Why oxygen is transferred in gas form? Why can't we transfer in liquid form? Any pitfalls. Need your help.

Answer 1

To get Oxygen into liquid form; the laquid has to be kept over 200 degrees below 0 Fahrenheit.

They would be rolling disaster areas should they wreck, and evem worse should someone use an incinderary device.

Answer 2

Oxygen can, and should sometimes be transferred in liquid form. Liquid oxygen is concentrated oxygen, and expands to over 500 times when it becomes a gas. When it is delivered in a truck and stored in a tank, the customer and the supplier get the benefit of storing all these gas molecules condensed into a small space, which costs less than delivering 500 loads of just gaseous oxygen. So, it is a financial benefit to deliver liquid oxygen. Most users need the oxygen in gaseous form, which is simply done by vaporizing the liquid.

To be able to deliver oxygen in liquid form, you must have a vacuum-insulated vessel, which keeps the cold in and the heat out. There is very little heat transfer from the outside through a vacuum-insulated vessel.

Of course, oxygen is dangerous in any form, not just liquid form. All vessels storing or transporting oxygen have double walls and the inner container is always stainless steel. They are not really bombs waiting to explode because it would be very difficult to penetrate one of these vessels.

Another pitfall of transferring liquid oxygen is that it is at cryogenic temperatures. Oxygen becomes a liquid at over -300 degrees F, which is somewhat of an unfathomable number to understand, but it is cold enough to immediately cause frostbite and burning/blisters if your skin is exposed to the liquid. All handlers of the liquid have protective equipment and safety gear to prevent such accidents.

Answer 3

Just want to add in a little bit:
We have liquid Oxygen & we do transfer it to our customers in liquid form.
But to do that, we have our storage tank double wall, vacuum insulated, the same requirement for the customer storage tank and the truck. These tanks are expensive.
Besides, to maintaine safety, we need all sort of safety devices on these tank to keep the pressure at a controlled level.
As the others mentioned, it is very cold (-183 degree C) and therefore, we need special personnel protection for our people to work with it, and when the liquid got heat up by the atmosphere, the volume increase about 800 times --> Possible of explosion.
Since the concentration of Oxygen too high when it is in liquid form, it is highly flammable eventhough it is not a source for burning, it can easily catch on fire if there is a fire ignition somewhere nearby.

Gas form that you see they are transporting it are compressed gas (Cylinders with pressure around 135 ~ 150 bars) and the temperature is at atmospheric. So, it save a lot of hassel, but the quantity is very small compare with liquid form.

Hope this help.

Answer 4

There is such a thing as liquid oxygen. I believe that is how it is transported, in liquid form. Looks like a big gas truck, but instead of gas, it carries liquid oxygen. Oxygen becomes liquid when cooled to something like -400 degrees.

Answer 5

yes, we can transfer it in liquid form.

Liquid oxygen (also LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace and submarine industry) is the liquid form of oxygen. It has a pale blue color and is strongly paramagnetic. Liquid oxygen has a density of 1.141 g/cm³ and is moderately cryogenic (freezing point: 50.5 °K (-222.65 °C), boiling point: 90.188 °K (-182.96 °C) at 101.325 kPa(760 mm Hg)). In commerce, liquid oxygen is classified as an industrial gas and is widely used for industrial and medical purposes. Liquid oxygen is obtained from the oxygen found naturally in air by fractional distillation. Liquid Oxygen has an expansion ratio of 860:1, and because of this, is used in commercial and military aircraft today.

Due to its cryogenic nature, LOX can cause the materials it touches to become extremely brittle. Liquid oxygen is also a very powerful oxidising agent: organic materials will burn rapidly and energetically in liquid oxygen; and some can detonate unpredictably on contact, particularly petrochemicals, and notably asphalt if soaked with LOX.

May be this is the answer for your question of why we don't transfer in liquid form. because it will burn rapidly with organic material and other factors.

LOX is a common liquid oxidizer propellant for spacecraft rocket applications, usually in combination with liquid hydrogen or kerosene. It was used in the very first rocket applications like the V2 missile and Redstone, R-7 Semyorka or Atlas boosters. LOX is useful in this role because it creates a high specific impulse. LOX was also used in some early ICBMs although more modern ICBMs do not use LOX because its cryogenic properties and need for regular replenishment to replace boiloff make it harder to maintain and launch quickly. During World War II, liquid oxygen was used as an oxidizer in several Nazi Germany military rocket designs, under name A-Stoff and Sauerstoff.

LOX also had extensive use in making oxyliquit explosives, but is rarely used now due to a high rate of accidents.

Answer 6

Oxygen is transferred in tanks under pressure. LOX or liquid oxygen is very flamable, corrosive and dangerous. It is used as a gas and safer to transfer that way

Answer 7

Liquid oxygen is extremely cold. Maintaining that cold temperature is extremely expensive, and makes the cost of transportation too high for the end user.

Answer 8

oxygen, in it's liquid form is extremely cold and tends to freeze valves used in transfer. It will also freeze skin. We find it much easier to use in its gaseous form.

Answer 9

Liquid oxygen is way too cold to breathe.

Answer 10

it gets liquid form sometimes too

pressure volume temp, same for any gas