Until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of “Oxygen Concentrators”. However, it seems that these are relatively common bits of domestic kit which are used at home by people with severe respiratory illnesses.
Basically, they suck in air and pass it through an adsorbent bed which takes out most of the nitrogen. The gas that comes out can be ~90% oxygen. Typically they have two beds, so that one is in operation while the other is regenerated.
That sounds really good and if Covid gets very much worse over the winter, one of these might be 'handy', but…. they are not cheap, see;
https://www.theoxygenstore.com/oxygen-co...ators.html
Of course, this raises the question, how do you make one, and it looks it might be possible for “us kind of guys” to do it and I’ve started. I have worked with 100% O2 and molecular sieve (in different projects) previously and I do recall the Apollo fire!
Critically, you need a small pump (8L/min at 2 bar ?), a few solenoid valves, the adsorbent is commonly available 'molecular sieve' and I reckon this could be cobbled up mostly with copper tube. My target cost is £50-100.
The big hurdle I have at the moment is that to get going you really need to have access to an oxygen meter reading 20-100% O2. This item alone could easily bust my budget severely. What I'm looking at is the possible use of a car Lambda sensor (see attached). I bought a 5-wire broadband Bosch sensor for £10 but I don’t know if it will work at high O2 concentration and I don’t understand the electronics to deal with the output and get on to a DMM or a scope
Would very much appreciate some help with this. If anyone wants to know more about the concentrators, I’ll post more.
C
Basically, they suck in air and pass it through an adsorbent bed which takes out most of the nitrogen. The gas that comes out can be ~90% oxygen. Typically they have two beds, so that one is in operation while the other is regenerated.
That sounds really good and if Covid gets very much worse over the winter, one of these might be 'handy', but…. they are not cheap, see;
https://www.theoxygenstore.com/oxygen-co...ators.html
Of course, this raises the question, how do you make one, and it looks it might be possible for “us kind of guys” to do it and I’ve started. I have worked with 100% O2 and molecular sieve (in different projects) previously and I do recall the Apollo fire!
Critically, you need a small pump (8L/min at 2 bar ?), a few solenoid valves, the adsorbent is commonly available 'molecular sieve' and I reckon this could be cobbled up mostly with copper tube. My target cost is £50-100.
The big hurdle I have at the moment is that to get going you really need to have access to an oxygen meter reading 20-100% O2. This item alone could easily bust my budget severely. What I'm looking at is the possible use of a car Lambda sensor (see attached). I bought a 5-wire broadband Bosch sensor for £10 but I don’t know if it will work at high O2 concentration and I don’t understand the electronics to deal with the output and get on to a DMM or a scope
Would very much appreciate some help with this. If anyone wants to know more about the concentrators, I’ll post more.
C
She came in through the Bathroom Window, Protected by a Silver Spoon...
