Sharad Pawar urges sugar factories in Maharashtra to produce medical oxygen to overcome shortage in Covid times

@the_news_21

Pune: As Maharashtra faces an unprecedented acute oxygen shortage, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who also heads the Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI), has urged sugar factories in the State to produce and supply liquid medical oxygen to hospitals to overcome the distressing deficit in times of the Covid-19 pandemic.  

Pawar, through the VSI – a premier institute for research in sugarcane farming, – has appealed to the 190-odd cooperative and privately-owned sugar factories regarding the shortage of liquid medical oxygen being felt in the state.   

In a letter addressed to all the VSI members on behalf of the NCP chief stated, “We all know that the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic has created a grim 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.”

The NCP chief suggested that factories set-up oxygen generating projects by utilizing 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 even while the factories are engaged in crushing,” said the NCP chief. 

The NCP, along with the Shiv Sena and the Congress, is part of the tripartite ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ (MVA) coalition. Pawar said that while the State and Central governments were making efforts to make oxygen available, it had now become imperative for all sugar mills to take the 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 needed is to set up an oxygen separation project,” Pawar added. 

He urged the factory managers to inform themselves about the vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) process (which segregates certain gases from a gaseous mixture at near ambient pressure) and accordingly proceed to set up oxygen generation plants.