Mobile Oxygen & Power Emergency Solution

Oxygen is a life-saving medicine, particularly during this COVID pandemic. Africa and countries in South Asia have a severe lack of oxygen, resulting in higher rates of morbidity and mortality.  Long transportation distances and limited production facilities make oxygen costly and scarce, leaving low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) incredibly vulnerable to any pandemic or medical emergency situation requiring oxygen therapy.

To address this problem, Steelhead Composites (Steelhead) has developed a mobile trailer system, consisting of compressed medical-grade oxygen tanks and certified, lightweight high-pressure hydrogen cylinders.  This easily transportable system represents a compelling solution to providing continuous oxygen and power (via fuel cell technology) to hospitals and health clinics in any location.  

This innovation will provide equitable, affordable and sustainable healthcare to protect and treat the most at-risk populations.  Steelhead’s goal is to save lives by providing this essential life-saving technology to medical facilities across the globe. 

It is estimated that 20% of COVID-19 cases will require oxygen therapy. As COVID cases increase, so does the amount of oxygen required; particularly in remote regions where logistics are challenging, and oxygen is not available.  Adequate oxygen supply is essential for any pandemic response. Medical-grade oxygen is the critical element to satisfy the recovery needs for a high percentage of COVID-19 patients and oxygen infrastructure must be considered. The reality is that oxygen is the only therapy that will save lives in LMICs.  Strengthening healthcare systems and ensuring access to essential health services such as oxygen and power is more relevant than ever during a pandemic.

Fewer than one-third of all health facilities in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have access to dependable electricity.  Reliable electricity is pivotal to enable basic lighting, mobile phone charging for communication, access to clean water via water pumps and power to medical and diagnostic equipment.  Additionally, power enables refrigeration for vaccines, blood and medication and allows for basic procedures to be carried out during the day and after sunset.  Providing essential medical equipment to healthcare providers will strengthen health infrastructures for long-term capacity, saving lives both now and in the future. 

Steelhead Composites is a global leader in product development and manufacture of lightweight, composite storage vessels (tanks) that serve nearly every market.  A trailer of Steelhead’s large, lightweight, robust tanks can provide medical-oxygen for treatment and power for electricity.  Our concept uses the mature electrolysis technology.  If electrical current (via electrolyzer) is introduced to water it results in H2O splitting into oxygen and  hydrogen. Electrolyzers break apart the water molecules and the generation of the gasses occurs.  This process requires a source of power which can be obtained through renewable energy such as solar or wind.

Once hydrogen and oxygen gases are generated, each will be compressed using standard mechanical or electrochemical compression to fill Steelhead vessels for immediate use. This solution addresses the delivery and deployment of zero-emission power and oxygen supply to any health facility including remote, off-grid, and temporary health facilities.

The mobile units are compromised of an assembly of 270L (345 bar) storage vessels.  Continuous oxygen can be used for therapy or when ventilators are available, can provide enough oxygen and power for 110 patients for 24 hours.  The sustainable operation is possible via a drop-and-swap method, where one unit is deployed, while another is refilled.

Oxygen is an essential medical therapy that is important in resuscitation, medical, surgical, and obstetric care.  Steelhead Composites utilizes an innovative technology and solution to ensure access of oxygen and power to the most vulnerable populations to treat a wide range of critical conditions.  

Oxygen inaccessibility during the COVID-19 pandemic initiated the development of our Mobile Oxygen and Power Solution.  Our system addresses oxygen and power needs globally and can be added to strengthen health infrastructures in any location. This includes existing hospitals, temporary medical facilities, rural clinics, correctional facilities, and long-term care facilities.  

A method of consistent and safe delivery of oxygen and reliable power should be available to all health facilities, regardless of location.  While this pandemic has illuminated the need for oxygen globally, there has always been an underlying lack of oxygen availability in LMICs. This has created a serious barrier to improving health outcomes, especially during a respiratory pandemic.

Aside from immediate oxygen and power needs during this pandemic, this solution will continue to address underlying health needs of vulnerable populations such as pregnant women, infants and children. 

Access to oxygen is the determining factor between of life and death for COVID patients in LMICs.  Scaling up access to oxygen is one of the most effective and critical actions for improving health outcomes.

The Mobile Oxygen and Power Emergency Solution addresses the problem by delivering a sustainable and continuous source of medical oxygen and power to any health clinic. This solution could have saved thousands of lives during the Ebola outbreak and addressed needs during the Zika crisis.  Along with needs of emerging outbreaks, it strengthens healthcare systems and improves rapid response for day-to-day treatment to save lives.

Electrolysis has been used as a source of continuous oxygen in space and at sea, and hydrogen for fuel and power supplies. Our solution uses electrolysis to produce and capture both oxygen and hydrogen to strengthen healthcare settings.  This concept has never been done and we have no competitors.  Solar power, another source of renewable energy, has been slowly introduced to healthcare facilities in LMICs for power, but solar does not have the ability to fill oxygen tanks for reliable use.  Our solution does both.

The major benefits for this Steelhead-developed technology is the availability to rapidly deploy the solution in response to emergency needs, mobility and ruggedness to reach and perform in rural areas in all populated climatic zones.  In addition, it also represents an integral and missing set of capabilities for numerous rural health clinics in LMICs, globally.  Such governments must engage in a dual track; addressing COVID-19 while continuing to provide essential healthcare services for co-morbidities such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, non-communicable disease and common infections such as cholera, malaria and measles.  In fact, our mobile oxygen and power innovation can immediately address COVID-19 patient needs and address non-pandemic related maladies that are causing morbidity and mortality among vulnerable populations.  

Electrolysis is a promising solution for oxygen and hydrogen production and usage. Electrolysis is the process of using electricity to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. This reaction takes place in a unit called an electrolyzer. Splitting the oxygen and hydrogen in water is accomplished using a process called “water electrolysis" in which both the oxygen and hydrogen molecules separate into individual gasses via separate “evolution reactions." Each evolution reaction is induced by an electrode in the presence of a catalyst.

Once oxygen and hydrogen gases are generated, each will be compressed using standard mechanical or electrochemical compression to fill Steelhead vessels. Each compression methodology is well-established and commercial methodologies will be used.  We highlight a drop and swap capability centered on the Steelhead combined power and oxygen trailer product.

The 12-vessel module will be trailer mounted and manifolded, including rapid and safe connections for refill and reuse. The trailer has 3 hydrogen tanks (about 19kg) providing safe, stored, clean and silent usable power for medical facilities. The 9 oxygen cylinders would provide the medical facility approximately 1 million liters of compressed oxygen. 

Electrolysis is a well-established technology, developed in the late 18th century. Today, it is considered as a key process used for the production of high-purity hydrogen from water and renewable energy sources. While electrolysis produces two gases, it is the hydrogen over oxygen that takes the spotlight for electrolysis applications- unless you are in space or at sea.  

NASA has long been using water electrolysis as the primary source of oxygen production and storage at the International Space Station (ISS).  Electricity from the ISS solar panels are used to split water into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas.  Hydrogen produced by electrolysis is essential for space missions because it is the main fuel used for propulsion of spacecrafts during launch and it can also be used for orbit propulsion and deorbiting at the end of the operative life of the spacecraft. The oxygen is captured and used for oxygen life support in manned missions, like in the ISS.

Modern submarines use seawater electrolysis to create the components for breathable air.  During the process, oxygen is collected and continuously pumped throughout the submarine's ventilation system and into the various inhabited chambers.  These submarines have the ability to stay below the waterline for up to six months without resurfacing. Typical vessels would have to come up for air every seven days, but with the innovative scientific method of extracting O2 from the seawater that surrounds them, they can stay much longer.

Steelhead Composite's Mobile Oxygen and Power Emergency Solution will address oxygen and power needs during COVID and go beyond this pandemic, by improving maternal, infant and child morbidity and mortality rates.  Regardless of the population served, providing a sustainable and continuous source of medical oxygen will result in less lives lost from lack of oxygen availability, while the power gained will offer refrigeration for vaccines and medicines, and back-up power. 

We are in the development stage and require funding.  We have created a  Theory of Change Framework- this plan is being used to foster channels for both internal and external communication among our team and with key stakeholders.  As we continue to make new partners and research needs of different regions, we will revise initial assumptions based on evidence and experiences with new partners.  The most critical piece to our model is our relationships with stakeholders and partners to facilitate the implementation of this solution and strengthen the engagement of multi-level governmental and health systems.  We are aware of the importance of community support and are working closely with our partners to make sure we have support from every level.

As we obtain new partners, we must conduct a needs assessments with our to identify where to focus our solution integration.  Activities will commence to determine gaps and gain commitments from governments on a national, regional, district and community level (which most recent partners have already established through past programs).  Short-term outcomes include increased community awareness, treatment of patients and power supply to rural clinics.  Medium-term outcomes include community member buy-in and education to increase numbers served.  Long-term outcomes address access to basic healthcare expanded, increased health care utilization, and gaps narrowed.  External factors will always be a challenge, particularly with potential political and economic instability- strong partnerships are essential to our success.  Our ultimate impact will be reducing morbidity and mortality by expanding access to two essential medical supplies, and improving the health outcomes of any vulnerable population including COVID patients in any location. 

Our solution is not yet serving the public.  We are still in the funding stages for prototype development.  

Each Steelhead 270 liter vessel holds 94 kiloliters of compressed oxygen. One vessel can support 13 patients/day. The volume of oxygen in Steelhead’s tanks is 12x the largest commercially common oxygen “K” bottles, but weighs less than ¼ of 12 K bottles. 

Compressed hydrogen can be regulated down to 7 bar and delivered to a PEM fuel cell and used to provide primary or back-up power. Each Steelhead 270 liter vessel holds 6.2 kg of hydrogen, representative of 204 kWh. At a PEM efficiency of ~ 65%, each Steelhead hydrogen vessel produces ~ 133 kWh. 

Steelhead is dedicated to save lives through the delivery of essential oxygen and power. Pandemics such as COVID-19 present bigger issues in counties with weak medical and health infrastructure.  Our goal us to first make this solution available globally during the COVID pandemic for assistance to temporary medical facilities, long-term care facilities, correctional facilities, and rural areas.  Beyond COVID, our goal us to launch this life saving technology in LMICs regardless of location.  

Much of our success has to do with initial funding.  We have support from our partners and will continue finding support for development and testing for deployment.  

The financial barrier is our current setback.  We can continue to develop this solution slowly, but without funding, the impact of this solution will be delayed.  

While all components are off-the-shelf ready, an additional hurdle will be the hold-up that often occurs with obtaining permits.  Each country has its own set of regulations, which could cause delays.  

Humanitarian efforts is a new field for Steelhead, but we are experts in compressed gas storage and transport.  With the increased emphasis on hydrogen as an energy carrier for decarbonization via zero-emission vehicles or power generation, Steelhead has been active in providing storage solutions. Storing the smallest element under great pressure is not a trivial task. Steelhead has a legacy in manufacturing and testing safe, lightweight, reliable storage vessels.  Steelhead is able to quickly take this technology and translate it into storing large amounts of compressed medical oxygen to benefit in a pandemic situation, as well as with maternal and infant health, or any medical condition requiring oxygen.  

Steelhead is dedicated to this project and will continue to work with our partners and network to make this solution come to fruition.  We have almost a decade of experience obtaining permits for our products, and we know how to account for delays and get products where needed globally.

Three full-time staff with additional project responsibilities, and one .75FTE contractor fully dedicated to this solution.

With 60 years of combined composites, manufacturing and pressure vessel experience and over 120 customers in 26 countries using Steelhead products, in some of the most demanding environments, Steelhead has the staff and expertise to bring this innovation to the market. We are experts with generating, compressing, storing and safely transporting gasses.

Steelhead Composites is a U.S. based (Golden, CO) small business, we combine advanced materials processing with advanced manufacturing. We are dedicated to the design, manufacture and evaluation of lightweight storage vessels for use in mass-sensitive energy and fuel storage applications. Our competencies include lightweight bladder, diaphragm and piston accumulators; gas storage and transport; and other composite structures. We also offer design and analysis services, metal spin forming, plastic molding, filament winding, prototyping and testing/evaluation. 

Our intellectual property and engineering know-how in composites enable us to develop and certify products specific to customer needs. Steelhead delivers reliable, safe and custom vessels within a set, and often short, timeframe by relying on our in-house experts and dedication to manufacturing excellence. This allows Steelhead to bypass the traditional vendor, customer relationship via alignment as a strategic partner and active participation in the development and launch of new products. The Steelhead manufacturing capability was purposefully designed to be efficiently reproduced at other geographic locations. This affords our customers with the best combination of (near) vertical integration, without merger or acquisition. 

We are currently partnering with the Instituto de Medicina Tropical at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Peru.  Peru's rural population has been especially vulnerable to COVID-19 due to lack of oxygen availability.  This partnership has been essential in assisting Steelhead in ensuring our solution will realize its potential impact and to help access the rural communities with the greatest need of oxygen and power in outbreak and pandemic emergency situations.

In addition to commercial customers, Steelhead partners with NASA on next generation aerospace tanks, the US Navy on new metal forming techniques and has ongoing projects and partnerships with national labs and universities around the United States.  As a small manufacturing business, we are well-suited to rapidly prototype and test novel solutions. 

Steelhead is in the business of doing well while doing good. Our products are generally used to decarbonize the earth through high-pressure hydrogen storage for zero-emission energy. We design, engineer, and manufacture disruptive products and sell them to the market. The company had revenues in Q1 almost as great as 2019 (~$1M). We’ve attracted customers from around the world that appreciate our manufacturing capabilities and nimbleness. Steelhead uses advanced materials and a fully digital shop floor to address customers who need either lighter weight or higher strength products– or both.

Steelhead is actively raising investment capital and is on the brink of profitability. We expect to be break even in 4Q2020. The company will need additional resources to take the proposed solution to the market and then require that the units are purchased after that point.

MIT Solve gives Steelhead an excellent opportunity to expand our network and gain advice and mentorship through your partners.  Learning from other tech-based health solutions and the creators behind the work will open doors for many future opportunities with each other as we all try to seek support for our health-centered solutions.

Steelhead is dedicated to the design, manufacturing and testing of specialty high-pressure, lightweight composite pressure vessels used for weight-sensitive energy and fuel storage applications. Our specialties include lightweight bladder, diaphragm and piston accumulators, hydrogen storage vessels for fuel cells, gas storage and transport, and other composite structures. We also offer a full array of technical services in vessel design, metal spin forming, filament winding, prototyping and testing of high-pressure vessels. 

The medical industry is new to Steelhead and we added a new expert by hiring a Director of Health and Medical Affairs.  We have been leading up to this humanitarian innovation band are confident we can provide this essential and sustainable medical equipment to frontline healthcare providers to strengthen health infrastructures for saving lives now and for addressing long-term capacity. We welcome any opportunity to partner, learn from and collaborate with others sharing the same mission.

Because we are new to this field, we will benefit from working with any established organizations providing technology and/or equipment to health facilities in LMICs.  This is a long road, but we are confident our innovation will move mountains and provide life-saving care those who would continue to suffer otherwise.

Our mobile oxygen and power emergency solution will strengthen any healthcare infrastructure by providing life-saving oxygen to pregnant women, newborns, infants and children.  Our technology will give communities the supplies needed to treat women and children with a sustainable supply of oxygen.  Additionally, it will provide access to reliable power which will introduce additional resources to any medical facility.