TN's SIPCOT plans to locate 'oxygen plants' in industrial areas

The Tamil Nadu government undertaking has set up 21 industrial estates and seven sector specific special economic zones (SEZ) across Tamil Nadu.

Recently SIPCOT set up an oxygen park at its IT park in Siruseri near here.

"All our industrial parks are away from Chennai and only the Siruseri IT park is nearer. Hence, we decided to have an oxygen park in half-an-acre," J. Kumaragurubaran, Managing Director told IANS.

The oxygen park he talks about is literally a park with about 1,000 Beema Bamboo saplings that would grow into trees soon.

"The bamboo trees give out more oxygen and take in more carbon dioxide. So, we decided to go for the Beema Bamboo variety. If successful, the Siruseri model can be replicated in other estates,"  Kumaragurubaran added.

The Sirseri oxygen park is designed in such a manner so that there will be a walking track and the bamboo trees are planted alongside.

"A Beema Bamboo tree takes in about 450 kg of carbon dioxide and emits about 320 kg of oxygen per year. The tree grows about 1.5 ft per day. A human being needs about 280kg of oxygen per year," N. Barathi, Founder Director, Growmore Biotech Ltd told IANS.

Growmore Biotech is an agri-technology company that supplies the tissue cultured Beema Bamboo plants.

"While it is true that all trees and plants absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen, the amount of oxygen emitted by Beema Bamboo is high. One acre of Beema Bamboo trees will emit about 62 ton  of oxygen per year while other trees will emit far less oxygen," Barathi remarked.

Corporates like Infosys, Wipro have sourced bamboo plants to be planted in their software centres, he added.

Queried about bamboo thorns, Barathi said Beema Bamboo is thornless while its biomass is far higher.

"The bamboo's calorific value equals that of the coal. Cement plants are now buying Beema Bamboo as firewood to replace coal for their boilers," Barathi said.

Growmore Biotech exports bamboo plants to South Africa, Sri Lanka, Australia, Argentina, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Madagascar, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Philippines.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has affected exports during 2020-21 as borders were closed. In fiscal 2021-22 we expect overseas shipments to get back to normal," Barathi said.

Apart from being used as firewood, bamboo fibre is used by the textile industry to make fabric and garments.

Barathi lists out various other uses of bamboo like furniture, structures, utensils, activated charcoal and others.

Be that as it may, Kumaragurubaran said SIPCOT estates has about 1,200 acres of open space which would be turned into green space.

"We have already planted about 2.5 lakh native tree species and another 4 lakh tree saplings will be planted. The idea is to have over six lakh native species trees in our estates. These trees will live for over 50-60 years," Kumaragurubaran said.

Normally industrial estates will be barren, devoid of trees with factories like concrete jungle. If SIPCOT's plans succeed then the concrete jungle will be in the midst of green jungle or oxygen  factories.