People might once have considered oxygen a human right. But the pandemic has revealed that access to oxygen – in a pure form, for medical use – is a luxury in most low and middle-income countries.
Getting access to pure oxygen for medical treatments is a complicated, expensive and often very dangerous business. The current situation in India is a harsh reminder of this issue. The second wave of Covid-19 has hit the country hard, the total number of deaths has just passed the 2,00,000 mark. Oxygen is in short supply.
Because of the current emergency, Indian citizens have turned to the black market to purchase oxygen way above its regular price.
This has happened partly due to the way oxygen is produced, stored and transported around the world. That is why scientists like me are working to find a cheaper alternative.
Bottlenecks
Oxygen is mostly obtained from liquefied air. Engineers turn the air we breathe into a liquid, using a combination of processes that cool down…