Air, the source gas for the concentrated oxygen that is supplied to the
patient, is made up of about 20% oxygen and 80% nitrogen.
High-concentration oxygen is generated by separating this air into
oxygen and nitrogen inside the oxygen concentrator.
This oxygen
concentrator uses pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology to suck in
air via an air inlet which is then fed to an adsorption column by a
compressor. Adsorption agent in the adsorption column adsorbs nitrogen,
so air that passes through the adsorption column contains less nitrogen
and more oxygen than normal to become oxygen concentrated air. The
oxygen concentrator is equipped with two adsorption columns. While
nitrogen is being adsorbed in one of the columns to turn air into high
nitrogen content air, the other column discharges adsorbed nitrogen so
that the adsorption agent is regenerated. Oxygen concentrated air is
supplied continuously to the patient by alternately using the two
adsorption columns in this way.