What makes up the lifecycle cost of a PSA oxygen plant?

Capital costs

Global Fund sustainability guidance (22 August 2024) lists the capital costs as the PSA plant equipment, the plant house, electrical upgrades, oxygen cylinders and transport carts, and pipeline installation or upgrades where needed, and asks for all of them to be in the initial budget, including upgrades to the hospital's existing electrical, structural and piping infrastructure. An Open Critical Care answer by Assist International adds infrastructure for the power supply and backup generator, shipping, taxes and installation, which depend on location. WHO's Foundations of medical oxygen systems (2023) lists housing, ventilation, air conditioning and heating, a diesel generator, high-pressure cylinders and trolleys, vehicles, service agreements and staff among the associated costs of a PSA plant.

Running costs

The same Global Fund guidance lists the operating costs as spare parts, scheduled maintenance, repairs, electricity bills, diesel, distribution and staff salaries, which can be integrated into the hospital's annual budget. WHO adds training and the service level agreement to the operational costs to be funded, and UNDP (REQ-OXY-001, effective 1 January 2025) asks end users to budget for routine maintenance, spare parts, energy consumption and upgrades. For energy, PATH and CHAI (2021) put a conventional PSA plant at approximately 1.2 kWh per Nm³ produced at 65 psig, with notable variation depending on system efficiency and service pressure, rising at higher service pressures and with cylinder filling, and a Global Fund note (3 April 2024) says a plant specified at 95 ± 1% purity needs larger equipment, with higher power consumption, than one at 93 ± 3%.

Global Fund guidance on spare parts (25 September 2025) calls it a risky misconception to leave spare parts out of the annual budget while a plant works well: a plant that stops can mean unplanned emergency spending on commercial oxygen deliveries and higher repair costs than preventive parts would have cost. It advises ordering spare parts for two years of operation at a time, and the 2020 WHO interim specification (superseded by WHO's technical specifications of 31 December 2024) said resource-limited settings need supplies and spare parts for 5 years of operation.

Over what period

The Global Fund asks for long-term financial planning over the plant's life cycle, which it puts at 10 years on average, with funds set aside for unexpected repairs or upgrades. WHO's 2023 comparison of supply options says both PSA plants and liquid oxygen need detailed financial planning for long-term operations of about 20 years, and the 2020 WHO specification asked for a life span of at least 10 years guaranteed by the manufacturer, with maintenance and spare parts costs established for at least 3 years from installation.

Tools

WHO says procurement specifications should consider the life cycle and total cost of ownership, and the Global Fund quality assurance policy (amended 15 November 2023) takes total cost of ownership into account when judging value for money. UNICEF's Oxygen System Planning Tool estimates capital and operating costs, such as electricity, for each facility, and PATH's PSA OPEX Estimator Tool (August 2026) gives approximate estimates of the annual operating expenditure of PSA plants in low- and middle-income countries, for advocacy and planning rather than detailed budgeting.

ULTRAOX

ULTRAOX is designed for a minimum life cycle of 150,000 hours, which Ultra Controlo presents as an investment for at least 20 years. In good conditions its zeolite can last up to 10 years or more without replacement (ULTRAOX datasheet 2022, p. 4), and the ULTRAOX SC, with oil-less ULTRACECO compressors, has one service at 10,000 hours (ULTRAOX SC datasheet, p. 2). Ultra Controlo states that ULTRAOX reduces oxygen cost by up to 70% over 10 years.