Medical air
Synthetic medical air
Synthetic medical air is medical air made by mixing oxygen and nitrogen in defined proportions instead of compressing atmospheric air; Ph. Eur. monograph 1684 describes the gas and ISO 7396-3:2025 covers the proportioning units that produce it.
ISO 7396-3:2025, first published in July 2025, covers proportioning units that blend oxygen and nitrogen to produce synthetic medical air, or air for driving surgical tools, as a source of supply for a pipeline built to ISO 7396-1. It leaves to ISO 7396-1 the rule that a supply system has at least three sources of supply. The gas itself is described in Ph. Eur. monograph 1684, Air, synthetic medicinal, which the EDQM lists as in use.
Compressed medical air is a different product, described in Ph. Eur. monograph 1238, Air, medicinal. ULTRAAR medical air plants make medical air by compressing and treating atmospheric air; the ULTRAAR SC, for example, uses oil-free ULTRACECO SC scroll compressors.
Sources
- ISO 7396-3:2025, Medical gas pipeline systems, Part 3: Proportioning units (ISO summary)
- EDQM Knowledge database, Ph. Eur. monograph 1684 Air, synthetic medicinal
- EDQM Knowledge database, Ph. Eur. monograph 1238 Air, medicinal
- ULTRAAR SC datasheet, p. 3
Ultra Controlo figures come from its technical datasheets. Third-party facts were read at the source on the date shown.