We are working now with a limited assembly line that is modular and scalable. The product has also led to the selection of the startup in Bengal's prestigious Webel-BCCI Incubator in Salt lake. We have an inventory of 50 and have sold till date 70 devices. We want to scale up the entire facility with the grant so that we can make these devices anywhere, anytime from remote Himalayas to Haringhata where healthcare needs to be affordable and available for all to bridge the gap between the demand and supply of oxygen, Solaire Initiative introduced OM-Redox, an oxygen generating device. It's an oxygen concentrator with a 3.5 Liters/minute capacity. The purity of oxygen is above 90 per cent even at 3.5 Liters/minute flow rate and is hydrated such that a humidifier isn't required. It is based on a patented proprietary technology developed by a group of scientists and engineers from the leading six Universities of Europe and Asia. It's ISO-9001:2015, WHO-GMP, CE certified, and comes with a 1-year warranty. It weighs around 8 kg and has a service life of around 4000-5000 hours depending on environmental conditions. It has an excellent inbuilt battery power backup of up to 4 hours and can also run with an external power supply.

The machine is nothing but a “deep science innovation that generates oxygen which is 3.5 times purer than that one normally gets from a concentrator”, the startup venture’s cofounders Dr Soumyajit Roy and his wife Dr Pei Liang claimed on Thursday.

“Pressure swing adsorption method for production of oxygen works with the liquefaction of air, while concentrator operates through concentration of air by a compressor and then passing it through a catalyst. In these two processes, oxygen is generated from the air. Ours is an alternative technology,” Roy, the professor of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata.

He said their innovation is called pneumatically coupled water oxidation by electrocatalytic reaction (Power) in which the life-saving gas is produced from water.

The machine was among the products that were featured in a book released by Union Science and Technology Minister Dr Jitendra Singh commemorating 75 years of Independence.

“This technology is patented, and approved by World Health Organization and European Conformity,” he claimed, adding that the scientist couple is in discussion with various organizations for licensing the device and manufacturing and marketing of it.

“The product is a sleek white pinewood box, weighing 8 kg, which provides oxygen just on pressing a switch and runs with electricity and also with a battery back-up of 3.5 hours,” said Pei Liang, a Bachelor of Medicine from a Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China.

The device can be made handy and scaled up, she said at a program organized jointly by West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Limited (Webel) and the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“We are actively considering the proposal for manufacturing and marketing of the device that produces oxygen. We are positive about the technology and impressed with its simplicity of it. A girl or boy can operate the device. Given the progress that the startup has made, commercialization of the device is expected in the next three months,” West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Limited (Webel) Managing Director Sunrita Hazra said.

The incubation center, a joint initiative of Webel and Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, incubated around 54 companies in the last few years, including around 18 entities which are going through the process at present. Kalyan Kar the mentor of the unit said.

Of the companies which completed the incubation process, 10-12 reached the commercial state, he said, adding that several companies have approached the center from tier II and III cities of the state, and the participation of women entrepreneurs is also significant