BHEL interested to produce oxygen concentrators with IISc technology

Public sector power equipment major BHEL has shown interest in manufacturing oxygen concentrators with design and technical support from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

Oxygen concentrators are machines that produce oxygen-rich air by sucking air into the machine and chemically removing nitrogen in it. The principle is roughly the same as catalytic converters, that clean exhaust fumes in cars.

In a concentrator, compressed air is passed through sieve beds containing Zeolite powder or pellets. Zeolite loves nitrogen, it adsorbs the gas.

Since atmospheric air is 78.09 per cent nitrogen and 20.95 per cent oxygen, when you remove nitrogen, you are left with oxygen-rich air. The nitrogen then gets naturally released from the Zeolite.