Friday, March 29, 2024

DRDO to set up 500 Medical Oxygen Plants within 3 months under PM CARES fund

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Express News Service
NEW DELHI: In a bid to fulfill the oxygen need of Covid patients, the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) has decided to set up 500 Medical Oxygen Plants (MOPs) across India within three months. These plants will be installed under the PM CARES fund.

Bharat Bhushan Babu, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence, said: “The DRDO has initiated fabrication of 380 numbers of Medical Oxygen Plants (MOPs) with the release of Supply Orders for 332 numbers on M/s Tata Advanced Systems Limited, Bengaluru and 48 numbers on M/s Trident Pneumatics Pvt. Ltd., Coimbatore with a target of producing 125 plants per month.”

It is expected that 500 Medical Oxygen Plants will be installed within three months. Each such plant can cater to 190 patients at a flow rate of 5 LPM and charge 195 cylinders per day. The oxygen plant is designed for a capacity of 1,000 litres per minute (LPM).

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 the Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technique and Molecular Sieve (Zeolite) technology to generate oxygen directly from atmospheric air.

ALSO READ | Double masking or N95 mask must to keep mutant variants at bay The technology was developed by the Defence Bioengineering and Electromedical Laboratory of DRDO for On‐Board Oxygen Generation for Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas. The technology has been transferred 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. The other 120 plants of 500 LPM capacity will be produced by industries working with the Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun, belonging to CSIR.

With such plants on sites, medical oxygen will be available in hospitals in urban and rural areas, especially at high altitudes and inaccessible remote areas, in a cost-effective manner.

MOP has already been installed at some of the Army sites in the North East and Leh-Ladakh region. The plant complies with International Standards like ISO 1008, European, US, and Indian Pharmacopeia. Site preparation for 5 plants to be installed in Delhi/NCR region has already been initiated.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has appreciated DRDO for using the MOP technology to generate much-needed oxygen for Covid patients which will help in overcoming the present crisis.

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