New Delhi: As part of the spin-off from a critical technology that would aid future pilots of the Indian Air Force (IAF) flying the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas with a non-stop supply of oxygen while undertaking long-endurance missions is now being offered to hospitals combating the Coronavirus.

This product to fly out from the hangars of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is in the form of a Medical Oxygen Plant (MOP), which is an offshoot technology from the Onboard Oxygen (OBOX) generation system being developed for the Tejas.

The MOP technology is developed by Defence Bioengineering and Electromedical Laboratory (DEBEL), a life sciences wing of DRDO.

MOP utilises pressure swing absorption (PSA) technique and molecular sieve technology to generate oxygen directly from atmospheric air.

The OBOX technology for Tejas being developed by DEBEL has been approved by the Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC), an agency mandated to certify the products being transferred to a Coimbatore-based firm.

“This plant will be useful to provide oxygen supply during Corona pandemic in hospitals in urban and rural areas. The installation of MOP helps in avoiding hospital’s dependency of scarce oxygen cylinders,” says a DRDO official monitoring the work.

Scientists say that the MOP can be used extensively at hospitals situated at high altitude and inaccessible remote areas.

DRDO has already used this technology to install oxygen plants at some of the military hospitals and establishments in the northeast and in the Leh-Ladakh region.

The MOP has high reliability, full in dependency with automation and reduces logistics. This safe technology needs only minimum maintenance and can be operated at low cost. It is free of oil and produces oxygen instantaneously from ambient air and works round-the-clock.