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Context:

• Indian Railway has transported more than 14 thousand tons of Medical Liquid Oxygen, LMO to the Hospitals and Covid care centers in the state of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand and Delhi through its 8 hundred 58 Special freight trains run by Northern Railway.

About:

• Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOX is the liquid form of molecular oxygen.

History:

• 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.

Production:

• Source: Liquid oxygen is obtained from the oxygen found naturally in air by fractional distillation in a cryogenic air separation plant.
• Method used: The most common production method is separation of oxygen in what are known as Air Separation Units or ASU.
• Temperature: Atmospheric air is first cooled to -181°C. Oxygen liquifies at this point.
• Boiling point: The boiling point of Nitrogen is -196°C, it remains in a gaseous state.
  • But Argon has a boiling point similar to that of oxygen (–186°C) and hence a significant amount of Argon liquifies along with Oxygen.
• The resultant mixture of Oxygen and Argon is drained, decompressed and passed through a second low-pressure distillation vessel for further purification.
• We then get the output as final purified liquid oxygen, which is then transported using cryogenic containers.

 Liquid Oxygen and COVID

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1716197

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