The Diving School of the Southern Naval Command of the Indian Navy has conceptualized and designed the System to alleviate the existing Oxygen shortage.The Indian Navy has developed an Oxygen Recycling system (ORS) which has been accepted by specialists at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) at Thiruvananthapuram. The specialists accorded an ‘Initial Evaluation Certificate’ to the system on May 18.
The ORS is designed to extend the life of the existing medical oxygen cylinders by two to four times. Only a small percentage of oxygen inhaled by a patient is actually absorbed by the lungs and the rest is exhaled along with carbon dioxide. This ORS adds a second pipe to the patient’s existing oxygen mask, which sucks out the air exhaled by a patient using a low-pressure motor.
Both the mask inlet pipe (for O2) and the mask outlet pipe (for exhaled air) are fitted with non-return valves to maintain a positive pressure and unidirectional flow of gases to ensure the patient’s safety against dilution hypoxia.The air flow in the ORS is maintained by a medical-grade pump fitted before the Carbon dioxide scrubber, which ensures a positive flow, facilitating comfortable breathing by the patient
Ministry of Defence stated that the system is now being progressed for clinical trials in accordance with existing guidelines, which are expected to be completed expeditiously, after which the design will be freely available for mass production in the country and all components used in the ORS are indigenous and freely available in the country.
The overall cost of the ORS prototype has been capped at 10 thousand rupees against an envisaged saving of three thousand rupees per day due to the recycling of oxygen.Besides substantially enhancing the existing oxygen capacity in the country, the ORS can also be used to extend the life of oxygen cylinders used by mountaineers/ soldiers at High Altitude, for HADR operations and onboard naval ships and submarines.
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