| 摘要 |
Apparatus for producing sterile air suitable for being administered to intensive-care patients in hospitals using atmospheric air. The medical-grade air is free of gaseous contaminants and germs, at a cost substantially lower than when such air is prepared by mixing pure nitrogen with pure oxygen. Atmospheric air is compressed through at least one dry-piston compressor, condensing water vapor out of the compressed air through expansion into a buffer tank, filtering out dust particles down to micron size in a prefilter, drying the air through an adsorption desiccator unit and eliminating gaseous contaminants through an adsorption-desorption unit. A second dust filter is provided for trapping any dust released from the adsorption units. Biological contaminants, such as viruses and bacteria, are eliminated by flowing through a sequence of three biological filters of the coalescence type, and finally through a cold sterilizing unit. The desiccator unit and the unit for the elimination of gaseous contaminants contain a compound of metal oxides with silicates K, Na and Mg, the amount of this compound being larger in the elimination unit than in the desiccator unit. |
