DIY Building Scalable Re-breathable Portable Oxygen Concentrators

India is in a desperate want of oxygen to save thousands of lives.

Why save only one life when eight more lives can be saved with the same resources by recirculating air after removing Carbon dioxide!

The second wave of Covid has left our country crippled and gasping for air. Our hospitals are operating under extreme situations. Although India claims it increased its oxygen production by 129 per cent since August 2020, the country still suffered from an acute shortage of medical oxygen during the second wave of the pandemic.

This pandemic has claimed over 200,000 lives since the start, with current active caseloads of over 3.5 Million. It is estimated 700,000 people are currently in dire need of hospitalization with oxygen including ICUs.

It breaks my heart to read the scores of people who are dying left right and center just because of the lack of precious oxygen which we always considered as our birth right.

I feel I haven’t done anything to help yet as I was clueless and busy simply quarantining myself at home and just facing the other way from my social responsibilities. 

My wakeup call came quite late after having to bear the pain of losing my loved ones just for the scarcity of beds and gasping for the want of Oxygen. I believe this is the same story playing out in most families in India.

I believe It’s high time for me and my team to Stop Wishing and Start Doing by channelizing our grief into something sustainable, scalable and effective enough to make a difference by using our skills to empower those who are capable of helping others in need.

If God forbid a third wave would come, we need to be fully prepared. 

Our initial thought was to crowdfund and procure Oxygen concentrators for the needy, but after realizing that most of the highly priced low flow 5 LTR per minute are just scams as the usable O2 is technically just a 1 liter which is of absolute no use for Covid patients & an absolute no no for critical patients who require a high LPM flow of more than 90% oxygen. The higher capacity ones are just not affordable. Today just a few hours of breath are selling for several thousands. This is just not done as this equipment can be build at a much cheaper cost. More info below:

Oxygen concentrator how it works | How to find the best oxygen concentrator?

So this is what we have come up with along with a few friends of mine after tons of research on open source (PSA & VPSA) based oxygen generator projects on how these oxygen concentrators work. 

We have found our own ingenious ways to optimize production costs using locally produced hardware and pneumatic components in a more efficient way by not only generating oxygen but also by re circulating the exhaled air by scrubbing out the carbon dioxide from it. 

It is quite possible for us as we have a fabrication and a R&D center in Bangalore with all the necessary tools and the right motivated team. 

Our this community project is “Ecogreenlife – DIY Building Scalable Re-breathable Portable Oxygen Concentrators ”,

Your little support will go a long way in saving lives.

Here we plan to build Sustainable Oxygen Concentrators at very cost effective prices while also empowering DIY enthusiasts like me with the knowledge and tools to build it themselves and save their loved ones in need.

The highlight of this project is that we will also be implementing a Re-breathing type of system of which an open source documentation has been recently released by IIT Mumbai students which talks about this recirculating system.

The details can be found here. (The main advantage is that instead of 8-9 liquid oxygen cylinders only one is needed) Read more here: https://github.com/ecogreenlife/reBreather

(PS) This re-breather kit can be used as an individual system which benefits more in a situation where oxygen cylinders are used instead of oxygen concentrators. This also solves the problem of accidental fires caused due to a high concentration of oxygen in the air like in an enclosed space like an ICU.

We are also researching on other ways to collect and compress the CO2 that is exhumed to generate synthetic fuel and other building materials. ( But that's another topic altogether)

Whatever models we are building (Starting with the high flow 15 LTR ones with 90 – 95 % concentration with more advanced Zeolite Lithium based molecular sieves).

Ps: We are still debating between the use of Zeolite 13x ( Sodium based 90-93%) or the (Lithium based 90- 95.7%) as the price difference is huge for a marginal O2 percentage purity. All depends on we finding a good supplier.

We will be documenting and sharing step by step simplified notes, instructions, videos & product schematics, project downloads & raw material supplier details. A complete online course will be presented to you.

Another good news for all our interested donors (Regardless of whatever they donate) who after going through all our online training videos and notes and have procured all the needed components but still feel like they would be a little better off with some practical guidance on building this kit can contact us and fix an appointment for a practical ONLINE workshop conducted with ZOOM app.

And for those who don’t have the right workshop tools to carry forward this O2 kit build can send the raw materials to us and we can help them setup the whole kit in our workshop.

We will be providing this workshop for the right minded people who wants to make a difference not just to their community and save lives by helping others with their equipment but also capable of training other likeminded people on how to build their own Kits and scale up production.

We will guide them to procure raw materials at cheapest prices by introducing them to our wholesale dealers and train them to build these O2 generators, trouble shooting and test it fully before they take home their own finished equipment back to their city, town or village.

We will also be providing them with the latest suppliers and improvements that is happening from time to time on this project so that they could scale up while reducing costs.

The funds that you would be donating would go into purchasing of the various parts ( Compressor, pneumatic parts, valves, electronics, fabrication items etc) to develop our first prototype and further to quick start the paperwork and licensing process to raise funds for setting up a mini cryogenic oxygen plant.

YOU DONT NEED A REASON TO HELP PEOPLE. IN CASE YOU DO, THERE IS NO BETTER REASON THAN THIS IN A 100 YEARS

Here's a quick update