With Maharashtra witnessing acute shortage of medical oxygen amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who heads the Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI), urged the 190-odd cooperative and privately-owned sugar factories in the State to produce and supply oxygen to hospitals to help tackle the deficit.
“We all know that the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has created a dire situation in the State and that patients are in urgent need of oxygen. The factories, which are still in the crushing season, as well as those which have taken on distillation projects, should produce medical oxygen, while those which have completed crushing can produce and supply oxygen kits to patients at COVID-19 centres,” read the letter written on Mr. Pawar’s behalf by the VSI.
The NCP chief suggested that factories set up oxygen-generating projects by utilising existing equipment and manpower. “For an oxygen production project to be set up, steam and electricity are the essential requirements. These are readily available in sugar factories. The work of generating oxygen can be done simultaneously while the factories are engaged in crushing,” he said.
Mr. Pawar said that while the Central and State governments were taking steps to make oxygen available, it had become imperative for all sugar mills to take an initiative as well and set up oxygen-generating plants with the necessary equipment, manpower and capital, if required.
“Sugar factories have been refining ethanol and separating carbon dioxide in distillation projects. The only thing here is to set up an oxygen separation project,” Mr. Pawar said. He urged factory heads to inform themselves about the vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) process (which segregates certain gases from a gaseous mixture at near ambient pressure) and proceed accordingly to set up oxygen-generation plants.
