Using the Medical Oxygen Plant (MOP) technology developed for on‐board oxygen generation on the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will set up 500 medical oxygen-generating plants across the country within three months under the PM CARES (Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations) Fund, it said on Wednesday.
“DRDO has initiated fabrication of 380 MOPs with release of supply orders for 332 numbers on Tata Advanced Systems Limited, Bengaluru and 48 numbers on Trident Pneumatics Pvt. Ltd., Coimbatore with a target of producing 125 plants per month under PM CARES Fund,” a DRDO statement said.
“With this it is expected that 380 Medical Oxygen Plants will be installed within three months,” it added.
In addition, 120 plants of 500 litres per minute capacity will be produced by industries working with Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun, belonging to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the DRDO said.
Transfer of Technology has already been done to Tata Advanced Systems Limited and Trident Pneumatics Pvt. Ltd., which will be producing the plants for installation across various hospitals in the country.
The MOP technology for LCA Tejas was developed by the Defence Bioengineering and Electromedical Laboratory (DEBEL) of DRDO. “The 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,” the DRDO said.
The oxygen plant is designed for a capacity of 1,000 litres per minute and the system caters to 190 patients at a flow rate of 5 LPM and can charge 195 cylinders per day. The MOP utilises Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technique and Molecular Sieve (Zeolite) technology to generate oxygen directly from atmospheric air.
Hospitals will be able to generate on-site medical oxygen in a cost-effective manner with this oxygen plant rather than depending on sourcing it from other places, the DRDO said.
MOP has already been installed at some Army sites in the northeast and Leh-Ladakh Region, it stated.
The plant complies with international standards and site preparation for five plants to be installed in Delhi and National Captital Region (NCR) region has already been initiated, the DRDO added.
Published - April 28, 2021 01:40 pm IST
