AMU alum create a low-cost oxygen concentrator; successfully test it at govt hosp

AGRA: A startup run by a group of young engineers in Aligarh has developed a low-cost oxygen concentrator to combat the ongoing oxygen crisis in the country, and the prototype has been successfully tested on Covid-19 patients in government hospital, Aligarh.
The prototype was successfully tested on Covid-19 affected patients at the government hospital in Aligarh.The machine is a low-cost alternative to imported oxygen concentrators that cost over Rs 90,000. The Aligarh model, in comparison, costs just Rs 35,000.
The startup, Engineering & Environmental Solutions (E&E Solutions), is being run by Syed Abu Rehan, 31, Mohammad Faizan Ali Khan, 33 and Mohammad Hamza, 31. All three have done their schooling from AMU’s Minto circle school. While Rehan completed his M Tech in Civil Engineering from IIT Kanpur, Faizan and Hamza have completed their masters in environmental and petrochemical engineering respectively from AMU. They founded E&E in 2015 and today they have a staff of 50 people.
Research and development head at the startup, Syed Abu Rehan, said that they have used the PSA (Pressure Swing Adsorption) technology to develop the low-cost concentrator. In this, zeolite – a commercial adsorbent -- acts as a molecular “sieve” to block nitrogen molecules at high pressure and allow oxygen molecules to pass. The process concentrates oxygen above 90 percent which can be used by patients.
However, due to non-availability of zeolite the startup is not able to scale at present. “Otherwise, we can produce 100 oxygen concentrators per day,” Rehan claimed.
To scale up their production, E&E shared their design with Aligarh-based company, Precision Advanced System, owned by Manish Bansal. Bansal told TOI that around 20-25 of these concentrators are being used by NGOs and some of the hospitals after it was successfully tested at the government hospital. “I have contacted other countries, too, to get medical grade zeolite,” he said.
Divisional commissioner (Aligarh range), Guarav Dayal, told TOI that he has provided them nearly 15 kg zeolite so far but for mass production they would need more. “We are trying to help them further,” he said.