Another Chemical Supply Issue Hitting Water Processing Facility

I ran into an interesting statement in an article over at NYTimes.com about a chemical supply issue for water treatment plants:

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and utility officials asked residents to conserve water Friday to preserve the city’s supply of liquid oxygen, which is being used to treat a surging number of Covid-19 patients.

Digging into the linked article at OUC.com I confirmed that no one is treating COVID cases with liquid oxygen (at -297˚F that would be VERY dangerous) nor are they adding it to water in water treatment plants (even in Florida it would almost instantaneously freeze water and cause ‘explosions’ as the liquid O₂ was converted to gas). But it is a real supply chain problem.

Liquid oxygen is a cost-effective way of transporting oxygen gas; it takes up smaller transportation volume. Hospitals would receive liquid oxygen deliveries and on-site systems would allow it to heat up and convert to oxygen gas that would be used in ventilators and other oxygen breathing aids.

The liquid oxygen is used to create ozone (O₃) at the drinking water treatment plant. That ozone is then used to remove hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) by oxidation. Before folks became concerned about the storage of chlorine gas at water treatment facilities, the chlorine used for disinfection would also oxidize the hydrogen sulfide. It would also kill bacteria that produce the noxious gas in some systems.

The large increase in COVID required breathing assistance support in Florida and the southeast, is cutting into the supply of cryogenic oxygen. Just another supply chain issue that needs to be dealt with.