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I am an Indian, ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic in my country. I come from a non engineering background (Physics). I was thinking about the following.

If one has an oxygen concentrator, i.e. a device which removes impurities such as N2 and CO2 from air, to release pure oxygen (-93%) using electricity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_concentrator

It supplies oxygen at the rate of 5 liters / min. Can it be used to fill multiple empty oxygen cylinder, which are basically pressurized oxygen kept in cans. This way, if there are multiple patients suffering from Covid-19, they can be supplied oxygen using the multiple cylinders. Is there any simple and efficient way for one to fill the cylinders with oxygen, bear in mind the cylinders are having oxygen at very high pressure.

alpha
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Pressurizing oxygen, especially for medical use requires a purpose built compressor. Other compressors add oil that can damage the lungs and catch fire. Oil-less diaphragm compressors are better, but may be damaged by pure oxygen and are also not rated for medical use. Pressurizing oxygen is not a good DIY project. A different solution to consider is to produce oxygen on-site at low pressure.

A year ago when the US was being hit with the first wave of Covid, I joined the Apollo Oxygen Concentrator project of the Helpful Engineering group (lots of other good Covid projects on there too). They had designed a point-of-use oxygen concentrator. Noise and reliability are additional hurdles, but it avoids having to store the oxygen.

Apollo Oxygen Concentrator Google Docs
Apollo Oxygen Concentrator Software
Apollo Oxygen Concentrator Slack Channel

This oxikit company is a little more commercial, but also worth having a look at.

ericnutsch
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