Engineering students in Hyderabad converts a water purifier into an oxygen cylinder.

An engineering student from a private college showed excellent work by converting a water purifier into a dual-use 25-litre oxygen cylinder. The price of the concentrator amounts to Rs 20,000.

He said that they took the purifier, removed the RO candles and put a PSA or Pressure Swing adsorption system in place of it. The major components that helped them convert the water purifier into the concentrator included silica gel, compressor, and zeolite (13X) pallets.

The name of the student is Shaik Mohammed Rayyan. He is a student of Lords Institute of Engineering & Technology. He led a team that together became successful in developing the concentrator.

Rayyan added that the innovation belongs to the medical domain in shortage of pure oxygen supply and those who need it to survive the patient. He said that currently, they could produce 85 to 92 percent pure oxygen from 25 litres in a minute.

Also, he explained that the concentrator includes two exit nozzles thus can be used by two patients at a time.

They are well aware that for medical purposes, it needs to be 95 percent pure oxygen. Therefore, to achieve the goal, they upgraded zeolite pellets from 13X to lid grade. However, it’s hard to find them in the market, and they are currently unavailable. In addition, they upgraded the air compressor from 1 hp to 2 hp. But there was no increase in the price; it remained 20,000 only.

Moreover, for converting the purifier into a concentrator, the students also attached a humidifier with an oxygen flow meter and an oxygen pipe with an inhaler.

To this, the vice-chairman of the institute added that they in their institutes had always been at the forefront in encouraging their students to be innovative and develop products that add to society. Therefore, this concentrator is an important innovation and can aid many amid Covid-19.