LCA and economic study on the local oxygen supply in Central Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Medical oxygen is the key to survival for COVID-19 patients. To meet the pandemic-driven oxygen demand spike, local hospitals began searching for a suitable medical oxygen delivery system. Among the studies published on the impact of COVID-19 on a range of aspects, including the global economy and the environment, no study has been conducted on the environmental impact of medical oxygen supply to hospitals under epidemic conditions. In this paper the authors perform a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental and economic impact of three scenarios (oxygen cylinders, liquid oxygen in tanks and on-site oxygen production) of local oxygen supply to hospitals in Poland. The LCA was performed according to ISO 14040 -14,044 standards requirements, using the SimaPro 9.0 software. Results from the analysis showed that the Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Fine Particulate Matter Formation Potential (FPMFP) indicators for the liquid oxygen in tank scenario are the lowest and equal 265 kg CO 2 eq and 0.309 kg PM 2.5 eq. respectively. The greatest terrestrial acidification reductions (−1.38 kg SO 2 eq) can be achieved when applying the on-site oxygen production scenario. Our findings revealed that the oxygen in cylinders scenario has the most harmful impact on the environment. The economic analysis was performed in order to compare the monthly and annual operational costs of analysed scenarios. The results show that hospitals sustain the lowest annual costs when using the on-site oxygen production scenario.

Cutting Oxygen Production-Related Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Improved Compression Heat Management in a Cryogenic Air Separation Unit

“…In-house oxygen production via pressure swing adsorption shows a somewhat lower GWP value than cylinder delivery but still much higher than liquid oxygen delivery in tanks. These figures fit well with the specific energy consumption values provided above: assuming average power production emission factor of a coal power plant of 0.8 tCO2 MWh −1 [31] and average specific power consumption of 300 kWh tO2 −1 , oxygen emission factor of 240 gCO2 kg −1 of oxygen is obtained, the difference between this value and the oxygen GWP estimated by Balys et al [30] can be attributed to oxygen losses and emissions due to oxygen transport and logistics. This stresses the importance of oxygen production energy intensity reduction as the related greenhouse gas emissions represent a large portion of total oxygen supply chain-related emissions.…”

“…Continuation of this trend significantly increases the economic feasibility of the proposed ASU performance improvement and reduces the simple payback period to 5 years even in case of a 2% air pressure loss in the heat exchangers. Simple recalculation of the above figures yields achievable reduction of specific oxygen production cost of EUR 2–4.2 t −1 which represents 3 to 5% of typical oxygen production cost [ 30 ].…”

“…While its supply is in the spotlight of the media, its carbon footprint has received far less attention [ 29 ]. A recent study by Balys et al [ 30 ] identifies this knowledge gap and sums up evidence of the environmental impact related to medicinal oxygen supply chain considering 64,800 m 3 per month medicinal grade oxygen consumption in a hospital. As documented, the global warming potential (GWP) of liquid tank oxygen delivered is around 260 gCO 2 kg −1 while oxygen delivery in cylinders shows much higher environmental impact with a GWP value of over 550 gCO 2 kg −1 .…”

Potential Life-Cycle Environmental Impacts of the COVID-19 Nucleic Acid Test

“…The potential environmental impacts of used personal protective equipment are not considered in the system boundary. Moreover, COVID-19 testing can assist the government in taking effective measures (such as lockdown) quickly to avoid corresponding future waste from medical care for COVID-19 patients 49 and large consumption of personal protective equipment 50 due to the virus spread. Such indirectly caused environmental effects are not quantitatively estimated in this study.…”

Towards a Contemporary Design Framework for Systems-of-Systems Resilience

“…Finally, COVID-19 and its knock-on effects impact different communities in different ways given their level of economic development, geographical and urban conditions as well as other local conditions (energy, working time), especially in terms of oxygen systems. Several scholars have recently published on the national and regional conditions affecting the access to oxygen therapy during COVID-19 (Bałys et al, 2021;Graham et al, 2020). Following our previously described definition, the specific resilience challenge for hospital oxygen pipeline systems can, thus, be formulated as follows: Resilience is the process by which hospital oxygen pipeline systems can face change and shocks in such a way that they are able to adequately support the delivery of high-quality oxygen therapy to patients.…”