28 August 2021

We Know Now (It was Hush-Hush Before): COVID Surge Causes Problems with Liquid Oxygen for SpaceX and Water Utilities

Add water problems to the growing list of consequences of a pandemic

It's true what we don't know, we don't know. . .

Unvaccinated Arizonans At Risk As Delta Variant Spreads | KJZZ

This startling report appeared in The Verge yesterday afternoon

COVID surge causes liquid oxygen problems for SpaceX, water utilities

As pandemic surges, hospitals are in dire need of oxygen

By Mary Beth Griggs Aug 27, 2021, 2:22pm EDT

The Verge

Demand for oxygen to treat COVID-19 patients is spiking during the latest pandemic surge, leaving liquid oxygen in short supply for other uses, including water purification and rocket launches. As supplies get redirected to hospitals, other industries are scrambling to figure out alternatives. . .

Now, hospitals are so flooded with COVID-19 patients that the increasing demand is causing problems outside the medical industry.

> Rocket companies like SpaceX often use liquid oxygen as a propellant. During a launch, it reacts with fuel (think: rocket-grade kerosene), sending a spacecraft soaring. If the shortage continues, it could possibly delay launches — but that hasn’t happened yet. “This is a risk, but not yet a limiting factor,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk said on Twitter.

> The shortage is also putting indirect pressure on other parts of the space industry. A gas supplier for the United Launch Alliance is now focused on addressing the dire oxygen situation in Florida, a move that could change plans for a satellite launch next month, SpaceNews reported.

> Meanwhile, in Florida, some residents have been seeing — and in some cases, smelling — evidence of the liquid oxygen shortfall in their water supplies. Water utilities use liquid oxygen to create ozone. When ozone is used to treat water, it can destroy harmful bacteria and viruses, and break down compounds that can make water taste or smell funky. Chlorine and other chemicals can serve the same function, but oxygen has fewer byproducts.

> In Orlando, shortages have led the local utility to ask residents to stop watering their lawns and conserve water in an effort to extend the supply of liquid oxygen. . .

> Over in Tampa Bay, the water utility started using bleach instead of oxygen to treat its water.

THE WATER UTILITY STARTED USING BLEACH INSTEAD OF OXYGEN TO TREAT IT WATER

The utility usually uses oxygen to remove hydrogen sulfide, a gas that smells like rotten eggs, from its water. In switching to bleach, the utility warned that “consumers who are sensitive to taste and odor changes in drinking water might notice a slight change during this period” even though the quality and safety will remain unchanged. . .

> Florida has the highest COVID-19 hospitalization rate in the country, according to CNN. In Tampa in particular, an emergency room was so crowded with COVID patients that there was a 12-hour wait.

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Another News Flash

Photograph: Getty Images

Why Florida’s Covid Surge Is Screwing With the Water Supply (Hint: Oxygen)

More people in the hospital means more people need oxygen. But treatment plants also need the gas to purify water.

Wired

"On Wednesday, the Tampa Bay water utility announced a rather bizarre side effect of Florida’s out-of-control Covid surge: It wasn’t getting enough deliveries of liquid oxygen to treat its water. More than 17,000 Covid patients—who require supplemental oxygen to stay alive—are now hospitalized across the state, and there isn’t enough oxygen to go around.

Even with vaccines widely available, the pandemic is worse than it’s ever been in Florida. The state is averaging over 20,000 cases and over 200 deaths a day, putting an incredible strain on its hospital system. Just over half of Florida’s total population is fully vaccinated.

“What we know is that the lack of liquid oxygen is due to a driver shortage and the need for available supplies to be diverted to local hospitals due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Brandon Moore, spokesperson for Tampa Bay Water. (Requests for comment sent to Matheson Tri-Gas, their oxygen supplier, were not immediately returned.) This comes a week after Orlando’s mayor asked residents to limit water use for the same reason.

But why do you need even more oxygen in your H₂O? Tampa Bay Water trucks in liquid oxygen, which it converts to gas, and then adds a spark of electricity to convert it to ozone. This is used in two separate facilities for two separate purposes, says Moore: At a surface-water treatment plant, the ozone kills nasties like bacteria and viruses, and at a different plant it breaks down hydrogen sulfide, a naturally occurring gas that smells like rotten eggs.

The utility needs a whole lot of liquid oxygen—seven to nine tanker truckloads of it a week, between the two facilities—both to disinfect water and ensure that it doesn’t come out of taps smelling like holy hell. “Liquid oxygen converted to ozone is one of the most powerful—if not the most powerful—disinfectant in the water industry,” says Moore.

Tampa Bay Water’s liquid oxygen supply has been reduced by about half, Moore says. So they’re diverting the oxygen they’ve got to the treatment plant to sufficiently disinfect the water, since they can’t alter that process. They can, however, substitute sodium hypochlorite, also known as bleach, for ozone at the plant that gets rid of the hydrogen sulfide. But given the crunch, the utility is asking customers to cut back on water use, like watering lawns and washing cars. “In this scenario, the less water needed for demand means less water to treat,” says Moore. But, he adds, “it's very important that residents know that the quality of the drinking water remains safe.”

At the same time, it’s very important that Covid patients get the supplemental oxygen they need. Covid-19 brutalizes the lungs, interfering with the transfer of oxygen from the air into the bloodstream, which is needed to keep the heart, brain, and other vital organs working properly. The target oxygen saturation for the blood is above 92 percent—get below 90 percent and you start feeling shortness of breath. (At the hospital, they measure this by slipping a device called a pulse oximeter over a patient’s finger, which fires beams of light to noninvasively measure the oxygen in their blood.) Once saturation drops below 90 percent, doctors should put a Covid-19 patient on supplemental oxygen, advises the Centers for Disease Control."

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