to the SWOT analysis of the industry.
Air is a mixture of gases, consisting primarily of Nitrogen (78%), Oxygen (21%) and inert gas argon (0.9%). The remaining 0.1% is made up mostly of Carbon dioxide and inert gases such as Helium (He), Krypton (Kr), Xenon (Xe) and Neon (Ne) and other gases like Hydrogen (H2), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Carbon dioxide (CO2) and Nitrous Oxide (N2O), Chlorine (Cl2), Hydrogen Chloride (HCl) and Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Acetylene (C2H2), Methane (CH4) and Propane (C3H8). In addition, there are many different mixtures of these and other gases to meet the needs of specific applications. Air can be separated into its components by means of distillation in special units. So called air fractionating plants employ a thermal process known as cryogenic rectification to separate the individual components from one another to produce high purity Nitrogen, Oxygen and Argon in liquid and gaseous form.
Liquid oxygen is a cryogenic liquid. Cryogenic liquids are liquefied gases that have a normal boiling point below -238°F (-150°C). Liquid oxygen has a boiling point of -297.3°F (-183.0°C). Because the temperature difference between the product and the surrounding environment is substantial—even in the winter—keeping liquid oxygen insulated from the surrounding heat is essential. The product also requires special equipment for handling and storage. Oxygen is often stored as a liquid, although it is used primarily as a gas. Liquid storage is less bulky and less costly than the equivalent capacity of high-pressure gaseous storage.
A typical storage system consists of a cryogenic storage tank, one or more vaporizers, a pressure control system, and all piping necessary for the fill, vaporization, and supply functions. The cryogenic tank is constructed, in principle, like a thermos bottle. There is an inner vessel surrounded by an outer vessel. Between the vessels is an annular space that contains an insulating medium, from which all the air has been removed. This space keeps heat away from the liquid oxygen held in the inner vessel. Vaporizers convert the liquid oxygen into a gaseous state. A pressure control manifold then controls the gas pressure that is fed to the process or application. Vessels used in liquid oxygen service should be designed according to ASME codes for the pressure and temperatures involved. Piping design should follow similar codes, as issued by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
Health Effects
Normally air contains 21% oxygen and oxygen is essentially nontoxic. No health effects have been observed in people exposed to concentrations up to 50% at 1 atmosphere for 24 hours or longer. The inhalation at 1 atmosphere of 80% oxygen for more than 12 hours can cause irritation of the respiratory tract, progressive decrease in vital capacity, coughing, nasal stuffiness, sore throat, and chest pain, followed by tracheobronchitis and later by pulmonary congestion and/or edema. Inhalation of pure oxygen at atmospheric pressure or less can cause pulmonary irritation and edema after 24 hours. Respiratory symptoms can occur in two to six hours at pressures above 1 atmosphere. One of the earliest responses of the lung is accumulation of water in its interstitial spaces and within the pulmonary cells. This can cause reduced lung function, which is the earliest measurable sign of toxicity.
Other symptoms include fever, and sinus and eye irritation. When pure oxygen is inhaled at pressures greater than 2 or 3 atmospheres, a characteristic neurological syndrome can be observed. Signs and symptoms include nausea, dizziness, vomiting, tiredness, light-headedness, mood changes, euphoria, confusion, incoordination, muscular twitching, burning/ tingling sensations particularly of the fingers and toes, and loss of consciousness. Characteristic epileptic-like convulsions, which may be preceded by visual disturbances, such as loss of peripheral vision, also occur. Continued exposure can cause severe convulsions that can lead to death. The effects are reversible after reduction of oxygen pressure.
Premature infants placed in incubators to breathe oxygen in concentrations greater than in air can develop irreversible eye damage. Within six hours after an infant is placed in a high-oxygen atmosphere, vasoconstriction of the immature vessels of the retina occurs, which is reversible if the child is immediately returned to air, but irreversible if oxygen-rich therapy is continued. Fully developed blood vessels are not sensitive to oxygen toxicity. Extensive tissue damage or cryogenic burns can result from exposure to liquid oxygen or cold oxygen vapors.
Oxygen, the gaseous element that constitutes 20.946% of the earth’s, atmosphere, is essential to respiration and life in all animals and to most forms of vegetation. Oxygen supports the combustion of feels which supply mankind with heat, light and power, and it enters into oxidative Combination with many materials. The speed of reaction and effectiveness of combination increases with oxygen concentrations greater than that of air Industry has established 99.5% purity for the bulk commercial product.
The great importance of the industrial gas, oxygen is due to the usefulness of the acetylene torch for steel welding and steel cutting, and for the welding of other metals, to lesser degree to the oxyhydrogen flame. Oxygen gas in the breathing apparatus for a visitor at high altitudes and for oxygentents in hospitals is a high altitude and for oxygentents in hospitals is a more recent development. An extension of the use of oxygen lies in the increased intensity and speed of reactions brought about by oxygen enriched air instead of ordinary air; the reduction of the cycle time so achieved in chemical or metallurgical process permits a greater yield per volume of equipment and brings about lower costs. Oxygen as a raw material for synthesizing chemical compounds is in daily use (ethylene oxide, sodium peroxide). Liquid oxygen mixed with carbon black may yet become an important and cheap explosive.
Oxygen is one of the basic chemical elements. In its most common form, oxygen is a colorless gas found in air. It is one of the life-sustaining elements on Earth and is needed by all animals. Oxygen is also used in many industrial, commercial, medical, and scientific applications. It is used in blast furnaces to make steel, and is an important component in the production of many synthetic chemicals, including ammonia, alcohols, and various plastics. Oxygen and acetylene are combusted together to provide the very high temperatures needed for welding and metal cutting. When oxygen is cooled below -297°F (-183°C), it becomes a pale blue liquid that is used as a rocket fuel.
Oxygen is one of the most abundant chemical elements on Earth. About one-half of the earth’s crust is made up of chemical compounds containing oxygen, and a fifth of our atmosphere is oxygen gas. The human body is about two-thirds oxygen. Although oxygen has been present since the beginning of scientific investigation, it wasn’t discovered and recognized as a separate element until 1774 when Joseph Priestley of England isolated it by heating mercuric oxide in an inverted test tube with the focused rays of the sun. Priestley described his discovery to the French scientist Antoine Lavoisier, who experimented further and determined that it was one of the two main components of air. Lavoisier named the new gas oxygen using the Greek words oxys, meaning sour or acid, and genes, meaning producing or forming, because they believed it was an essential part of all acids.
Oxygen plants are industrial systems designed to generate oxygen. They typically use air as a feedstock and separate it from other components of air using pressure swing adsorption or membrane separation techniques. Such plants are distinct from cryogenic separation plants which separate and capture all the components of air.
On the commercial scale, oxygen is made from atmospheric air small production by the electrolysis of water is the result of special circumstances.
