110 oxygen concentrators to be deployed in Karnataka

The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-Camp) has received CSR funding from Mercedes Benz Research & Development India (MBRDI) to deploy 110 oxygen concentrators in public healthcare centres across Karnataka.

The machines that have already arrived in Bengaluru will be deployed in close partnership with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Health Department of Government of Karnataka, C-Camp said in a statement.

Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, C-Camp CEO & Director said, “Oxygen concentrators have the potential to address the critical gap in oxygen supply that we are witnessing across India. Lives can be saved with this technology.”

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He added that deployment is being done in collaboration with the state government at public healthcare centres including makeshift hospitals and Covid care facilities which especially lack infrastructure for cryogenic oxygen.

The deployment comes, given the prohibitive cost and logistics associated with liquid oxygen tankers and the dearth of pressurized medical oxygen. Oxygen concentrators have emerged as a less expensive, more convenient and foolproof alternative, C-Camp said.

“Oxygen concentrators concentrate the oxygen from ambient air by selectively removing nitrogen to supply an oxygen-enriched gas stream using pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology,” the bioscience research accelerator added.