The Medical Oxygen Plant (MOP) technology, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for on-board oxygen generation for LCA, Tejas by DEBEL, DRDO will help in oxygen for COVID-19 patients.
The oxygen plant is designed for a capacity of 1,000 ltr per minute. The system can cater to 190 patients at a flow rate of five LPM and charge 195 cylinders per day.
Transfer of Technology has been done to Tata Advanced Systems, Bengaluru and Trident Pneumatics, Coimbatore, who will be producing 380 plants for installation across various hospitals in the country.
As much as 120 plants of 500 ltr per minute capacity will be produced by industries working with the Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun, belonging to CSIR.
Medical Oxygen Plant (MOP) technology is capable of generating oxygen with 93±3 percent concentration which can be directly supplied to hospital beds or can be used to fill medical oxygen cylinders. It utilises pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technique and molecular sieve (Zeolite) technology to generate oxygen directly from atmospheric air.
Site preparation for five plants to be installed in Delhi/NCR region has already been initiated.
DRDO has initiated fabrication of 380 numbers of medical oxygen plants with release of supply orders for 332 numbers on Tata Advanced Systems, Bengaluru and 48 numbers on Trident Pneumatics, 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.