Electrochemical Oxygen Concentrator

PROJECT SUMMARY Oxygen supply is essential for hospitalized patients. The limitation of resources, transport, and supply chain disruptions in the COVID-19 pandemic created some unique challenges. The simple process of providing O2 supplementation has become very challenging in a rural small hospital, a large hospital with makeshift hospital rooms, during emergency transport to the hospital, during in-hospital transport of infected patients, in developing nations with low-resource hospitals or at home for discharged patients. We propose to develop a novel oxygen concentrator that generates oxygen through electrochemical principles. The electrochemical oxygen concentrator can be especially valuable during the pandemic crisis owing to its unique merits over existing devices such as significantly higher oxygen purity (>99%) at reasonable flow rates (1 LPM - 5 LPM), lesser power consumption, less weight, less noise, and ease of manufacturing. This is a collaborative effort by an interdisciplinary team with expertise in electrochemistry, medical device design, and critical care medicine. In this two-year project, specific aim 1 involves the development of the electrochemical oxygen concentrator for in-hospital use, which includes the electrochemical core, the flow control system, and the external tower with a user interface. In specific aim 2, we will conduct rigorous tests to document various performance categories of the functional prototype - oxygen concentration, flow, operation time, power consumption, and user interface - as laid out by WHO specifications. And finally, we will conduct a technoeconomic analysis to facilitate commercialization and a quick translation to practice of the novel electrochemical oxygen concentrator.