Molecular sieves now have a growing application - medical oxygen concentrators for home, hospital or clinical use by people suffering from chronic respiratory failure. This ever-growing patient population needs an oxygen-rich air supply close at hand. Whether stationary or portable, these oxygen concentrating devices operate by passing ambient air through a molecular sieve column. The unique properties of the column then separate oxygen from nitrogen in the ambient air and release a flow of up to 94% pure oxygen.

For this application, CECA has developed the NITROXY® line of molecular sieve. NITROXY® is a comprehensive range of molecular sieve for use by a wide variety of Medical Oxygen Concentrator designs. We offer product for systems generating from 1 Liter/min to more than 10 Liter/min. The development of our three molecular sieve grades is the result of CECA’s ten plus years of experience in this unique field and are described below :

NITROXY® 5 : the first grade introduced in 1997, it is a universally accepted material in many standard medical oxygen concentrators already "in the field".

NITROXY® 51 : the second grade, it is oftentimes utilized for the development of lighter, more compact units that operate with less noise and lower power consumption. The benefits are clear for the Oxygen concentrator producer as well as patient comfort as the units require less molecular sieve material for the same output and are thus lighter and easier for the patient to move around.

NITROXY® SXSDM : the third and highest grade, comes with all the benefits that NITROXY® 51 offers, as well as even better kinetics (speed of adsorption). This grade is recommended for the development of very small, quiet and low power consuming units. The NITROXY® SXSDM grade benefits the Oxygen concentrator manufacturer with lower overall manufacturing costs as well as potentially providing the patient with portability, low power consumption and very quiet operating levels.

CECA, with its complete line of NITROXY® molecular sieves, is now the partner of choice for the development of highly efficient oxygen concentrators.

Our sales/marketing support staff is strategically located to assist you. Please contact the CECA specialist in your area :

Americas : Larry Baum, lawrence.baum@arkema.com

Europe : Olivier Philardeau, olivier.philardeau@ceca.fr

Asia : Colin Stein, colin.stein@arkema.com

Japan : Toshiyuki Yamaguchi, toshiyuki.yamaguchi@arkema.com

A quick summary of some technical concepts :

The separation of the various gas components from ambient air is achieved by a porous material known as a synthetic zeolite, which is also known as "molecular sieve". A combination of silica and aluminium organized into a crystalline network, zeolites selectively trap nitrogen molecules in its nanometer-scale cavities, while letting Oxygen and other molecules pass through.

Due to the introduction of our Nitroxy® 51 and Nitroxy® SXSDM, small, battery operated, portable Oxygen concentrators can now be manufactured to generate Oxygen for an individual patients’ ambulatory medical use.

The principle is the same for Medical as with industrial Oxygen systems where air is passed through a set of columns to produce Oxygen at 93-95% of purity. The main difference for medical applications are that the feed flow rate of air that is treated is significantly lower and the adsorption cycle time (time for adsorption before switching to desorption) is somewhat shorter than with many industrial systems.

Please contact the Ceca specialist in your area for further information.