Hyderabad: “The Phi Factory” – a city based startup – launched an oxygen producing kit under the name “Project Vayuputra” to address the oxygen shortage problem faced by those undergoing tretment at homes.
The co-founder and partner of the company Praveen Gorakhvi said there is a shortage of oxygen supply and medical attention for COVID-19 patients. The oxygen concentrators can be used during a patient’s wait or his transit to the hospital. But the cost of an oxygen concentrator is about Rs.90,000 and they are in short supply.
The other source of Oxygen for patients is gas cylinder. But its procurement and refilling is stressful.
In order to address this problem “The Phi Factory” has developed an in situ Oxygen manufacturing microreactor which uses hydrogen paroxide (H202) as a primary candidate because of its low cost and easy availability in the market.
This device is portable and can produce 10 litres of oxygen per minutes and can be used for two patients.
The price of the device with 20 litres of consumable liquid is Rs.2,500. It is enough to sustain a patient’s life for 12 hours. Once empty, the consumables can be replaced with a 20 litres refil can priced at 1,500.
“We are prepared to provide the oxygenerator design to those companies which are willing to manufacture it on a mass scale. It can also be used for manufacturing oxygen on large level,” Praveen said.