The Dharashiv Sugar Mill in Maharashtra’s Osmanabad district has become the country’s first establishment to produce medical grade oxygen from ethanol plant.
Mill chairman Abhijit Patil said, “Medical oxygen is needed across the country. I consulted with experts from the Vasantdada Sugar Institute and we decided to work on it from April 26. Machinery were called from Germany, U.S. and South Korea. The rest of the set-up of the ethanol plant was ready with us. Initially we thought that the experiment would take three months. But we worked on a war-footing with Mojj Engineering System and successfully completed the project within 17 days.”
Mr. Patil said the medical oxygen needed to have 90% purity and oxygen generated in the plant showed around 95% purity. In the first phase, oxygen to fill 400 to 500 jumbo cylinders daily could be produced.
Govt. support
Osmanabad District Collector Kaustubh Divegaonkar said the State administration too supported the project by supplying transformer and a parallel line through the District Planning and Development Council (DPDC). “This will be a big boost to a district like ours which has no oxygen generation plant. Since the project is supported by us, we will be getting oxygen in concessional rates,” he said.
Mr. Patil said the technology could be used in other States such as Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. “Officials working with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have contacted me. Around 25 sugar mills are in touch with me to implement the project,” he said, adding that he had decided to close down the distillery to produce medical oxygen.
