Portable Oxygen Generator for Deployed Army Casualty Care

The ability to deliver oxygen to patients requiring supplemental oxygen is an essential capability for deployed medical facilities that provide treatment primarily to combat casualties who incur traumatic injuries. To meet the high demand for oxygen, Army is currently using a centralized oxygen generating and distribution system but is extremely heavy, maintenance intensive, and requires large dedicated generators to operate. These limit the mobility to support combat operations and are incompatible with the austere, far-forward battlefield anticipated in multi-domain operations. Therefore, the Army plans to replace the current centralized oxygen production and delivery system with a system of individual oxygen generators that are distributed to individual patients throughout the facility. This proposal concerns with the development of a portable, lightweight (~2 kg), quiet (<45db), self-contained oxygen generator producing oxygen at a variable rate up to 5-6L/min. The system has low power requirements (i.e., continuous operation for 4 hours on a single battery) and stacking capability (to provide higher flows of oxygen). In addition, the system will operate under extreme conditions such as at temperatures higher than 40°C and lower than 0°C, at relative humidity of higher than 90%, at altitude of 10,000 ft. During the Phase I, Lynntech will design schematics and diagrams along with limited testing of a prototype for a lightweight oxygen generating device that will produce a 90-95% purity medical grade oxygen at a continuous, variable rate of up to 6 L/min from ambient air. During Phase II, a full-scale prototype of the oxygen generating system will be developed to demonstrate its utility. The prototype will be tested to validate the performance under relevant testing conditions.