Reliance becomes India’s largest medical oxygen producer

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has become India’s largest producer of medical-grade liquid oxygen from a single location.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2021

As the country grapples with an unprecedented new wave of COVID-19 pandemic, RIL now produces over 11% of India’s total production of medical grade liquid oxygen, at its refinery-cum-petrochemical facility in Jamnagar and other plants, meeting the needs of nearly every 1 in 10 patients in the country.

Liquid oxygen, abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries, is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an application which has continued to the present.

In commerce, liquid oxygen is classified as an industrial gas and is widely used for industrial and medical purposes. Liquid oxygen is obtained from the oxygen found naturally in air by fractional distillation in a cryogenic air separation plant.

Liquid oxygen therapy is the medical process of providing additional oxygen to a patient who cannot get enough oxygen on their own. Conditions such as asthma, cystic fibrosis, dysphasia, COPD, heart failure, lung disease, and pneumonia can be treated by liquid oxygen therapy.