Oxygen-Conserving Oxygen Concentrator

Lara Brewer of University of Utah Health Sciences Center in the U.S. will upgrade oxygen concentrators in low-resource settings by adding manual powering, oxygen storage, and a conservation function, and allowing for the simultaneous delivery to multiple children. Oxygen is required to treat children with pneumonia, but current concentrators rely on a continuous power supply and can only support one child at a time. They will incorporate a pedal-powered compressor and low-pressure storage tank to maintain supply during power outages. They will also design a flow splitter for supplying up to 5 patients, and an oxygen-conserving device that restricts supply to the start of inhalation. They will bench test the system for performance and hardiness under different environmental conditions.