E-Paper
DRDO offers oxygen plants to far-flung hospitals
New Delhi:
New Delhi:
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has decided to provide medical-grade oxygen plants to hospitals in far-flung areas to generate their own supplies of the gas that is crucial in treating coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients, two government officials said on Friday.
The oxygen-generating system is an offshoot of a critical system on board the homegrown Tejas light combat aircraft and it utilises “the pressure swing adsorption technique and molecular sieve technology” to generate oxygen directly from atmospheric air, the first official cited above said on condition of anonymity.
All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director Dr Randeep Guleria said on Thursday that many of the Covid-19 patients “can be saved by just giving them oxygen”. “If they do not get oxygen, it can trigger various other problems...,” he said about the contagious respiratory disease that has killed at least 195,000 people across the world.
The technology has been approved by the Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification, a regulatory body under DRDO.
The first official said that “the oxygen plants will help provide medical-grade oxygen supply during the pandemic in hospitals in urban, rural and far-flung areas”. “The installation of these plants will reduce the dependence of hospitals on oxygen cylinders. They will be of great help in high altitude and inaccessible, remote areas,” the official added.
The oxygen generator has been developed by Bengaluru-based Defence Bioengineering and Electro-medical Laboratory (DEBEL, a DRDO unit) and the technology has been transferred to a Coimbatore-based private firm.
The firm has the capacity to install four plants in two weeks, 20 in five weeks and production can be ramped up if required, the second officer said, asking not to be named. “The benefits include reduced logistics of transporting cylinders to remote areas. The plants will ensure low cost, continuous and reliable oxygen supply round the clock,” he added.
The technology is in service with the Indian Army, which has installed oxygen plants at some of its facilities in Ladakh and the North-east. The plants can also be used for filling up oxygen cylinders. Each plant can fill 47 litre (water capacity) cylinders at the rate of 60 per day, he said.
DRDO is among the several government agencies that have been at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19, having developed several products to combat the pandemic, including ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, large-area sanitisation solutions and sample collection kiosks.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday unveiled, via video conference, a mobile virology research and diagnostics laboratory (MVRDL) that will speed up Covid-19 screening and other research and development activities. The MVRDL has been developed by the DRDO, Hyderabad-based Employees’ State Insurance Corporation hospital and private industry.
DRDO last week shifted a key testing facility for carrying out quality checks on PPE kits from Gwalior to New Delhi to reduce delays and ensure faster delivery of safety gear to health care workers battling Covid-19.
