Techno-economic assessment of medical oxygen production: cryogenic vs. PSA technologies

Abstract This work presents a techno-economic comparison of medical oxygen production using cryogenic air separation and pressure swing adsorption technology. Process simulations were performed with Aspen Plus and Aspen Adsorption, and cost estimation was carried out using Aspen Process Economic Analyzer. For a production capacity of 1,000 t/year, the cryogenic process required a capital investment of 15.67 million USD and annual operating costs of 5.12 million USD, yielding an annual cash flow of 4.88 million USD, a payback period of 3.21 years, a net present value of 2.84 million USD, and a return on investment of 155.9 %. The PSA unit, designed for 500 t/year, required a CAPEX of 9.07 million USD and an OPEX of 2.05 million USD/year, achieving an annual cash flow of 7.94 million USD, a payback of 1.14 years, an NPV of 21.05 million USD, and an ROI of 437.87 %. Sensitivity analysis confirmed the strong dependence of cryogenic plants on electricity prices, while PSA exhibited high resilience to cost fluctuations. Overall, PSA offers superior economic feasibility for decentralized oxygen supply, whereas cryogenic separation remains advantageous for large-scale, high-purity production.