Personal Use Smart Ventilator Gathers Oxygen From Air

Dec, 2021 - By WMR

A smart ventilator called “Venti-bag” could supply oxygen to patients by harvesting oxygen from the air.

It's a miserable fact that hospitals admit a limited number of people who have a severe respiratory illness, where they must need ventilators for breathing. A team of researchers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia designed a portable device called "Venti-bags". This device gathers oxygen from fresh air, though, one day patients may allow stay at home and take treatments or medication.

Usually, the air that a medical ventilator provides excessive oxygen contents as compared to the normal atmospheric air. Air enriched with oxygen is provided by either hospital's central system or by compressed air tanks. Furthermore, typically the ratio of oxygen is adjusted as the condition of the patient changes. This signifies that the patient should have to stay at the hospital for frequent monitoring of their condition and to adjust the oxygen level of the ventilator accordingly. Even if a patient uses a movable ventilator that makes use of oxygen tanks, the tanks are required to be refilled frequently.

To overcome the issue, Dr. Ahad Syed and Dr. Adnan Qamar set out to develop the smart ventilation system. This innovation was the winner of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology’s COVID-19 Innovation Challenge for technologies that can deal with the pandemic. The venti bag uses a porous mineral called zeolite to absorb nitrogen from the air in a pressurized environment. Nitrogen is then expelled from the system, resulting in a compressed gas containing up to 96% oxygen.

Usually, the system makes use of an AI-based algorithm that analyses the data provided by the sensor which is on the patient’s body. If it senses that the breathing rate is too low or too high, the amount of oxygen in the air provided by the system is automatically adjusted as required. The doctors can also adjust the level and the other setting manually by using the touchscreen interface. The scientists are now concentrating to refine the technology to make it available for general use.