Our Story

Solving problems is at the heart of all of our work. As University of Melbourne physicists, Bryn, David and Roger worked extensively on high technology sensors in international laboratories. They played pivotal roles in establishing the Australian Synchrotron. Jim had spent much of his early career as a clinician in remote rural areas of Mozambique and was working in global health at the Nossal Institute, developing health diagnostic tools. It was the chance meeting of these individuals that spawned several collaborative projects focused on reducing the mortality rates of children in low-resource settings. 

In 2010, a diverse group of individuals from various backgrounds met at the University of Melbourne to discuss global health challenges. It was here that Bryn first learned a staggering statistic: pneumonia is the single largest killer of children worldwide. Although oxygen is a proven life-saving medicine, traditional oxygen cylinders in low-and-middle-income countries can be extremely costly and many oxygen concentrators require regular maintenance and a constant energy supply – something inaccessible in many low-resource health facilities. From here, the physics team explored creative ideas on how to provide oxygen without relying on electricity. This early work was unfunded until 2013 when the team was awarded a Saving Lives at Birth Grant and the Fully Renewable Energy Oxygen project was born – FREO2.

Ideas need to be Implemented to have Impact - these three “I’s” are key to achieving sustainable impact. Recognising this, the team established FREO2 as a not-for-profit organisation to implement novel oxygen technology in-country. Since then, we have built local FREO2 teams in Uganda, Tanzania and the Pacific and developed the first ever oxygen technology that can produce, store and deliver medical-grade oxygen without using electricity.

FREO2 Highlights