How A Concentrator Works

The compressed air enters one of the two adsorber vessels, located on either side of the central “mix tank”. The air enters from the bottom of the vessel, and it forced through a molecular sieve known as zeolyte. The zeolyte when under pressure, strongly attracts nitrogen molecules while allowing oxygen molecules to pass through. By the time the air has made it to the top of the tower, all of the nitrogen and most other impurities have been removed. All that remains is the oxygen and trace amounts of inert argon. This oxygen passes into the mix tank, completing the one cycle of the concentrator. While the one adsorber vessel is pressurizing, the second vessel purges it’s nitrogen into the atmosphere, and is brought under vacuum to regenerate the zeolyte. When this is complete, the cycle reverses, and the newly regenerated tower pressurizes and produces oxygen, while the other is purged and regenerated. In this way, a constant supply of oxygen is produced from the machine.