Oxygen tech developed by DRDO for Tejas to breathe life into Covid patients

Bengaluru: The medical oxygen plant (MOP) technology, developed by DRDO's arm Defence Bioengineering and Electromedical Laboratory, Bengaluru, for on board oxygen generation for light combat aircraft (LCA), Tejas, will now help in fighting the current oxygen shortage crisis. The oxygen plant is designed for a capacity of 1,000 litres per minute (LPM). The system can cater to 190 patients at a flow rate of 5 LPM and charge 195 cylinders per day. Transfer of technology has been made to M/s Tata Advanced Systems Limited, Bengaluru, and M/s Trident Pneumatics Pvt. Ltd., Coimbatore, who will be producing 380 plants for installation across various hospitals in the country. 120 plants of 500 LPM capacity will be produced by industries working with Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun, belonging to CSIR.

Oxygen is a very important clinical gas in health care centres and hospitals for treatment of Covid‐19 patients. medical oxygen plant (MOP) technology is capable of generating oxygen with 93±3% 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.

The MOP technology will be useful to provide oxygen supply during the 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. 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. Site preparation for five plants to be installed in Delhi/NCR region has already been initiated.

The DRDO has initiated fabrication of 380 MOPs with release of supply orders for 332 to M/s Tata Advanced Systems Limited, Bengaluru, and 48 to M/s Trident Pneumatics Pvt. Ltd., Coimbatore, with a target of producing 125 plants per month under PM CARES Fund. With this it is expected that 500 medical oxygen plants will be installed within three months.

Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh has appreciated DRDO for using the MOP technology to generate much needed oxygen for Covid-19 patients which will help in overcoming the present crisis. Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman, DRDO, Dr G Satheesh Reddy has assured the support of DRDO for use of the technology by hospitals and other health agencies.