The key difference between medical oxygen and industrial oxygen is that the medical oxygen is the form of oxygen gas that we use to maintain enough oxygen level in our blood whereas the industrial oxygen is the form of oxygen that we use in industrial applications.
Oxygen is essential for us to breathe. There is about 21% oxygen in our atmosphere. However, if we don’t have enough oxygen in our blood, our body does not function properly. Then we may have to get oxygen externally. Therefore, we call this oxygen as “medical oxygen”. We can make use of oxygen for industrial purposes as well. We call this form of oxygen as “industrial oxygen”.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Medical Oxygen
3. What is Industrial Oxygen
4. Side by Side Comparison – Medical Oxygen vs Industrial Oxygen in Tabular Form
5. Summary
What is Medical Oxygen?
Medical oxygen is the oxygen which we use to treat patients. We use it to maintain enough oxygen level in our blood. Oxygen therapy is the use of oxygen as a medical treatment. We can use it to treat low blood oxygen levels, carbon monoxide toxicity, cluster headaches, etc.
This oxygen provides a basis for virtually all modern anaesthetic techniques, restores tissue oxygen tension by increasing the oxygen availability, aids resuscitation, aids cardiovascular stability, etc. However, there are some side effects as well. Furthermore, high concentrations can cause toxicity.
What is Industrial Oxygen?
Industrial oxygen is the oxygen that we use for industrial purposes.
Followings are the uses of oxygen in industry:
- Multi-industry uses gas welding, gas cutting, oxygen scarfing, flame cleaning, flame straightening, etc.
- Metals manufacturing uses: steel production
- Petroleum industry: coal gasification, manufacture of ethylene oxide, propylene oxide, synthesis gas, etc.
- Glass and ceramics: conversion of air-fuel combustion systems into oxy-fuel combustion systems for high efficiency and reduction of NOx emissions.
- Pulp and paper manufacturing: oxygen as a bleaching chemical.
What is the Difference Between Medical Oxygen and Industrial Oxygen?
Medical oxygen is the oxygen that we use to treat patients. We use oxygen to maintain enough oxygen level in our blood. Industrial oxygen is the oxygen which we use for industrial purposes. We use oxygen in industries mainly for combustion and gasification processes.
Summary – Medical Oxygen vs Industrial Oxygen
Oxygen is an essential compound for all of us. We can categorise it as medical oxygen and industrial oxygen according to the applications. The difference between medical oxygen and industrial oxygen is that medical oxygen is the form of oxygen gas that we use to maintain enough oxygen level in our blood whereas the industrial oxygen is the form of oxygen that we use in industrial applications.
Reference:
1. “Oxygen Therapy.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 July 2018. Available here
2. “Oxygen (O2) Properties, Uses and Applications Oxygen Gas and Liquid Oxygen.” Universal Industrial Gases, Inc. … CO2 Quantity Units Converter. Available here
Image Courtesy:
1.’Cpapanwender’By Michael Symonds – Eigenanfertigung, (CC BY-SA 2.0 de) via Commons Wikimedia
2.’Compressed gas cylinders.mapp and oxygen.triddle’ By Triddle – Own work, (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
Kennedy says
i would like to know is there any different type of Oxygen used for healthcare and food processing
David Clifton says
Oxygen is oxygen, There’s no difference chemically between that used in industry and that used in medicine. The only difference is that medical oxygen is produced in such a way that it does not contain any contaminants, whereas with industrial oxygen this is not so critical. Both products are usually produced by the same companies and the cylinders have different colour bands so that each us only used for the right purpose
Asim says
What level of purity does medical Oxygen has to have, can this be expressed in % ?
dilip says
can we use Industrial oxygen cylinder for medical purposes? I mean we can fill medical oxygen in industrial cylinder?
Francesco says
Good day,
On commercial ships where i served for 41 years, the medical oxygen reserve is limited to few bottles of 1 or 2 litres and if exhausted we have to use the oxygen used for the welding.
In my life I had to use the welding oxygen to breathe and so far I had no adverse consequences. I breathed air enriched by welding oxygen for 7 days and here I am at almost 80 without problems. The breathing medical oxygen is abt 99%pure while the industrial is about 90/95 %,the purity id given by the filtration and the type of compressors used (oilless).
Although there is not a specific problem, for general safety and ethic the use of the oxygens have to be kept separated.
But there is no imperative need to separate the use of the two gases specification. In emergency is good enough for controlled use.
C S Rajan says
What are the key impurities in Industrial oxygen and Medical Oxygen causing the usage difference? Most important
fact is this only. Pl. post the analysis of the two.