The Defence Bio-engineering and Electromechanical Laboratory (DEBEL), a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratory in Bangalore has transferred the technology from the existing partner to 10 private sector companies including Godrej Precision Engineering a unit of Godrej & Boyce to manufacture oxygen generators to support India’s oxygen buffer plan.

With the pandemic still rampant with newer variants emerging, the need for medical oxygen has increased exponentially. According to a recent press announcement by the government of India, it has taken concerted efforts to ensure oxygen buffers are created at the hospital, state and regional levels. To meet these requirements, DRDO’s lab, DEBEL, has identified Godrej Precision Engineering a business of G&B as one of its selected partners to manufacture the oxygen generators.

The first batch has been manufactured and supplied to rural hospitals across Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh within a record period of one month

The system utilizes an air compressor to provide compressed air to the oxygen plant which is filtered and dried by a refrigerant air dryer & further filtered before the air is admitted to the oxygen generator through adsorption towers. The oxygen generator removes the nitrogen from the air by absorbing it in the molecular sieves and produces an output with 93±3 per cent oxygen. For separating oxygen from the air, the medical oxygen generator employs the Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technique. The output is stored in a storage tank. Each generator can produce 250 litres of oxygen per minute which can cater to 50 patients.

Commenting on this partnership, Nyrika Holkar, Executive Director, Godrej & Boyce, said, “Throughout our history, Godrej & Boyce has contributed to India’s journey of self-reliance by combining cutting-edge engineering prowess with decades of precision expertise. With this new Medical Oxygen Generating system, we hope to assist India in gaining a lasting advantage in the fight against Covid”.

The second company that has announced the signing of the contract with DRDO is Isgec Heavy Engineering Ltd which bagged the order for 25 medical oxygen plants

This is the first order Isgec has received for medical oxygen plants from DRDO, it said.

Isgec is proud to have received an order for 25 medical oxygen plants from DRDO, Ministry of Defence, Govt. of India," the company said. "These plants have a capacity of 250 LPM (litre per minute) each. The design for these oxygen plants has been developed by DRDO on the Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) principle," it said.