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[A mukherjee]

Hi All,

 

     Though its not directly related to chemical industry, still I would like to know your view about a project which am doing with an esteemed industrial gases company. 

   Its related to the medical industry. Presently all the hospitals use  copper pipe line for transmission of oxygen. The supply scheme is as follows :

                                                                   gaseous oxygen (99.6% purity) is stored in cylinders at around 150 bar. From the cylinder the gas goes to a panel, which consists of regulators & check valves. The pressure is dropped from 150 to 4 bara by using two regulators in series, present in the panel.  Then Oxygen is supplied to the entire hospital ,via pipe network,at 4 bara pressure.

            Now my doubt is as follows:  In air separation plants, we use SS304L pipe line for carrying cryogenic/non cryogenic gaseous oxygen.Thus why cant be same be used for carrying 4 bara gaseous oxygen?

The copper  which is used is phopsorous deoxidized, non arsenic.

SS304L is also strongly resistant to corrosion.

 

              Thus I would like to know your critical view regarding this change of material spec.

 

Regards,

  Arpan

[Pilesar]

See http://www.documenta...d100071x012.pdf for guidelines. Copper does not ignite and burn as readily as stainless steel. If I were in charge of the hospital, I would consider a material change from copper to be a safety risk that needs thorough evaluation.

See also this NASA paper: http://www.hq.nasa.g...led/1740151.pdf