Mumbai: Godrej & Boyce, the flagship company of the Godrej Group, today announced that one of its businesses, Godrej Precision Engineering, has received an order from the state-run Defence Bio-engineering and Electromechanical Laboratory, (DEBEL) to manufacture oxygen generators to support India’s oxygen buffer plan.

DEBEL is a Bengaluru-based laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which has transferred the technology from the existing technology partner to 10 private sector companies, including Godrej & Boyce.

“With the pandemic still rampant with newer variants emerging, the need for medical oxygen has increased exponentially. According to a recent press announcement by the Government of India, it has taken concerted efforts to ensure oxygen buffers are created at the hospital, state and regional levels,” a statement from the company said.

“To meet these requirements, DRDO’s lab, DEBEL, has identified Godrej Precision Engineering as one of its selected partners to manufacture the oxygen generators. The first batch have been manufactured and supplied to rural hospitals across Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh within a record period of one month,” the statement said.

The system utilises an air compressor to provide compressed air to the oxygen plant, which is filtered and dried by a refrigerant air dryer and further filtered before the air is admitted to the oxygen generator through adsorption towers. The oxygen generator removes the nitrogen from the air by adsorbing it in the molecular sieves and produces an output with 93±3 percent oxygen.

For separating oxygen from the air, the medical oxygen generator employs Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technique. The output is stored in a storage tank. Each generator can produce 250 litres of oxygen a minute, which can cater to 50 patients.

“Throughout our history, Godrej & Boyce has contributed to India’s journey of self-reliance by combining cutting-edge engineering prowess with decades of precision expertise. With this new medical oxygen generating system, we hope to assist India in gaining a lasting advantage in the fight against COVID,” Godrej & Boyce’s executive director Nyrika Holkar said, commenting on the partnership.

“We are honored by the trust that DRDO, for over three decades, has placed in us to manufacture critical systems and precision machines. At Godrej Precision Engineering, we have established our manufacturing process, supply chain, manpower and infrastructure requirements to be able to quickly scale up production of such important medical infrastructure,” Godrej Precision Engineering’s associate vice president and business head Sushil Agarkar said.

Over the years, Godrej & Boyce has successfully partnered with DRDO for various projects. Last year, another of its businesses, Godrej Aerospace, developed and delivered 5,000 Proportional Solenoid Valves — a critical component for making ventilators.

Godrej Precision Engineering has also successfully executed orders for defence land systems like BrahMos missile launchers, missile carriers and naval systems like diving and surfacing mechanism, hull equipment, life raft container ejection systems and steering gear.

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