New Delhi : In view of ongoing shortage of medical oxygen in many hospitals across the country, the Defence Ministry’s research and development body DRDO on Wednesday said that it will set up 500 medical oxygen plants within three months with ‘On‐Board Oxygen Generation for LCA, Tejas’ technology.
Under this technology, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the oxygen plant is designed for a capacity of producing 1,000 litres per minute (LPM) which can easily cater to 190 patients at a flow rate of 5 LPM and charge 195 cylinders per day.
Transfer of Technology has been done to Tata Advanced Systems Limited, Bengaluru and Trident Pneumatics Pvt Ltd, Coimbatore, who will be producing 380 plants for installation across various hospitals in the country while 120 plants of 500 LPM capacity will be produced by industries working with Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun, belonging to CSIR.
These 500 plants will be set up under PM CARE fund.
Medical Oxygen Plant (MOP) technology is capable of generating oxygen with 93±3 percent concentration which can be directly supplied to hospital beds or can be used to fill medical oxygen cylinders. It utilizes Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technique and Molecular Sieve (Zeolite) technology to generate oxygen directly from atmospheric air, an official in the DRDO said.
The MOP technology will be useful to provide oxygen supply during Corona Pandemic in hospitals in urban and rural areas. Hospitals will be able to generate on site medical oxygen, in a cost-effective manner with this oxygen plant rather than depending upon sourcing it from other places.
The installation of this plant helps in avoiding hospital dependency on scarce oxygen cylinders especially at high altitude and inaccessible remote areas.
The MOP has already been installed at some of the Army sites in North East and Leh-Ladakh region. The plant complies with International Standards like ISO 1008, European, US and Indian Pharmacopeia, the officials in DRDO said, adding that site preparation for five plants to be installed in Delhi/NCR region has already been initiated.
DRDO has already released the ‘Supply Orders’ for 332 numbers to Tata Advanced Systems Limited, Bengaluru and 48 numbers to Trident Pneumatics Pvt Ltd, Coimbatore with a target of producing 125 plants per month and in next three months 500 Medical Oxygen Plants will be installed within three months.
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