How does an Oxygen Concentrator Work?

What is An Oxygen Concentrator?

Oxygen concentrators are machines used for medical oxygen therapy whose sole purpose is to provide pure oxygen to patients with respiratory illnesses, most commonly, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, although they are used for other respiratory illnesses. The oxygen that is delivered by a concentrator is of higher concentrations that found in the surrounding air.

Over the last decade or so, they have become much more popular as they provide patients with additional benefits.

• The cost of refilling tanks or cylinders is higher than the running cost of an oxygen concentrator
• and from the point of view of mobility and travel the duration is much greater as they do not store a fixed amount of oxygen but are constantly extracting it from the air.
• This benefit, not storing, has an additional advantage- aside from oxygen supply length of time - the risk of accidents risks that you have from compressed oxygen cylinders or liquid oxygen tanks are inexistent.

An Oxygen Concentrator is one of the three methods of supplemental oxygen supply you can get.

It is a reliable, efficient and convenient oxygen delivery system.

The machine is electrically operated.

in Simple Terms What Does An Oxygen Concnetrator Do?

In simple terms a portable oxygen concentrator:

•  separates oxygen from ambient air,
• allowing you to receive high purity oxygen supplied to you through the oxygen tube.

The components of the air consist of approximately 79% of nitrogen (N ²), about 20% oxygen (O ²) and small amounts of other gases.

Although the oxygen concentrator extracts oxygen from the surrounding air in the room it does not, in any way, affect the normal amount of oxygen around us.

The basic function of oxygen concentrators is to extract oxygen from the environment, concentrate it and send it to the patient. It is powered by electricity and uses a filter which retains the oxygen and expels the remaining air, and delivers to the patient the appropriate amount of pure oxygen required, according to the flow settings

An Oxygen Concentrator as a supplementary source of oxygen is considered one of the most reliable delivery systems at the present time, as it filters oxygen from ambient air, allowing the patient to have supplemental oxygen with a high degree of purity.

There are oxygen concentrators can generate up to 5 liters per minute and others that generate up to 10 liters per minute. These machines can achieve a concentration, almost 93% pure, with an error of 3% above or below.

How does an Oxygen Concentrator Work?

 

An oxygen concentrator:

• • Pulls in ambient air and filters out the nitrogen, keeping the pure oxygen in a small storage tank that is constantly being replenished when the machine is in use.
  •  The unit has two zeolite cartridges and the air that has been extracted from the ambient air is compressed into the cartridges and here is where the nitrogen is absorbed.
• The zeolite retains nitrogen molecules and allows the oxygen to escape.
• The oxygen is pumped into the storage tank until used by the patient.
• Simply put, in goes the air, nitrogen and oxygen are separated, and the oxygen is stored and used.

The power source of oxygen concentrators is electricity and this has allowed manufacturers to develop both stationary oxygen concentrators and portable oxygen concentrators (POC´s) which run off both standard electrical outlets and rechargeable batteries.