According to the founders of the technology, a West Bengal startup has developed a device that produces oxygen from water simply by pressing a switch. ‘OM Redox’, the device developed by Solaire Initiatives Pvt Ltd, which is incubated in the Webel-BCC&I Tech Incubation Centre here, provides pure oxygen from water, they said.
3.5 times purer oxygen
The machine is nothing but a “deep science innovation that generates oxygen which is 3.5 times purer than that one normally gets from a concentrator”, the startup venture’s cofounders Dr Soumyajit Roy and his wife Dr Pei Liang claimed on June 30. The device was selected by the Department of Biotechnology for showcasing and launch on its 10th foundation day and at the 1st Bio-Tech Expo 2022.
“Pressure swing adsorption method for production of oxygen works with the liquefaction of air, while concentrator operates through concentration of air by a compressor and then passing it through a catalyst. In these two processes, oxygen is generated from the air. Ours is an alternative technology,” Roy, the professor of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata.
Innovation produces life saving gas from water
He explained that their innovation is called pneumatically coupled water oxidation by electrocatalytic reaction (Power), and it produces the life-saving gas from water. The machine was one of the products
featured in a book commemorating 75 years of independence released by Union Science and Technology Minister Dr Jitendra Singh.
This technology is patented and approved by World Health Organization and European Conformity. The scientist couple is in discussion with various organisations for licensing the device and manufacturing and marketing of it.
The device can be made handy and scaled up, said at a programme organised jointly by West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Limited (Webel) and the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Commercialization in the next three months
West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Limited (Webel) Managing Director Sunrita Hazra said that the commercialisation of the device is expected in the next three months.
The incubation centre, a joint initiative of Webel and Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, incubated around 54 companies in the last few years, including around 18 entities which are going through the process at present. Kalyan Kar the mentor of the unit said.
Of the companies which completed the incubation process, 10-12 reached the commercial state, he said, adding that several companies have approached the centre from tier II and III cities of the state and the participation of women entrepreneurs is also significant.
