PSA medical oxygen generators for hospitals: the complete guide.
Your hospital makes its own medical oxygen, on site, day and night. Ultra Controlo designs and manufactures ULTRAOX in Portugal, and supplies the cylinder filling, backup and monitoring around it.
Oxygen independence.
A PSA (pressure swing adsorption) oxygen generator makes medical oxygen on site from ambient air. Ultra Controlo’s PSA plants are called ULTRAOX; each is built around ULTRACON oxygen concentrators with two molecular sieve columns.
Oxygen 93, made on site.
It contains 90.0% to 96.0% oxygen by volume, the rest mostly argon and nitrogen. Oxygen made by cryogenic distillation, delivered as liquid or in cylinders, follows a different monograph, Oxygen (0417), at 99.5% or more.
The World Health Organization published technical specifications for PSA oxygen plants in June 2020. Where Oxygen 93 may be used depends on national rules, so hospitals should confirm them with their health authority.
- Purity
- 93% ± 3%
- Grade
- Oxygen 93
- CO2
- < 300 ppm
- CO
- < 5 ppm
- Oxygen dew point
- −50 °C
How a hospital makes its own oxygen.
ULTRAOX runs pressure swing adsorption automatically and measures purity continuously.
Compress
Compressors draw in ambient air, 21% oxygen and 78% nitrogen, and raise it to above 7.5 bar.
Above 7.5 barClean
A water separator, micro and sub-micro filters and an activated carbon filter treat the air before it reaches the generators.
Filtered airSeparate
Inside the ULTRACON generators, zeolite holds back the nitrogen. Two columns take turns every few seconds: one makes oxygen while the other sends the nitrogen back outside.
Two columnsStore and deliver
Oxygen at 93% ± 3% fills the buffer tank and flows into the hospital pipeline at 5 to 6 bar.
5 to 6 bar pipelineWatch
On ULTRAOX SC, one or two zirconium oxide analysers measure purity continuously. If production drifts outside specification, the automatic changeover moves the supply to the secondary source, such as a cylinder bank, with no operator action.
No operator action