ISB alumni develop indigenous PSA oxygen manufacturing plant – Times of India

The plant was assembled in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology, Tirupat at the manufacturing facility of Discovery labs at Choutuppal. The plant produces around 60 litres of oxygen per minute with 93-95 percent purity, which is the required standard for medical oxygen. They have a present capacity to manufacture around 20 plants each month of capacities anywhere between 60 litres/minute to 1,000 litres/minute of oxygen.

When Telangana was at peak of the oxygen crisis, Prashant Manne, Sireesha Yadlapalli and Ashish Naredi, classmates at ISB, came together along with other friends, to ease the oxygen shortage being faced by people.
Initially, they looked at procuring these plants and installing them at hospitals by raising funds for the same. However, all suppliers asked for a time of minimum six weeks for delivery which could get further extended as most of them were importing these plants to India.

“This is when we started exploring options of manufacturing the plants in India itself. We collaborated with Dr Sasidhar Gumma from IIT Tirupati, who had been researching on the subject, took his designs and succeeded in operationalizing the plant in quick time,” said Naredi, one of the three partners in setting up the plant.

They were supported in this endeavor by their friends and families who provided the initial capital to procure the various parts and components required. The first plant thus manufactured through these contributions will be donated to a charitable hospital in accordance with the wishes of all the donors.