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| Oxycon |
Young scientists at the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER), Bhopal have invented 'Oxycon', an oxygen concentrator for supplying Oxygen to Covid-19 patients, at a reasonable price. Oxycon is claimed to supply 95% pure oxygen.
At present, an oxygen concentrator device costs around Rs. 60,000-70,000 while the Oxycon is estimated to cost less than Rs 20,000, can provide 93-95 % pure oxygen with a flow rate of up to 3 litre/minute. The device is developed using the open-source technology and material.
Oxycon is said to be portable, customizable and easy to deploy device. It has a compressor that takes ambient air and passes it through columns having material named zeolite under an optimized pressure. Two such columns are used in alternate cycles and electronically controlled valves are used for this purpose to make it automatic and provide a continuous oxygen supply.
At present, an oxygen concentrator device costs around Rs. 60,000-70,000 while the Oxycon is estimated to cost less than Rs 20,000, can provide 93-95 % pure oxygen with a flow rate of up to 3 litre/minute. The device is developed using the open-source technology and material.
Oxycon is said to be portable, customizable and easy to deploy device. It has a compressor that takes ambient air and passes it through columns having material named zeolite under an optimized pressure. Two such columns are used in alternate cycles and electronically controlled valves are used for this purpose to make it automatic and provide a continuous oxygen supply.
Mitradip Bhattacharjee, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, IISER Bhopal, said --
The material, zeolite, absorbs nitrogen from the air and throws it back to the atmosphere, hence the concentration of oxygen increases in the air at the outlet. The valve controls are achieved using a programmed micro-controller-based circuit.
"This system prototype has already been developed and compared with the commercial systems currently available at the market and we have received positive outcomes. We are actively looking for industrial collaborations to further improve and manufacture the system at a larger scale and to deploy it after necessary testing and approvals," Mr Bhattacharjee added.
The device has been developed by Dr Bhattacharjee along with Dr Venkateshwar Rao, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering and Dr P.B. Sujit & Dr Santanu Talukdar from EECS Department, IISER-Bhopal.
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