Work to set up a Pressure Swing Adsorption plant, a special oxygen production unit to augment the existing oxygen capacity at the District Headquarters Hospital here, is underway. The plant, being installed under the PM-Cares Fund, is expected to be ready by Monday, senior officials in the district said.
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A Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plant uses a technology where a specific gas can be separated from a mixture of gases under pressure. The plant, manufactured by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) using the PM-Cares Fund costs ₹ 25 lakhs and will be the first to be installed in the region.
Speaking to The Hindu , P. Sri Venkada Priya, District Collector, said that following a site inspection by a team of authorities from the National Highway Authority of India, the project was approved. Once approval was given, the district authorities were asked to do civil works, including electricity and power back-up. “Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO) installed a transformer within 48 hours and other necessary works including laying of pipelines were done efficiently,” she said.
DRDO is expected to despatch the plant from their unit in Bengaluru and have it delivered to the hospital campus by Sunday. “We are expecting that it will be installed and ready to use by Monday,” the Collector said.
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Perambalur Joint Director of Health Services, G.Thirumal said the PSA plant would be able to supply 960 litres of oxygen per minute. “This means that 150 to 170 patients can be supplied with oxygen at a time. “We only have about 140 patients who need oxygen supply on an average day, so we will have more oxygen supply than our need,” he said.
At present, the hospital has a 1,250-litre liquid oxygen plant. “However, it is drained out very quickly and needs to be refilled. An additional 130 oxygen cylinders are available but when deployed, they get over quickly too,” he said.
Dr. Thirumal said the district had been managing a reasonable amount of oxygen supply from private and government sources. “With this new PSA, we will not only be able to have sufficient oxygen, we will also be able to give our cylinders to other hospitals which need it and also give out some oxygen from the plant itself,” he said.