New plant of Cryogenmash provides with 10 % of medical oxygen in Russia
11.06.2021
The new industrial gases production plant of “Cryogaz-Tula” was put into operation in 2020. It is designed to uninterrupted provision of Tulachermet-Steel steelmaking with nitrogen, oxygen and argon.
Since January, 2021, the plant has started supplying liquid medical oxygen to healthcare facilities in six regions of Russia. The plant receives about 60 tons of oxygen in liquid form every day. The capacity of the plant manufactured by Cryogenmash may provide about 10% of all-Russian production of this important medicine.
The purity of the products obtained is continuously monitored in the laboratory of chemical analysis and chromatography. The level of impurities in oxygen is determined by using chromatograph - device for analysis of complex gas mixtures. The content of foreign impurities should not exceed hundredths of a percent.
The air separation in cryogenic plants is based on its liquefaction and subsequent separation into component parts by low-temperature separation. Cryogenic plants are the complex technical structure, including equipment for atmospheric air compressing and preparing, heat exchangers, turbo expander-compressor units, distillation columns, cryogenic pumps and much more.
Cryogenmash is the largest company in Russia, producing air separation technologies and equipment. Balashikha company is the member of “United Heavy Machinery Plants”. The equipment manufactured by Cryogenmash provide with about 70% of annual output of industrial gases in Russia. Cryogenic air separation plants allow obtaining pure oxygen, nitrogen, argon and rare gases - neon, xenon and krypton in large quantities. The company structure includes the research and design institute of cryogenic engineering and machinery plant.
In November, 2020, the company received a license for the medical oxygen production. Soon, the Cryogaz-Tula products were entered into the register of medicines and received a registration certificate.
Since January, 2021, the plant has started supplying liquid medical oxygen to healthcare facilities in six regions of Russia. The plant receives about 60 tons of oxygen in liquid form every day. The capacity of the plant manufactured by Cryogenmash may provide about 10% of all-Russian production of this important medicine.
In total, Cryogenmash has built about 600 air separation plants in more than 20 countries around the world. There are more than 120 cryogenic air separation plants manufactured by Balashikha company in Russia. The plant located in Tula is one of the newest. It provide with 14 thousand cubic meters of gaseous oxygen per hour and the same amount of gaseous nitrogen, and liquid oxygen, nitrogen and argon. Moreover, the quality of the liquid oxygen obtained exceeds the requirements that are specified on medical oxygen.
The purity of the products obtained is continuously monitored in the laboratory of chemical analysis and chromatography. The level of impurities in oxygen is determined by using chromatograph - device for analysis of complex gas mixtures. The content of foreign impurities should not exceed hundredths of a percent.
“We separate the air into components using low-temperature rectification. By creating conditions for boiling of air components - oxygen, nitrogen and argon - at cryogenic temperatures, we extract them with the purity we need. The whole process is monitored automatically. In the laboratory, the accumulation of harmful impurities inside the cold unit of the air separation plant is monitored online. The purity of the liquid oxygen produced is 99.9 percent, which is higher than the requirements for medical oxygen (99.5%),” - explained Sergey Zhvakov, General Director of Cryogaz-Tula.
Cryogenic equipment operates in a continuous mode. In the air separation control room, dispatchers control the entire process of obtaining oxygen, nitrogen and argon. Using electronic circuits of pipelines, apparatus, fittings, distillation columns and data on pressure, flow and temperature, operators adjust the system operation depending on requirements and even weather conditions.
We continuously monitor the process, adjusting to the current conditions, and are trained to act in case of emergency situation - equipment shutdown during power outages or when switching to backup equipment. It is impossible to leave the plant without control, at least one person should always be in the operator's room. Using graphs on the monitors, we monitor the changing parameters; so we can predict the situation and correct this or that process,” - said Sergey Rogatkin, station master.
“Our plant provides the necessary products of the right quality and quantity. To ensure the production process, about 25-30 people are required, including shift specialists from the control room and personnel who maintain the equipment, perform chemical analyses. The company has large cryogenic storage tanks for liquid products. This provides a reserve both for our main customer, Tulachermet-Steel, and for medical centers. This is very important, because the storage system allows accumulating 560 tons of liquid oxygen in case of a sharp increase of demand,” - said Sergey Zhvakov, General Director of Cryogaz-Tula.