Ventilators that cost less than ₹50,000, oxygen-producing machines that cost even less, ultra-violet rays-based large-area disinfectants — with these and many more solutions, the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, one of India’s premier scientific institutions, is in the vanguard of things in the war against Covid-19. All these products are ready to hit the market in a month.

Prof Srinivasa Raghavan of IISc’s Centre for Nano Science and Engineering and his team has designed the ventilator.

A Bengaluru-based SME called KAS Technologies has taken the technology from IISc and is gearing up to produce the ventilators. KAS Tech’s CEO, Manjunath Jyothinagar, told BusinessLine that the company would be able to achieve monthly production of 2,000 units within a month of receiving the certification for the product. “We are open to exports and are in receipt of an enquiry for 1,000 ventilators from Dubai,” he said.

BHEL for concentrators

BHEL, the public sector power equipment major, has shown interest in taking up IISc-designed oxygen concentrators and could be making them in large numbers in a month.

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 up 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 is later released.

The technology is nothing new or too complicated, but all the machines have all along been imported from China — perhaps because it was believed that the market is not very big. The machines cost about ₹1 lakh apiece and need electricity to work — as such oxygen cylinders have been a cheaper option. The market for concentrators has been only remote places, or when patients require continuous supply of oxygen in which case the machine is a cheaper option than cylinders.

But now, with the advent of Covid-19, the need for the concentrators has been felt sharply. The machines can work either in tandem with ventilators or, when the patient is not severely affected, used independent of the ventilator.

Prof Praveen C Ramamurthy, also of the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering, has now designed a concentrator that is cheaper, simpler and more effective. The total cost of bills of material is estimated at ₹15,000 — so the product that hits the market will be far cheaper than those imported.

UV disinfectants

Disinfecting a biggish area by spraying chemicals is a laborious process. Ramamurthy’s team has designed an ultra-violet rays-based disinfectant. Keep shining the UV-enabled LED bulb, and the area remains germ-free.

But aren’t UV rays are harmful to humans? Not all UV rays, says Ramamurthy. UV-C, a ultra-violet radiation of wavelength of 250 nm, is not harmful to humans.

The team has readied designs for three applications — disinfecting floors, PPEs and doors and handles. Fabrication is going on and the final testing will be done shortly. A few companies have come forward to take up manufacturing.

Ramamurthy said that for proper disinfection, a combination of UV and chemical fumes would be better. The team is working on all of them.

All the products designed by IISc are ‘open source’ — which means there is no IP or patents. IISc will give the technology to whosoever wants it.

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