INTERVIEW

No Surprises at the End of Process
Essar Energy has undertaken the second phase of expansion of Vadinar refinery to increase its current capacity to 400,000 bpd. Jasbir Singh, Vice President, Essar Projects India Ltd (EPIL) explains, "Scalability and expandability are the two most desired thought processes, while designing a system." He discusses the overall expectations from a users's perspective from automation service providers and delves into details about integrating the overall operation of the refinery from centralised location...
- Jasbir Singh, Vice President, Essar Projects India Ltd.

FEATURES

Plant-Wide Optimisation: An imperative
Forward-thinking manufacturers can maximise asset utilisation, productivity, and uptime - as well as integrate these with other aspects of the enterprise - through plant-wide optimisation. A unified platform for communication and for multiple control disciplines is must to help manufacturers realise the benefits of plant-wide optimisation...
- Naveen Kumar Vashist

Addressing Production Challenges with digital Architecture
In the competitive world, the chemical plant managers have to continuously address the challenge of keeping high throughput. Despite automating the production facilities, many plant operators continue to face the problem of reduced throughput. Authors discuss the pain points and describe how digital architecture enables them to address the day-to-day operational issues...
- Sunil Khanna and Dr. A S Prasad

Intelligent Electronics for Critical Process Applications
Past few years has seen immense improvement in reliability of electronic components in adverse conditions and high ambient temperatures. Use of these advanced electronics bring significant reduction in Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) and Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) thus reducing the downtime. This article draws a comparison between the conventional and intelligent MCCs from the users perspective...
- Hemal Desai

Instrumentation at its Best
If instruments are the life of a company, then calibration maintains and improves life standards with enhanced precision, quality and output of the company. This ar ticle highlights the necessity and importance of calibration of instruments along with the factors and machiner y involved in calibration...
- K Venkata Subramanian

Using thermal design Expertise
In a perfect world, product design from initial concept to production release is a straight line with no wasted engineering capacity, purchasing time or redesigns required by design changes. In the real world, the path to product release is much more circuitous, and almost serpentine at times...
- Brian P Ream

Smart Energy for the Smarter World
"Go Green" is the latest message echoing all over the world, including India, for protecting our ecosystem. The author gives an overview of smart grid technologies as one of the key approaches to sustainable measures...
- Surjit Lahiri

SOUTH SPECIAL

Overview of Chemical industry developments in South
Chemical industry across India has been on an ever-growing expansion phase. Different states of the country bringing in their own diversities have significantly contributed to the growth and development of chemical industry in India. Chemical Engineering World zooms its focus on the southern part of India and presents an overview on the upside and downside of chemical industry in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka...
- Savita V Jayaram and Shilpa Vijayaraghavan

Balaji Amines on an Expansion Spree
The 385-crore company has rolled out aggressive growth strategy to enhance production capacity and turn itself into 900 crore supplier of chemicals for pharma manufacturers. The group has earmarked 90 crores to achieve targeted growth and increase the global footprint...

Upbeat and Aggressive About Sustainable and Operational Excellence
Living up to its name, GE Intelligent Platforms has continuously strived for the past two decades to help customers solve their design challenges in automation and embedded computing and to increase their market presence. Arvind Kakru, Business Leader of GE Intelligent Platforms, India, talks about trends in automation and focus on sustainable process and packaging solutions along with robust plans for gaining strong foothold in India...

MARKET INSIGHTS

Sustainability Takes the Centre Stage
Sustainability to build safe future took centre stage during a recently organised conference by TUV SUD in Mumbai. Headquartered in Munich Germany, TUV SUD, a future oriented company has incorporated reliability, safety, quality, cost effectiveness and environmental protection...

Giving Impetus to the MSME Sector
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in collaboration with Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Government of India had organised India Global Summit on the 19th and 20th October 2011 at the The Lalit Hotel, New Delhi...

Nalco Foresees Strong Profitable Growth
Nalco, a sustainability service company providing essential expertise for water, energy and air, is pleased and all smiles with its track of developments in the fiscal year 2010-2011...

INTERVIEW

Committed to People, Committed to Sustainable Productivity
Atlas Copco India, has unveiled its 1-billion business plan to build its fourth manufacturing facility in India at Pune, after having served the Indian market successfully for five decades. The company anticipates strong growth in demand over the coming years from India and the country will be one of the key markets for the group in future. Filip Vandenberghe, Managing Director, Atlas Copco India, and Stephan Kuhn, President, Compressor Technique Business Area, Atlas Copco, elaborate on the accomplishments of the company in India, the new facility and future growth plans in an exclusive interview with Mittravinda Ranjan...
- Filip Vandenberghe, Managing Director, Atlas Copco India, and Stephan Kuhn, President Compressor Technique Business Area, Atlas Copco

FEATURES

Explosion Risks in Air Drying Section in Air Compressor Plant
This paper deals with the problem of explosion risk associated with air drying section of an air compressor plant and suggests remedial measures to eliminate the risk based on analysis of a reported case history, safety measures incorporated, causes of explosion and conditions leading to explosion and detonation. It also presents anticipated events and their consequences during the accident...
- Manju Mittal, Shorab Jain, Rakesh Kumar and Sushil Kumar

Electrically Operated vs Pneumatically Operated Actuators
In India, majority of oil refining companies are in the public sector domain and their marketing terminal with storage tanks holds a high cost of inventory of Petroleum, Oil and Lubricant (POL) products and its revenue. Needless to mention, it is imperative that these POL marketing terminals or installations are safe and secure from receipt to dispatch and loading or unloading through out their operation life cycle. Over the years, most oil refining companies and associated marketing terminals have identical operations and practices. This article is the outcome of Mott MacDonald's several discussions and due diligence with numerous valve and actuator manufacturers or suppliers and client requirements...
- Hemant Shriram

Pumps Used in Pressurised Coal Gasification Plants
Corrosive and abrasive, hot and aggressive – such are the characteristic traits of the gas liquor to be handled in a pressurised coal gasification plant. The pumps used, though, parry the attack with their intelligent design and high-quality materials. These pumps pass through an endurance test in pressurised coal gasification process...
- Stephanie Lorenz

Plastic AODD dd Pumps for Manufacture of Solar Cells
The manufacture of solar cells is a very harsh process. Since the discovery of Photovoltaic (PV) effect in 1839, solar or photovoltaic energy have grown to become major components in the success of a number of industries today. The Plastic Air-Operated Double-Diaphragm (AODD) pumps offer the best of all worlds in the manufacture of solar or photovoltaic cells...
- Rainer Wulf

Effective Business Management in Chemical industry
In the global chemicals business, companies live and die by their ability to meet order commitments within stringent timelines. As businesses grew during the period of rapid expansion, it became difficult for Aar ti Industries Limited to manage financials and keep pace with the legacy software. Hence, there was need for a comprehensive business tool that fosters business growth without disruption of the daily business activities...
- Sudhakar Shetty

MARKET INSIGHTS

Ashland Inaugurates 2nd R & D Centre in India
Ashland Specialty Ingredients inaugurated their research centre in Mumbai to develop additives and ingredients that deliver high performance characteristics sought after by coatings and construction industry professionals...

Scope of Technical Textiles in India
Technical Textiles are emerging area of investment in India and they represent a multi-disciplinary field with numerous end applications...

Highly Reliable Peristaltic Pump Systems with Innovative Pump Head Design for Tubing Life Longevity
Tubing is one of the most important component in a peristaltic pump because tubing is the pump chamber and the only wetted part. The elasticity of the tubing provides suction lift; its strength provides pressure-handling ability; its flexibility determines pumping life; its bore determines the flow rate; and its wall thickness determines pumping efficiency...

Sandvik Group is Restructuring its Global Operations to Strengthen Market Leadership
Sandvik Group is undergoing an operational restructure of its global operations to fortify its market leadership. Sandvik Asia, the Indian arm of the USD 13-billion Swedish group, expects to complete its operational restructure by the end of 2011...

INTERVIEW

Fostering Innovation Culture Across the Country
"Money and resources spent on R&D are not expenditure, but investment for the future," says Dr R K Malhotra, Director (R&D), IndianOil Corporation Ltd. He is of the view that focused R&D is the only way to provide cost-effective solutions to multifaceted challenges that the industry faces. Dr Malhotra attributes the success of IOCL to continued focus on R&D, which has played a key role in the entire value chain of company's business. However, he feels the need to develop strong linkages between the industry and academia by organising open forums and exchange programmes to offer the much-needed boost to research activities...
- Dr. R K Malhotra, Director (R&D), IOCL

GUJARAT SPECIAL

Gujarat will Continue to Stay the Preferred Destination for Investors
Gujarat has been constantly evolving on the industrial development front. GIDC has been supporting the government in its initiatives towards development of planned industrial estates, SEZs and Special Investment Regions (SIRs) in the state. In an exclusive interview with B B Swain, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC), we draw insights on the initiatives taken up by the development corporation for holistic industrial development in the State of Gujarat...
- B B Swain, VC & MD, GIDC

Dahej: Propelling the Indian Sector Forward
Rated amongst the top 25 best global economic zones by the Financial Times Group, Gujarat's Dahej is India's most preferred destination for investments in the chemicals sector. Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) is the main promoter of this special economic zone (SEZ), which undertook development of this area in 2003, soon after the Indian Government came up with the SEZ policy in the year, 2000. Exports from Dahej have already touched 436 crore in FY-11. R J Shah, CEO, Dahej SEZ Ltd expects an increase in exports by 1,000 crore in the current fiscal...
- R J Shah, CEO, Dahej SEZ Ltd

World Class Process Engineering Solutions from GEA Process Engineering
GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft is a technology group, operating internationally with complete focus on process technology and components for demanding production processes in various end markets. Headquartered at Vadodara, GEA Process Engineering Ltd is the wholly-owned Indian arm of the process engineering division providing process engineering solutions and services for different industries in the chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical and oil and gas sectors...

FEATURES

Application of Shell Reactor Internals in Huizhou Refinery
This paper briefly presents the industrial application of patented Shell reactor internals in a 4 MTPA high pressure Hydro cracker Unit(HCU) in CNOOC Huizhou Refinery. By using Shell’s reactor internals, the pressure drop across the reactor top bed remained stable, while the radial temperature for catalyst bed was uniform. These demonstrate that the reactor internals have perform better on the mixture and re-distribution of hot and cold streams...
- Shao Weidang, Xiao Song Qing

Case Study: Handling Phenol Phenomenally
When numerous and varied components come together in a manufacturing operation to create a finished product, one of the components, with which no chances are taken, is 'Phenol'. In its liquid form, Phenol is classified by the US Department of Transportation as a 'Class 6.1 (poisonous) material.' Since 2007, SI Group Manufacturing has relied on Drylok^TM Dry Disconnect Couplers from OPW Engineered Systems, for use in its Phenol-handling applications...
- Dave Morrow

Risk Management in Refineries
Refineries in general, deal with large volumes of flammable and toxic materials wherein the risk of explosions or exposure of people to toxic gases and chemicals is always present. However, the risks associated with modern day refinery cannot be eliminated entirely, but we can learn to accurately assess the risk and then try to mitigate it. Effective risk management in refineries plays a pivotal role to abate the risks involved...
- Ram K Goyal & Vinod Menon

Developing Holistic Approach towards Cooling Water Treatment
Water Cooling is a method of heat removal from components and industrial equipment, where water is used as the heat conductor. Corrosion, scaling, fouling and microbial growth are the major problems associated with any cooling water system. The authors discuss the importance of water audits and various methodologies to optimise consumption of cooling water in industrial processes...
- Tushar Jhaveri & Dr. S Kedar

Small & Medium Enterprises Development Policy in Different Countries
Globally, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have been accepted as the engine of economic growth and for promoting equitable development. The major advantage of this sector is its employment potential at low capital cost. The labour intensity of the MSME sector is much higher than that of the large enterprises. In recent years, the MSME sector has consistently registered higher growth rate compared to the overall industrial sector. With its agility and dynamism, the sector has shown admirable innovativeness and adaptability to survive the recent economic downturn and recession...
- Jaimin Vasa

MARKET INSIGHTS

Harnessing India's Coal Potential
With the increasing energy demand, Coal will play a pivotal role in the energy sector in India due to its availability in abundance. India has relatively large reserves of coal (253 billion tonnes) compared to crude oil (728 million tonnes) and natural gas (686 billion cubic meters)...

Engineering Exports from India - The Road Ahead
India is one of the fastest growing exporter of engineering goods in the world, registering nearly 30 percent year-on-year growth, well above the global engineering average export growth of 13 percent...

ICT reaches Apex position in Biotechnology, Receives Grant for Research
For the second consecutive year, the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) has topped the Biospectrum (a CyberMedia group magazine) survey conducted on Indian biotech schools...

FEATURES

Automatic Backwash Filter Replaces One-way Filter
Process waters are frequently filtered using one-way filters such as filter bags, filter candles, string-wound cartridges, paper filters etc. Thanks to automatic backwash filters, these one-way filters can, in many cases be replaced. As a result of a patented design, the automatic backwash filter from Lenzing Technik is in a position to filter whilst forming cakes at the same time. This technology allows for a very fine filtration down to 1μm with high contents of solid matter at the same time and throughput performances...
- Josef Baumgartinger

Mitigation Measures for Arsenic and Fluoride Contamination in Ground Water
Arsenic and Fluoride Contamination in ground water in various states of India is an acute problem because of its health effects on human beings. This article aims to provide various Arsenic and Fluoride removal Technologies available to minimise their levels in water to meet the water quality standards...
- Prathamesh Mehendale & Renu Saraf

Process Intensification of CO² Removal Section in Ammonia Plant
The existing COCO² removal section of the Ammonia Plant was studied for performance at the revamped loads. To reduce the COCO² slippage from the Absorber, KEVIN replaced the conventional packing with the third generation Medal-Pak packing and where possible, carried out modifications on some of the existing Internals. Where not possible, the existing Internals were replaced with high performance KEVIN Internals. Post revamp, the COCO² removal section is performing satisfactorily at higher loads, the COCO² slip from the Absorber was reduced below the target while the steam consumption in the Regenerator was reduced...
- Sujata Wuthoo

Systems for Dust Producing Applications
Increase in pollution caused by rapid urbanisation and industrialisation has drawn the attention of environmental activists globally, which has compelled and environment regulatory bodies to lay stringent policies to monitor the emissions to curb the greenhouse effect in order to address the issue of global warming. Arunava Das answers some of the questions regarding the efficiency of baghouse filters and use of cyclone separators to separate particulate matter from air, gas or liquid streams...
- Arunava Das

'MBR Technology' Santa Paula's Answer to Wastewater Treatment Needs
The City of Santa Paula, California, opted to pursue a design-build-operate-finance strategy to construct a new state-of-the-art water recycling facility designed to meet the city’s current and future wastewater treatment needs. This new Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) technology combines biological wastewater treatment and membrane filtration into one unit process, producing a consistently high quality effluent in an extremely compact footprint and are energy efficient and provide significantly lower lifecycle costs than other alternatives...

Reducing Environmental Impact and Driving Business Efficiencies – The Dual Role of Energy Management
Organisations across the process industries are looking forward to ways to optimise their energy consumption. In the oil refining, petrochemical and gas processing businesses, in particular, energy is one of the largest components of operating expense. Improving energy efficiency saves costs with no negative impact and therefore represents a particularly attractive option for businesses to follow...
- Sunil Chaudhari

Asset Reliability and Maintenance Management for the Chemical Industry
Continued modernisation and the pressurising need for higher productivity has resulted in increasing usage of sophisticated and complex machinery and equipment. While the importance of asset reliability and maintenance management (ARMM) is discussed and realised at the highest levels of organisations today, adoption of best practices in ARMM can help enable companies to induce advanced technology to meet the demands of the future.
- Sunil Kamerkar

Linde Treads New Path to Develop LAC
The Linde Ammonia Concept (LACTM) consists essentially of a standard hydrogen generation unit, a standard nitrogen unit and a high efficiency ammonia synthesis loop. For the basic gas generation a standard hydrogen plant with proven and outstanding reliability is designed. This hydrogen process is a state-of-the-art process technology and does not include a HT, LT shift, a CO2 wash or a methanation like the conventional route does...
- Anton Jell & Nilesh Mangukia

MARKET INSIGHTS

DoF Mulls over Amending Investment Policy
Investments in the fertiliser sector are an imperative for a country of our size and growing rate. Currently the country requires approximately 7.5 million tonnes of additional urea to meet the demand supply gap. The country, will be self-reliant in urea once the proposed projects of revival, revamp, expansion and greenfield projects are commissioned...

Iran's Crude Oil Import to India: Payment Issues and Resolution
It seems that India has finally found a solution to the long-standing impending issue of payments for the Iranian crude oil imports. Both the countries, India and Iran have reached a final settlement of dues through a Turkish bank arrangement...

Polypropylene to take Center Stage during Indo Saudi Talks in Autumn
Saudi Arabia is expected to pitch strongly for waiver on anti-dumping duty on polypropylene in India during the bilateral talks between the Indian Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee and Abdullah Zainal Alireza, Saudi Minister for Commerce and Industry...

Projects Continue to Move at Tardy Pace due to Negative Policies in TN: CIA
Chemical Industry is one of the fastest growing industries globally. Demand in different segments of chemical industry like pharmaceuticals, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals, fine and specialties, bulk drugs, agrochemicals, and paints and dyes are also increasing rapidly...

INTERVIEW

Indian Manufacturing Sector: In a Sweet Spot
India's fast growing economy offers favourable climate for the growth of country's manufacturing sector. Pothen Paul, Chairman and Country Manager, Aker Solutions shares his opinion on vitality to address the various impending issues, which have continued to restrict the growth of the industry. According to him, as long as India continues to remain focused on the domestic market, it will be a challenge to compete globally...
- Pothen Paul, Chairman & Country Manager, Aker Solutions

FEATURES

Reducing Water Footprint Technologies for Industries & Civic Bodies
Due to increasing scarcity of water and stringent pollution norms, there is a huge opportunity for the application of recycling technology. Under constant threat, owing to climate change, explosive population growth, and wastage, there is tremendous pressure on water, the most basic but valuable resource. So, recycling of water becomes important for agricultural and landscape irrigation, industrial processes, reuse in housing colonies and societies, or replenishing groundwater basins etc., amongst other things...
- Surendra A Patwardhan

Water Recycling and Reuse for Domestic and Industrial Sectors
Water is a crucial resource and affects different aspects of human life - food, energy, transportation, business, nature, leisure, identity, culture and social norms amongst other things. Water availability plays a very important role in our social and economic development. India has 16 per cent of global population, but only has four per cent of the global water resources. Water scarcity has become a major concern, owing to the pressures exerted on the water sources; climatic changes would further intensify this crisis. Managing ever-increasing water demand from the rapidly rising numbers of users in multiple sectors is perhaps the single greatest development challenge the international community is facing in the 21st century...
- Ajay Jindal & Shama Kamat

Wastewater Treatment & Recycle: An Integrated Approach
Fresh water is a scarce commodity; this fact is well acknowledged by one and all. People at all levels be it general public, governmental bodies, and industries understand the implications of good quality water availability in terms of quantity, cost and wastage. As a consequence, there is a growing consensus on wastewater treatment for recycle/reuse. This paper briefly describes the treatment configurations implemented for select wastewater treatment applications by Aquatech...
- Arun Mittal

Water Resource Augmentation Through Desalination
A logical solution for long term management, desalination solves the critical issue of growing fresh water demand, as the continuing challenge to manage the water resources is affected by industrialisation, agriculture expansion, urbanisation and population explosion...
- SS Raut

Case Study: ZLD in Chemplast Sanmar Mettur Plant
Chemplast Sanmar has made pioneering efforts in adopting environment-friendly technologies towards water conservation and mitigating waste generation at its Mettur facility. The company initiated the quest for zero liquid discharge (ZLD) in the year 2003 and commissioned the system for total water recycle of waste water generated from the plant in 2008. The article describes the important aspects of this unique process model and initiatives taken by the team to handle product mix changes, minor process upsets and innovative recycling methods...
- S Venkatesan & G Sankara Subramanian

Strategic Outlook on Indian Water Treatment Chemicals Market
Water treatment companies have evolved over the years from just a material supplier to being a solution provider. Today, water treatment solutions form a major requirement for any industry setup consuming high levels of water. Considering the low value of investment and low operational expenses, usage of chemicals for water treatment is still a key water management solution in India
- Chaitra Narayan

Improving Efficiency in Air Distribution Systems
It has been 55 years since air-operated double-diaphragm (AODD) pump technology was invented and introduced to the market, and it is safe to say that the day in 1955, when the first AODD pump began operating, remains a watershed moment in industrial pump history. AODD technology grew from humble beginnings, mainly as a way to pump wastewater in mining applications...
- Curtis Dietzsch & Shridhar Acharya

New Perspective to Water Industry
Whether for the drinking water treatment, seawater desalination, sewage treatment or irrigation, Totally Integrated Automation is the answer to all demands associated with the water industry – and covers the complete hydrological cycle. Siemens offers Totally Integrated Automation platform as a unique integrated product and system basis for implementing customised automation solutions in all sectors of the water industry. Thus, Totally Integrated Automation provides the prerequisites for reliable and highly efficient water supply and treatment...
- Vineet Musale

MARKET INSIGHTS

'Sustainable cost-effective water management solutions are need of the hour to meet futuristic water demands'
With the demand for fresh water exceeding supply, it is predicted that India may face severe water shortage in 2050. Recycling of the finished water and desalination of the seawater can be the only solution, provided the cost factor involved in the process is brought down significantly...

GACL Plans Huge Investments
Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd (GACL) announced commissioning the 3rd phase of expansion of hydrogen peroxide project to add a capacity of 14,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) at Dahej in Gujarat, and said its sodium chlorate plant would be commissioned in 2013...

Tata Power Builds India's First Floating Solar Plant
In spite of being one of the most promising renewable resources on earth, solar energy is one of the least exploited. This may be partially because of the steep cost of setting up a solar farm, in which photovoltaic cells or silicon chips are used, which are highly expensive...

Energy Recovery Through Atlas Copco Systems
Energy Recovery (ER) systems are specifically designed to transfer the energy recovered from air compressors to the customers’ process. A properly designed heat recovery unit can recover anywhere from 50-94 per cent of available thermal energy (as low-grade heat) to heat air or water (up to 90 degree Celsius or 140 degree Fahrenheit)...

INTERVIEW

Broad Portfolio of Services and Successful Track Record of Project Execution is what Separates Aker Powergas from others
Ashish Gharpure and Vinayak Pai who have recently assumed their new roles as Director Sales & Marketing and Director Operations respectively in Aker Powergas share their views on the challenges and goals of the company in the near future. It can be assured that with both in the managment team of Aker Powergas, the only direction that the company would take in the future is forward...
- Ashish Gharpure, Director Sales & Marketing and Vinayak Pai, Director Operations, Aker Powergas

Q&A

BR&E Makes Process Simulation a Buzzword in Engineering
If we look at the major operating and engineering companies worldwide, process simulation is now an indispensable tool during the engineering and design process as well as for optimisation. In fact, the use of process simulation software is now mandatory on any new project design. We need process simulation due to the complexity and variability of the processes implemented, especially for complicated iterative calculations that cannot be done efficiently by hand. Dr Jerry A Bullin, Professor Emeritus, Texas A&M University and President, Bryan Research and Engineering Inc shares his views on Process simulation with CEW...
- Dr Jerry A Bullin, Professor Emeritus, Texas A&M University and President Bryan Research and Engineering Inc

FEATURES

Campus 2 Corporate: A Young Engineer's Perspective
Stating his views on talent creation and management, Ravindra Bannerji, Engineer-Project proposals, Aker Solutions, India, having been a part of the 'Campus to Corporate' induction programme, elaborates on shaping young minds to join an organisation in the EPC industry...
- Ravindra Bannerji

Chemical Industry Reels under Talent Crunch
Ways must be found to enhance collaboration between universities and companies, ensuring the needs of both industry and academia are understood and reflected to stimulate innovation. Ways must also be found to strengthen graduates’ practical and creative skills, but not at the cost of the fundamental principles of engineering. This might include industry work placements and would benefit strongly from academic staff having more industry experience...
- Neil Atkinson

Opportunities and Challenges for Export of Indian Capital Goods
The development of a strong and vibrant engineering and capital goods sector has been at the core of the industrial strategy in India since the planning process was initiated in 1951. But it has not liven up to its reputation in the recent times. We have the potential to be one of the best, but we have a long road to cover. This article focuses on the road ahead for the capital goods industry in the country, while addressing the issues present herein...
- Jagan Jacob

One More Feather in Linde’s Cap
Linde's subsidiary Selas-Linde designed and supplied critical components of steam reformer, which is a highly energy efficient top fired reformer. The reformer burners used were with dual tip to enable using liquid naphtha as start-up and supplementary fuel and PSA purge gas as primary gaseous fuel. Linde is leading supplier of Pressure Swing Adsorption plants to wide spectrum of customers worldwide.
- Nilesh V Mangukia

Leighton Pulls it Off
The 800 tonne bottom pull of the twin 24" crude oil pipeline represents one of the largest pulls ever performed from an offshore winch anchored. The project is part of installation of an SPM system which forms the marine infrastructure for CIL's Bhogat Crude Oil Terminal (COT).
- Mathew Castelino

Transportation of Hazardous Chemicals Products of Caustic-Chlorine Industry
During transit of hazardous chemical products, there is a high possibility of chemical products being exposed, thus incurring heavy damages on life, property and environment, hence it is important to take stringent measures and precautions to ensure safe transportation. This article throws an insight on the hazards of chemical products during transportation and on ways how this can be curbed.
- V K Kapur

Important Aspects When Welding Duplex Stainless Steel
The modern duplex stainless steels represent an excellent combination of good corrosion resistance and high strength. In this article, Fredrik Hägg, CSO, Global Brand Manager, Avesta Welding, gives some fabricator guidelines when shifting from standard austenitic to duplex stainless steels. The article also shows how a fabricator can avoid unexpected phenomena by using the new standardised quality method.
- Fredrik Hagg

MARKET INSIGHTS

For Uni Klinger, its all About Being at the Right Place at the Right Time
Uni Klinger Ltd (UkL) has a variety of products in their product index. While their innovative products have existed in the market for more than 25 years, some have been added only over last 4-5 years...
- Manoj Goyal, ceo, Uni Klinger Ltd

Matheson, K-Air Form new Industrial-gases JV
Matheson Tri-Gas and K-Air Gases India Private Ltd (K-Air) have announced the signing of a definitive agreement to form a new industrial-gases Joint Venture in India...
- Kiran Karnavat, MD, Matheson K-Air

Fieldbus Takes Instrumentation & Process Control to Next Level
Foundation Fieldbus is the technological evolution to digital communication in instrumentation and process control. It differs from any other communication protocol, because it is designed to resolve process control applications instead of just transfer data in a digital mode...

Outokumpu Experts Bring Duplex Steel to User Industries
Outokumpu, with its global headquarters located in Finland, is one of the leading global stainless steel manufacturing companies renowned for innovations in steel...

ICT Seminar Endorses Nature along with Development
Institute of chemical technology (ICT) recently celebrated "Technology day" and "International year of Chemistry 2011" at ICT Mumbai...

Lakshita Chemicals Reaches across Boundaries with IndiaMART
Considered as one of the fastest growing industries in the Indian economy, the Chemical industry is poised to become the sunshine sector...

LEADERSPEAK

Effective Cost Optimisation The Need of the Hour
Companies are always trying to reduce their product prices and optimise costs. Cost-optimisation helps in reducing the baseline costs of the business, while maintaining acceptable service levels. It must be done in such a way that it does not undermine the organisation's efforts to capitalise on future growth opportunities...
- P J Lakhapate

Timeline of Indian Capital Goods Sector Trends, Opportunities & Challenges
The belief that an ever-increasing proliferation in the variety and volume of goods and services will lead to economic supremacy, has been the undercurrent of political strategies, economic summits, military wars and industrial revolutions...
- Frost & Sullivan

Modern Pilot Plant - Key to Process Development
Indian Petrochemical Industry, Speciality Chemical Industry and Pharmaceutical Industry have a huge opportunity to gain from pilot plant route to process commercialisation. Many industries lack R&D skills to harness their wastes, low value by-products and convert them into value added products.
- B Shankar, Managing Director, Xytel India Pvt Ltd

Material Selection: Challenge for Corrosion Management in Process Plants
Proper material selection and material protection, i.e. protection against various corrosion phenomena in chemical environments, is of prime importance in the chemical, petrochemical, and other process industries.
- M Vallippan, Corrosion Mgmt. Consultant, Kuwait Oil Company & Corrosion Mgmt. Services

Mechanical Key Interlocks: Key for safe operations
Key interlock systems are dual-keyed mechanical locking devices, which operate on a 'key transfer' principle to control the sequence in which process equipment may be operated. They are widely accepted as an effective safety management tool and are being adopted by many of the world's oil, gas and chemicals majors.
- Mike (MJ) Smith, Founder & Vice-Chairman, Smith Flow Control Ltd

MARKET INSIGHTS

For Uni Klinger, its all About Being at the Right Place at the Right Time
Uni Klinger Ltd (UkL) has a variety of products in their product index. While their innovative products have existed in the market for more than 25 years, some have been added only over last 4-5 years...
- Manoj Goyal, ceo, Uni Klinger Ltd

Matheson, K-Air Form new Industrial-gases JV
Matheson Tri-Gas and K-Air Gases India Private Ltd (K-Air) have announced the signing of a definitive agreement to form a new industrial-gases Joint Venture in India...
- Kiran Karnavat, MD, Matheson K-Air

Fieldbus Takes Instrumentation & Process Control to Next Level
Foundation Fieldbus is the technological evolution to digital communication in instrumentation and process control. It differs from any other communication protocol, because it is designed to resolve process control applications instead of just transfer data in a digital mode...

Outokumpu Experts Bring Duplex Steel to User Industries
Outokumpu, with its global headquarters located in Finland, is one of the leading global stainless steel manufacturing companies renowned for innovations in steel...

ICT Seminar Endorses Nature along with Development
Institute of chemical technology (ICT) recently celebrated "Technology day" and "International year of Chemistry 2011" at ICT Mumbai...

Lakshita Chemicals Reaches across Boundaries with IndiaMART
Considered as one of the fastest growing industries in the Indian economy, the Chemical industry is poised to become the sunshine sector...

INTERVIEW

Reality Check: India's Coal Strategy
There has been much talk about India building its coal-based technologies in order to meet increasing energy and feedstock demands for chemical processes. Coal will be most useful in the power sector whereas syngas can be added to natural gas to produce feedstock. K Venkataramanan, President Operations & Member of the Board, Larsen & Toubro, gives insights into the viability of coal gasification technologies for power & process industries in India in an exclusive interview with Mittravinda Ranjan.
- K Venkataramanan, President & Member of Board L&T

Q&A

Strong Focus on R&D and Technology Promises Sustainable Growth
With its philosophy to provide top-of-the-line customized technology solutions and substantial efforts in R&D, Praj is a renowned brand in the field of environment management. Under the aegis of Pramod Chaudhari, Chairman, Praj Industries the company has grown from strength to strength to cement its position in Indian and overseas market. Excerpts from the interview.
- Pramod Chaudhari, Chairman, Praj Industries

FEATURES

India's Clean Energy Strategy
Power sector is the largest contributor to emissions globally. With the growth of indian power sector to meet with the growing demand the emissions have increased manifolds during the period 1997 to 2007. The Government is focused on development of clean energy sources to mitigate the impact on the environment with greater emphasis to harness energy from new and renewable resources.

Responsible Use of Sewage Water
All forms of carbon one day or the other end up as Carbon dioxide. However the duration of time in preserving carbon dioxide without releasing into atmosphere is a vital point in carbon capture. Fossil fuel usage is not likely to cease any time soon, either in industrialised or less-developed countries. Therefore, a variety of strategies are needed to reduce CO2 emissions and remove carbon from the atmosphere in order to decrease the appalling effects of climate change.
- Case Study by RCF

Thermal Oxidation: A Holistic Approach to Mitigate Emissions
Installing new production processes, or upgrading and expanding existing lines today requires a review of the expected emissions. The right emission control system for Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) can help efficiently and economically dispose of these environmentally hazardous wastes and increase the sustainability of a chemical plant.
- Jon Hommes

Membrane Technology to Give Boost to Production of Biofuels
Operators of second generation processes seek to optimise fuel recovery and secondary products from the feedstock. In addition, these operators want to obtain a better value fuel than first-generation bioethanol processes, which focused exclusively on fuel production and simply disposed of everything else as waste or animal feed material. Membrane filtration technology, a tried and proven method used in many industrial process streams, is now being adopted in biofuels production and integrated biorefineries. In particular, membrane filtration technology shows promise to improve “second-generation” cellulosic ethanol processes.
- Kamla Jevons

Green Energy Waste Management
Rapid industrialisation and urbanisation causes large quantity of waste generation in a country. In this article, the author introduces a novel method for disposing chemical processing waste with a patent pending Rotary Kiln Technology for the primary purpose of recovering energy contained therein.
- George Mathew

Explosion Protection in Process Automation
Some of the process industry applications incorporate use of wireless transmission for data transfer from technically challenged locations. Although structures combining hard-wired and wireless communication will dominate the field for the foreseeable future, users will be able to benefit greatly specifically from new, technologically mature and increasingly economically attractive wireless solutions within the next years.

Financial Risk Assessment by Foreign Entities
India is a huge market that offers tremendous opportunities in the local market. The market has always attracted the foreign players despite so many challenges it offers. The author delves on the financial risks foreign entities need to assess to have a firm footing in India's lucrative market.
- Adithya Bhat

MARKETINSIGHT

TCL Rebrands Global Operations
Tata Group the Indian multinational conglomerate company is the largest private corporate group in India in terms of market capitalization and revenues.

TCL Rebrands Global Operations
Emerson recently acquired full ownership of its Fisher Sanmar Limited, which has a joint venture (JV) with Sanmar Engineering Corporation, expanding the capabilities of Emerson Process Management in India.

Emerson Takes Fisher Sanmar JV Under its Umbrella
Outokumpu is an international stainless steel company and widely recognized as world leaders in technical support, research and development.

INTERVIEW

Materialisation of New Projects will Depend Largely on Government Policies
RCF is on a major expansion spree and targets to grow manifolds five years down the line, says R G Rajan, Chairman & Managing Director RCF in an exclusive interview with Mittravinda Ranjan. He talks about the plant expansions undertaken at Thal, coal gasification based plant in the pipeline and business plans for organic and inorganic growth of the fertilizer giant.
- R G Ranjan, Chairman & Managing Director, RCF

Q&A

'Government should be the Driving Force to Create Green Industries'
Dow corning may have been named among the best companies to work for in 2010, but Jean-Paul Mollie, President, Middle East, South Asia & Africa, Dow Corning Corporation is more focused about the work that the company is doing in India. In an exclusive interview he shares his plans and views for India with Jagan Jacob, excerpts from the Interview.
- Jean-Paul Mollie, President, Middle East, South Asia & Africa, Dow Corning Corporation

FEATURES

Real Ability for Optimum Performance
Reliability of boiler is a very interesting and vast subject and can be put in as the real ability of the boiler to perform at optimum rated capacity efficiently. It involves design, engineering, safety, operation and maintenance and optimisation.
- Devansh Trivedi

Capability Control of Wet Cooling Tower
Almost all production processes need cooling water to operate efficiently. Refineries, steel mills, petrochemical manufacturing plants, electric utilities and paper mills all rely heavily on equipment or processes that require efficient & effective temperature control. Cooling water systems control these temperatures by transferring heat from hot process fluids into cooling water.
- Ram Kumar Jha

Preventing Unprecedented Breakdowns
Water usage in cooling towers for the removal of process heat is the highest amongst all other water usages and also poses many challenges. It receives significant attention at the hands of the management. This paper therefore is devoted to re-circulated cooling water systems in chemical, petro-chemical, petroleum refineries, fertilisers and power plants.
- Nirmal Shah

Predicting Fluid Behaviour in Real Time for Heat Exchangers
Prior to the slowdown, the industrial development industry was on a rapid expansion mode which resulted in significant increase in demand of heat exchangers in the manufacturing sector thus creating opportunities for the manufacturing industries in related fields to get involved in fabrication of heat exchangers.

Mist Type Water jet Vacuum Condensers for Energy Conservation
MREPL has developed mist type water jet vacuum condensers, which perform multiple function of condensation of vapors as well as production of vacuum in the same unit by water pressure only. Hence use of steam jet ejector or vacuum pump is nullified thus saving huge amount of steam or power.
- Makarand A Chitale

Hurdles in Commercialising New Technologies
Continuing research leading to new innovations is the force behind the advancement of science and technology. Concept to commercialisation may take anywhere between 1 to 20 years. A project from research commercialisation has to pass through not one but many hurdles which is not a trivial matter but an expensive and time consuming undertaking. Bipin V Vora, Senior Fellow Consultant UOP delved on this issue during the International EPC Conference organized during CHEMTECH World Expo 2011.
- Bipin V Vora

Risk Mitigation through Chemical Disaster Management
Chemical Disasters are occurrence of emission, fire or explosion involving one or more hazardous chemicals in the course of industrial activity or storage or transportation or due to natural events leading to serious effects inside or outside the installation likely to cause loss of life and property including adverse effects on the environment.
- Jaimin Vasa

Functional Safety in Process Plants (SIL)
Functional Safety is the part of the overall safety of a system or piece of equipment that depends on the system or equipment operating correctly in response to its inputs, including the safe management of likely operator errors, hardware failures and environmental changes. Mr Rajanish D Lokhande, HOD Instrumentation, Uhde India Pvt Ltd, presented a paper on 'Functional Safety in Process Plants' during IAC World Conference 2011 organised on the sidelines of Chemtech World Expo 2011.
- Rajanish D Lokhande

MARKETINSIGHT

Green Signal for Coal Projects in Go & No-Go Areas
In the backdrop of ongoing crisis in Japan, the pressure to develop is likely to increase on development of coal assets, said Sriprakash Jaiswal, Union Coal Minister, Government of India recently.

Japan's Worst Disaster After the World War II
March 11 is a date the world will not forget so easily in the coming future, especially the people of Japan. That afternoon saw Japan waking up to the deadliest earthquake in its history.

Indian Capital Goods Industry Looks Up
Indian capital goods sector is fragmented and comprises of enterprises that range from small and medium to large scale manufacturers.

COMPANY PROFILE

We are Placing Our Bets on Diversification
SC Sekaran, Executive Director Hindustan Dorr Oliver has spearheaded the growth of HDO and turned around the company from Rs. 80 crore equipment manufacturers to the complete EPC solution provider for various industry verticals across the chemical process industries. He has led the current global acquisition of UK based company to consolidate the position of HDO in the nuclear power generation. In a candid conversation he shares the company’s future vision with Mittravinda Ranjan.
- S C Sekaran, Executive Director, Hindustan Dorr - Oliver Limited

HDO Corporate Ladder
P K Mishra, holds the degree in BE Chem (Hons) and has the experience of 27 years. He is the Chief Operating Officer, Marketing with HDO. A K Gupta is an M Tech in Chemical Engineering and has an experience of 35 years of working in the industry. He holds the position of Joint Executive Vice President Marketing with HDO.

HDO Aims to Expand its Global Footprint in Mineral Processing
Hindustan Dorr Oliver Ltd holds excellent track record in the minerals & metals industry. This arm of HDO contributes close to 40 percent of company’s core business. With its time tested and proven solid liquid separation technologies, HDO has significantly contributed in the processing of bauxite, iron, uranium, copper, lead, zinc and chrome ores etc. With its in depth knowledge of mineral processing techniques and experience of over five decades of operation and whole range of specialized equipments, the company has cemented its position as one of the top players in this field.
- Dr Nivedita Panda, Asst General Manager Marketing, Hindustan Dorr- Oliver Ltd

Total Water Management in Petroleum Refinery
Petroleum refineries are complex systems of multiple operations that depend on the type of crude refined and the desired products. For these reasons, no two refineries are alike. Depending on the size, crude, products and complexity of operations, a petroleum refinery can be a large consumer of water, relative to other industries and users in a given region. Within a refinery, the water network is as unique to the refinery as its processes.
- S M Bhat, Associate Vice President Marketing, Hindustan Dorr-Oliver Ltd

HDO's Contribution to Fertiliser Industry
Agriculture plays an important role in India’s economy. India is the second largest user of fertilizer in the world. New Government policies has been emphasising the importance of faster growth in agriculture for over all development of the economy. Fertilisers have an important role in accelerating agricultural growth. Government needs to encourage agricultural production and consumption of fertilisers to increase agricultural productivity and net farm income.
- Nita Samant, Asst General Manager, Chemicals & Fertiliser, Hindustan Dorr-Oliver Ltd

FEATURES

EPC Companies Challenges of Scaling Up
The EPC industry in India is experiencing high growth riding on the burgeoning investments both from the public as well as the private sectors. The 12th Plan envisages investments of USD 1 Trillion in the infrastructure space. The opportunities lie across sectors in terms of Energy, Oil and Gas, Water, Transport Infrastructure etc. The prima facie attractiveness of the industry in terms of growth, has attracted a large number of players, local as well as global. From a capability building perspective, it is imperative that the Indian EPC firms, including the supporting equipment manufacturing industry scales up rapidly to help India achieve their infrastructure aspirations.
- Biswanath Bhattacharya and Vishal Mehta

A Challenge for the Indian EPC Sector
The engineering, heavy engineering and manufacturing sectors globally are most vulnerable to fraud and corruption. In India, hearsay and industry commentators suggest that the engineering and manufacturing sector faces a growing problem with procurement fraud. To tackle fraud it is important to pick up the warning signs. The author delves in to fact files of Indian fraud and also on ways to curb it.
- Richard Dailly

Total Water & Waste Water Management at Reliance Jamnagar Refinery
Reliance Industries Limited has enhanced the capacity of the Jamnagar Refinery to 1,20,0000 barrels per stream per day (1200K BPSD) with the Jamnagar Export Refinery Project (JERP) commissioned in December 2008, in Gujarat. Speaking volumes for customer confidence in Ion Exchange reliability and capability to execute the water management for this prestigious project, the contract for water treatment plant (13 x 388 m3/h demineralisation plant and 3 x 388 m3/h condensate polishing unit) was awarded to Ion Exchange India, and that for the effluent treatment plant to Ion Exchange Waterleau.
- Ajay Popat

Risks in Mega EPC Projects
EPC Contracting model tends to be more expensive for the owner due to the shift of risk to the EPC contractor. Paolo Bonucci, Commercial Vice President, Tecnimont presented the paper the paper Risk Mangement for EPC Projects during EPC International World Expo 2011 organized on the sidelines of CHEMTECH World Expo 2011.
- Paolo Bonucci, Commercial Vice President, Tecnimont

INDMAX The Breakthrough Technology
INDMAX is a novel patented technology to produce high yield of LPG, light olefins and high octane gasoline from various petroleum fractions ranging from Hydrotreated VGO to residue and a mixture thereof. It also can upgrade olefinic naphtha from Coker, Visbreaker or FCC unit. It has aptly been recognised by CHEMTECH by conferring an award for the technology.

Strategies for Addressing the Talent Gaps
Engineering sector is continues to face the challenge to have skilled professionals. Prof Dr G D Yadav, Director ICT Mumbai presented a paper on Strategies to Address the Talent Gaps during EPC International World Expo 2011 organized on the sidelines of CHEMTECH World Expo 2011. - Prof Dr G D Yadav, Director, ICT, Mumbai

LEADERSPEAK

Relentless Pursuit of Innovation
Technology is an aspect of innovation that has been essential to Dow Corning’s growth. It has helped the company to be as efficient as possible and deliver exactly what its customers need. Willingness & ability to innovate are cornerstones of company’s growth.
- Dr Stephanie Burns, CEO, Dow Corning

Progress is Not Just About Growth Rate but Direction as Well
Past two years have been the most difficult years for the industry but not for Essar Projects Ltd. It has made a place for itself as one of the most successful EPC players in these difficult times. The company is arguably the second largest EPC player in the country today and aims to notch up to the highest level in this decade....
- Alwyn Bowden, CEO, Essar Projects Limited

Go Where the Growth is
KBR has recently acquired exclusive marketing rights for VCC technology, and is well positioned with the emerging high crude oil and low gas pricing scenarios, the latter due to significant developments in the shale gas discoveries and their exploitation.
- Jaspal Singh, India Head and Director of Operations, KBR Technology

Hands-on Management Delivers Quick Results
Expertise to execute mega projects at the global scale has driven the growth of Aker Powergas. The company has grown over 4 times in the last 10 years and nearly tripled its human capital.
- Sanjay Joshi, Managing Director, Aker Powergas Pvt Ltd

Sustainable Solutions at Optimal Cost is a Challenge
Praj's growth thrives on its ability to offer innovative & sustainable to the industry. The group has expanded its global footprints as well as assets and capacity to serve customers with a very short response time.
- Pramod Chaudhari, Chairman, Praj Industries

Technology Investment Imperative
The growth story of Engineers India Limited (EIL) is in-sync with the growth of this sector in the country. The company has an extensive track record of working with almost all the major players while providing its services in upstream, midstream & downstream Hydrocarbon sector, Ports & Terminals, Fertiliser, Mining & Metallurgy projects.
- AK Purwaha, Chairman & Managing Director, Engineers India Ltd

Quest to Preserve Technology Leadership
Established in 1987 as a subsidiary of Linde AG, Germany, LEI is a full EPC service provider for the chemical and petrochemical industry. In the last 10 years the company has increased its workforce from around 100 to 650+ and plans to further increase the workforce in the current fiscal year.
- Dr Reinhart Vogel, Managing Director, Linde Engineering India

Maintaining the Tradition to Introduce Breakthrough Technologies
Rapidly changing customer needs, competitive pressures and evolving markets are placing increasing pressure on IR to deliver greater flexibility and speed. Rolta will continue to supply high-end IT solutions to the customers in order to address these challenges.
- KK Singh, CMD, Rolta India

Serving Society Through Science
TCL's core ability to convert commodities into brands and establishing long lasting relations with stakeholders were the crucial growth drivers in the recent past. The company is based on a strong platform for next decade of horizontal and vertical growth across its businesses.
- R Mukundan, Managing Director, Tata Chemicals Ltd

Our People are Our Biggest Strength
From being predominant in metals & minerals, HDO has diversified its services across sectors like Fertilisers, Chemicals, Paper & Pulp and Water etc. to become one of the leading EPC players in the country, all along maintaining a year on year growth of 30 to 35 percent.
-S C Sekaran, Executive Director, Hindustan Dorr - Oliver Limited

Outokumpu's Twin Towers: R&D and Product Stewardship
The end users must feel that Outokumpu is a company with a difference, one that is opening a whole new range of possibilities to the Indian Industry to help them gain competitive advantage to be the number one too.
- Yatinder Pal Singh Suri, Country Head, Outokumpu India Private Limited

Powered by Talent Led by Targeted Innovation
For Lanxess, India is the second strongest growth market in Asia. The company will continue to drive forward expansion during the next 5 years. The group is definitely optimistic about the growth of the user industries and certain about its focus on BRIC countries which will pay off dividends.
- Dr Joerg Strassburger, Country Representative & Managing Director, Lanxess India Pvt Ltd

Relationships with Our Customers are Our Greatest Resource
Sound business practices, underlying management processes and transparency in business are the pillars on which Emerson stands. We pursue achieving our business objectives through adoption of competitive corporate strategies, prudent business plans, strategic monitoring and mitigation of risks
- Sunil Khanna, Managing Director, Emerson Process Management India

FEATURES

PVDF Piping Systems: A Multitude of Options
The polymer material Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) has been around commercially since 1964. What started out with specific targeted applications in the nuclear, pulp and paper and bromine industry has now blossomed its application to a wide variety of industries. Depending on the actual chemical service and the grade of PVDF chosen, a PVDF piping system can operate in temperatures up to 150°C (302°F).
- David A. Seiler & Mandar Amrute

Waste Lubricating Oil Purification and Recovery
It may be surprising to note that, under normal circumstances, lubricating oil cannot be easily destroyed; it only gets dirty and is easily contaminated by other solvents. This property makes it a potential pollutant that must not be allowed to get into the environment. The only option is to collect it and treat it so that its original properties are restored and thus enable its re-use. Modern lube oil has at least 8 additives blended into it so as to enhance its life and-working properties.

Efficiency Enhancement Through Improved Mass Transfer
There are definite strategies for revamping towers for improving mass transfer to attain higher efficiency. This needs a multi-disciplinary approach blended with industry expertise. Avoidance of pitfalls in the design, engineering, fabrication & installation demand hands on expertise for trouble-free startups and optimum tower performance. At KEVIN, experienced engineers share their practical knowledge to help the client make sure that their tower work as expected.
- Rajan K Paradkar

New and Improved Hot Gas Filters for Difficult Applications
Filtration utilising low density ceramic filter elements is now a well-established technique operating around the world. Ceramic elements combine high filtration efficiency with the ability to operate at elevated temperatures. These benefits are particularly applicable to high temperature processes subject to stringent emissions legislation. Applications include waste incineration, metals smelting, glass melting and minerals processing.
- Gary Elliott

Sensor Solutions for Harsh Environments
Grundfos Direct Sensors TM is a result of a huge effort within applied physics and material science at Grundfos since 1992. In 2005, the first Grundfos Direct Sensors™ products based on the proprietary coating, SiliCoat® were launched in world markets.
- Gary Elliott

Reputation Protection Model for Crisis Response
Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a major event that threatens to harm the organization, its stakeholders, or the general public. Three elements are common to most definitions of crisis are (a) a threat to the organization, (b) the element of surprise, and (c) a short decision time. However crises can be managed and how.
- Andrew Gilman

Ion Exchange Chromatography and Conductivity Detection
Ion Chromatography is the most preferred technique, widely used for Anions and Cations analysis in aqueous samples. With Ion Chromatography it is possible to analyse Anions, Organic acids, Cations, Amines and Transition Metals in various matrixes.
- Deepak Parab

Proposal to Bring Relief to Engineering Export Community
With the next financial year just a couple of months away, Engineering Exports Promotion Council (EEPC) has sent a list of suggestions to the Union Government for consideration to bring relief to the engineering export community and also certain sectors within the community.
- EEPC India

Separation of Azeotropic Mixtures Using Pressure Swing Distillation
The polymer material Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) has been around commercially since 1964. What started out with specific targeted applications in the nuclear, pulp and paper and bromine industry has now blossomed its application to a wide variety of industries. Depending on the actual chemical service and the grade of PVDF chosen, a PVDF piping system can operate in temperatures up to 150°C (302°F).
- Prafulla Dedge & Sankar Ghosh

Impeller Technology in Mixing Vessels
Key to success of any Chemical Process Industry is the reaction vessel, and key to an efficient mixing system is its impeller. Impellers are flow generating devices by mechanical means. These are mainly used in mixing vessels and pumps.
- Ashok Chaurasia

Impeller Technology in Mixing Vessels
Key to success of any Chemical Process Industry is the reaction vessel, and key to an efficient mixing system is its impeller. Impellers are flow generating devices by mechanical means. These are mainly used in mixing vessels and pumps.
- Ashok Chaurasia

LEADERSPEAK

Indian Manufacturing Sector: What it is, and What it Can be
"Whereas almost without exception, every developing nation has made manufacturing one of three growth pillars, we in India seem to have skipped it almost altogether. As it stands the manufacturing sector accounts for just 28 percent of India’s GDP and 14 percent of the work force.
- Pothen Paul, Chairman & India Country Manager, Aker Solutions

Green and Clean is the Way to the Future
Over the years, Thermax evolved as a company providing systems and solutions in the areas of energy and environment. It is these two areas that have become critically relevant in the recent decades, thanks to the larger issues of climate change and the depleting resources of the planet.... - MS Unnikrishnan, Managing Director, Thermax

On the Road to Innovation
Innovation is predominantly a team, organisational, anonymous incremental process. So innovation is for everyone, not just for rocket-scientists, or even just for R&D engineers. - Dr Naushad Forbes,,Director, Forbes Marshalls

R&D can Breathe a New Life into the Chemical Industry
Mankind has benefited tremendously from the chemicals and allied industries but negative perception about chemicals has continued to prevail. Dr G D Yadav, Director Institute of Chemical Technology says, "People forget the benefits these chemicals offer to us in our day to day life and there is some sort of chemophobia that exists in the peoples' minds." - GD Yadav, Director (Vice Chancellor), Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT)

Waste Management: One Man's Garbage Everyone Else's Gold
Excessive consumption of fossil fuels is one of the most important causes of the greenhouse effect that threatens to create dramatic climate changes worldwide. Being exhaustible and limited, development of alternate and renewable energy sources will be the key to sustain economic growth, energy security and most importantly environment protection. - Ajay Popat, CEO, Ion Exchange Waterleau Ltd

India is Grossly Under Invested in Manufacturing Automation
India, over the past decade has witnessed significant increase in number of manufacturing facilities and has been targeted as one of the favorite emerging nations because of its fast growing economy with a large domestic market. - Vijay Srinivasan, Vice President & Managing Director, India Subcontinent, Invensys Process Systems

Globalisation of Marketplace will be the Key Driver for Automation in India
Chemical industry is one of the oldest industries in India that contributes significantly towards industrial & economic growth of the nation. Traditionally, it has also been one of the strongest users of automation technology due to demanding nature of the manufacturing processes involved. - Vijay Paranjape, Director, Member Managing Board, Siemens Ltd. and CEO, Industry Sector-South Asia

Optimum Crop Productivity for More and Safer Food: A Golden Dream for India’s Future
India is a vast country with varied climate, soils and ecological conditions. It is the largest producer of milk, fruits, cashew nuts, coconuts and tea in the world, the second largest producer of wheat, vegetables, sugar and fish and the third largest producer of tobacco and rice. - Balvinder Kalsi, President, DuPont India

Automation will Propel Industrial Growth
The Chemical industry is the most diverse industry. Verticaly chemicals have been categorised into three sub-segments, viz. Basic, Specialty and Knowledge. - Amitava Biswas, Country Manager, Honeywell Process Solutions India

Ashland's India Story
According to Ashland’s annual report approximately 8 percent of the company's total revenue is derived from the Asia Pacific region. We do not report figures for any parts smaller than region on a geographic basis. - Vivek Singh, Country Head, Ashland India Pvt Ltd

Coal is the Goal
Haldor Topsoe technology for ammonia has been in India from the '60s with Shriram Fertilisers & Chemicals setting up their plant in Kota, Rajasthan, using Topsoe technology and this is the only ammonia plant from the '60s which is still operating, all others from that period have been closed down. - DK Dutta, Managing Director, Haldor Topsoe India Pvt. Ltd.

Evolution of Heat Exchanger Technologies
The trends in technologies might be addressed by calculating performance of heat transfer equipment rather than the equipment itself. Earlier, the methodology to design and predict the performance of heat exchangers was based on overall methods. - Fernando J Aguirre, Vice President, HTRI

Implementation of Automation Technologies is far higher in Chemical Sector
The chemical industry in India has matured with time. It covers a wide spectrum of industries that deal with chemicals including petrochemicals, rubber, polymers, textiles, paints, etc. - Farook Merchant, CMD, Messung Group of Companies

FEATURES

Demystifying Alumina Refinery Process and Adoption of Best Practices for Soda Ash Industry
Chemical Technology has potential to meet the challenges of sustainable development, but to make this happen, creativity and innovative skills of chemical engineers need to be more closely aligned with public and industry needs and concerns and backed by commercial boldness. One way to achieve the sustenance is via improved process efficiency and new approach to functionality that will deliver the product with significant lower input and outputs.
- Parish S Dwivedi

Optimisation of Flue Gas Purification
Flue gas purification in power plants is an established process. In order to comply with the customer demand for tailor-made systems, Sulzer Innotec makes use of flow simulation. Intensive measurements are performed on test stands to validate the computer models. This procedure helps Sulzer Innotec provide its customers with fast and high-quality consultation on their engineering and on the optimization of their equipment...
- Joachim Schoeck

Best Safety Practices in Chemical Industry
Safety experts stress that accidents are not random occurrences. They happen for a reason, usually resulting from interactions among people, machines and their environments. Accidents are unplanned, unwanted, and nearly always preventable. But it can be managed, which is what modern safety professionals in chemical industries are trying to do...
- Shrikant Kulkarni

Modular Protection Concept for PC-Based Open HMI Systems
Apart from offering comfortable on-site maintenance, the open Human Machine Interface (HMI) units allow selective replacement of specific modules in hazardous areas. These have already received several certifications and approvals are well suited for almost all industry sectors. Author delves on the finer details of this modular protection for this concept that is catching up fast amongst industry...
- Joerg Fitzek

Triple Punch in Water Treatment
Quality standards for purified water in pharmaceutical, neutraceutical, cosmetics, healthcare and biotechnology industries have never been stricter and the manufacturers have to conform to an ever increasing number of standards. Author describes how ultraviolet (UV) technology combines a triple punch of disinfection, total organic content (TOC) reduction and dechlorination to provide purified water of highest quality simultaneously reducing reliance on chemical disinfectants and also protecting biofouling of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes...
- Halim Mirza

Energy Crunch to Hurt India Big Time
Power generation is the backbone of any country. Without it the economy cannot progress. It is all the more essential for growing economies like India. But even though India is the fifth largest power generating country, it faces a shortage of 10 percent power. And from that also 27 percent is lost in the transmission. Author speaks about the energy crunch that India can face in future...
- NS Venkataraman

Next Generation Film Resins
Increasing consumption appetite of the Indian middle class, ability to spend on lifestyle products, increasing dependency on ready to eat food products and the ‘trend of small’ has given impetus to the demand of specialised resins imparting specific properties to the flexible packaging to offer best quality and add shelf appeal. Next generation resins can help the film converters address the challenges related to film life and appeal simultaneously...
- Girish Bhat

A Vital Aspect for Industrial Projects
As part of pre-project planning, Front End Engineering Design work is early design work done after conceptual business planning and prior to detailed design. It is an embracing term that includes all engineering design and other activities for an engineering project. It starts from the project brief and works through to the visualisation, conceptualisation and definition stages, and involves translating the client's needs into a conceptual design and then a basic design...
- Vasant Mestry

Environmental Impact Assessment and Biotechnology
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) could form a major instrument in decision-making and for measurement of sustainability in the context of regional carrying capacity, provided the conceptual framework is extended to the cumulative assessment of developmental policies, plans and projects on a regional basis. This article analyses the concepts of sustainable development and carrying capacity; illustrates the shift necessary towards strategies for qualitative growth such as technological innovation, structural change and preventive environmental intervention; and delineates the role of EIA in achieving the goal of sustainable development...
- S N Kaul and Lidia Szpyrkowicz

MARKET INSIGHTS

Dipesh Engineering Aspire to Grow Ten Times in the Next Decade
JB Patel, Founder & Chairman of Dipesh Engineering Works, a mechanical engineer by qualification, was already designing equipments for process plants and aspired to have his own set up one day...

KSB Pumps Ltd Completes 50 Glorious Years in India
KSB Pumps Ltd, a part of the 139 year old Global Conglomerate KSB AG, with an annual sales revenue of approximately Euro 2 billion and one of the leading producers of Pumps, Valves and Systems is completing 50 glorious years in India...

India and Russia Partnership Holds Promise for Both Countries
India and Russia have been in cordial relationships from a long time. This all began with a visit by the then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to the Soviet Union in June 1955 and Khrushchev’s return trip to India in the fall of 1955. From then on there had been no looking back. Be it in the field of energy, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and fertilisers, defense, etc, India-Russia partnership has been going from strength to strength...

Andritz Separation's Indian Chapter: 16 Years and Running Strong
Andritz India was established in the year 1994 in Chennai, it manufactures Andritz (Germany) Chamber and Membrane Filter Presses. The company recently took a major single order value of Rs.31 crores for supply of 4 Hyperbaric filters for handling 1200 TPH iron ore slurry dewatering...

LEADERSPEAK

Big 2020: Gujarat envisages strong sustained economic growth through attainment of infrastructure benchmarks
Gujarat was recognized amongst the top 25 business destinations worldwide in a recent survey carried out by Financial Times London. The state is home to 5 percent of India's population and accounts for 16 percent country’s industrial output. With its transparent policies and adequate infrastructure facilities, the state has created congenial environment for the growth of industry, which has attracted significant investments, which has fueled the industrial growth in Gujarat. Saurabhbhai Patel, Minister for Industries, Energy Petrochemicals talks about the industrial growth strategy, which has made the state the most, sought after destination for investment...
- Saurabhbhai Patel, Minister of Industries, Energy and Petrochemicals

INTERVIEW

With new gas discoveries current constraints on feedstock will disappear gradually
Reliance started its journey with a textile mill in early 80's and with its strong business strategy emerged as one of the largest global players in the petrochemical sector. Through backward integration, the company has further consolidated its position in the global market. The company has set up world-class facilities in Gujarat, which contribute 90 percent of its total production. Nikhil Meswani, Executive Director and Member of the Board, Reliance Industries Limited talks about company's contribution to the growth of Indian Petrochemical Industry, future plans and why Gujarat is so special with Mittravinda Ranjan... - Nikhil Meswani, Executive Director and Member of the Board, Reliance Industries Limited

OPaL's Grass root Integrated Complex in Dahej will Fuel the Growth of Petrochemical Sector
In March 2009, Union Cabinet had approved setting up three Petroleum, Chemicals, Petrochemicals Investment Regions (PCPIR) spread over 1307 sq km in the states of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal to bring in investments to the tune of ` 4,86,180 crore and generate employment for 30 lakh people... - P K Johari, CEO, ONGC Petro Additions Ltd.

GCA : Striving for Growth since 1947
In just over half-a-century, GCA has emerged as a strong association from 10-member industry body. Jaimin Vasa, Managing Director, Vasa Pharmachem Pvt Ltd and current President of GCA is a strong proponent of technology and under his leadership the association has taken various initiatives to promote new technologies for manufacturing sector and especially amongst the SME players. GCA has been at the forefront of promoting industrial development in the state and will organize 'Global Chemical Leaders’ Summit - 2010' to connect the manufacturers in Gujarat with the technology suppliers from world over... - Jaimin Vasa, MD, Vasa Pharmachem Pvt Ltd & President GCA

OPINION

What should Gujarat chemical industry do to rise higher?
Undoubtedly, Gujarat has recorded the highest level of growth amongst chemical industries in all states in the country in all respects. Still, given the potentials of the state, one gets an impression that it needs to do more and achieve further to realize its full potential and emerge as an expansion center of global standards that would get international recognition...
- N S Venkataraman Director, Nandini Consultancy Centre Pvt Ltd and CEO, Nandini Institute of Chemical Industries.

FEATURES

Dhanuka Agritech Targets to Double up its Turnover in Next Three Years
Dhanuka group has emerged as a strong player in the field of agrochemicals with its strong focus on life enrichment through science. Under the aegis of MK Dhanuka, Managing Director, Dhanuka Agritech, the company has grown and has added another feather to its cap by making it to the much coveted Forbes' Asia's Best Under a Billion List 2010...
- M K Dhanuka

Catalytic Air Pollution Control Systems for Removal of VOC
Catalytic methods to treat hazardous air pollutants are making a comeback. In the past 15 to 20 years other thermal oxidation processes on account of the catalysts' susceptibility to poisoning or masking often have replaced these. Catalytic oxidation of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) owes their comeback to two persuasive benefits such as low energy needs and notably lower NOx emissions...
- Durr Systems GmbH

Compliance, Risk and Cost of Ownership Comparisons for Pharmaceutical Monitoring
Recent agreements between the US FDA and its European Union counterparts to cooperate on pharmaceutical plant inspections to enable stepped up enforcement of safety guidelines require every pharmaceutical manufacturer to be on higher alert to maintain a best-practice focus on quality systems. This white paper discusses six approaches to monitoring critical environments such as pharmaceutical freezers, stability rooms and warehouses. Quality, facility and IT managers employ different methods for maintaining the quality of products and information. It will evaluate different monitoring methods and present the risks and costs of ownership for each...
- Ken Appel

COMSOL Reveals How to Avoid Very Expensive Modifications to Wastewater Clarifier
A wastewater treatment plant encountered a problem with one of its redesigned clarifier tanks. A group of consulting engineers used COMSOL Multiphysics and the Mixture Model application mode to determine that there was no need to make physical modifications that could have cost in the range of 1,000,000 in Euros; instead, adding a certain chemical to improve flock (flocculent) formation cost only 100,000 Euros and thus modeling saved the company 90 percent of the costs...
- Arie C De Niet

Physico-Chemical Properties of Oil Extracted from Custard Apple Seeds
Custard apple [ 1, 2 ] (Annona Squamosha) is one of the finest fruits introduced in India from tropical America. It is also found in wild form in many parts of India. It is cultivated in Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Karnataka, Bihar, Orissa and Tamilnadu. It is a medium size tree, up to 4m high. It grows [ 3, 4 ] well even in fertile, marginal, poor and rocky soil. It prefers a warm and dry climate and also dislikes water logging. It is reported that the pulp of the fruits apart from direct consumption is used in preparation of drink, [ 5-7 ] ice cream and fermentation for liquor preparation. The seeds are so hard that they may be swallowed as a whole with no ill effects but the kernel is very toxic [ 8-10 ]. The seeds, leaves and young fruits are insecticidal. The leaf juice can kill lice. The bark contains 0.12-wt percent anonaine that can cause paralysis. Sap from cut branches is acrid and irritant and can cause severely injure to the eyes...
- D C Sikdar

MARKET INSIGHTS

GEA Seizes ACC Business Unit to Secure India's Emission Controls Market
GEA Process Engineering has acquired the emission controls engineering unit of ACC, the largest cement producer in India to mark their footprint in India. GEA is a world leader in Emission control technology and has their presence in more than 40 countries...

Lubrizol to Build Application and Business Center in Mumbai
The Lubrizol Corporation has announced the opening of a new regional Applications and Business Center in Mumbai, India to support its Advanced Materials business segment. This is an important milestone in the company’s geographic expansion plan in South Asia. Eric Schnur, President, Lubrizol Advanced Materials, presided over the opening ceremony, which was attended by customers and other VIP invitees...

Duncan Industries to Restart its Fertilizer Unit in Kanpur
The Union Government has decided to re-open the fertilizer division of Duncan Industries Ltd (DIL). The Jaiprakash Associates Limited has revealed to revive and resume the closed unit...

Campaign in South gets Strong Industry Support
Continuing its' tradition of innovation CHEMTECH has taken new initiatives and accelerated the campaign for audience development across the entire value chain of the chemical process industry. Along with the international audience development through various industry alliances, CHEMTECH is doing road shows across India in small industrial pockets which host engineering companies, small and medium scale manufacturing units for chemicals pharmaceuticals, engineering equipments & ancillaries and other allied industries...

INTERVIEW

Industry Embraces Waste Management Technologies
In the backdrop of reforms introduced by the Indian government for the environment sector, Ion Exchange had a tie up with Waterleau, a Belgian environment major to bring new technologies in the country. In less than five years, under the stewardship of Ajay Popat, CEO, Ion Exchange Waterleau Ltd, this joint venture company has implemented successful projects in liquid waste treatment spanning across various industries. He talks about the bright prospects offered by Indian market in an exclusive interview with Mittravinda Ranjan. Excerpts...
- Ajay Popat, Chief Executive Officer, Ion Exchange Waterleau Ltd.

Q & A

'Breakthrough GTL Technology will take us closer to World without Petroleum'... says Dr Naveed Aslam, CTO, Carbon Sciences
- Dr Naveed Aslam, Chief Technology Officer, Carbon Sciences

FEATURES

The Pumps Valves and Compressors Market in India and Opportunities for International Players
Universal requirement of equipments such as pumps, valves and compressors appears from their installations in assorted end-user industries of oil and gas, power generation and heavy industries. The Indian market for these also thrives on a similar global pattern; thus large-scale installations are witnessed every year and the demand continues to pick up at a healthy double-digit growth rate...
- Virein Kumar Yadlapalli

Selection Criteria for Rotating Equipments - Pumps
In chemical industry, choice and installation of pump is vital as well as critical. It involves additional concern and understanding for selection of accurate type along with exact quantity of pumps to be fixed. This leads to productivity together with superior quality of the product...
- R P Sharma

Right Vacuum Systems for Pharmaceutical and Chemical Plants
Technological advancements have not only played a big role in progression of mankind but also sharpened and made human brain more analytical to distinguish the best among good. Availability of various types of vaccum pumps in the markets make the end users perplexed at the time of purchasing pumps. The article talks in details about vaccum pumps and their utility and design...
- Amit Kapur

Valve Terminal; Key Element for System Solution
Complete automation and system solutions encompass everything required for controlling the respective system from industrial valves right on up to the field bus. The valve terminal is the key element of the system solution, which allows for quick and easy set-up of decentralised automation solutions...
- W Reiger

Single Fluid Heat Transfer System
Heat transfer systems occupy an introduction on the apparatus along with procedure of collective heating and cooling systems. Diverse HTFs perhaps be employed in a common jacket, however operations are intricate given that the fluids must be sapped by exchange as of heating and cooling and back again...
- Anand Manne

Laser Technology offers Tangible Benefits for Complex Project Revamps
Laser Scanning/Grammetry, as a technology, has undergone significant technological advancements. Though the laser scanners have been available for over ten years, their beneficial applicability as productive and competitive tools has just started to emerge in the last few years. On one hand, this may be attributed to large improvements in data processing rates, the photorealistic graphic representations and a significant increase in accuracy, through the use of different base technologies...
- Sankalp Mathur

Potatoes Enhance Performance of Batteries
Researchers have discovered a new way to construct an efficient battery using zinc and copper electrodes and a slice of potato. The scientists discovered that the simple action of boiling the potato prior to use in electrolysis, increases electric power up to 10 fold over the untreated potato and enables the battery to work for days and even weeks...
- Dr S S Verma

MARKET INSIGHTS

Integrated Operations Make Oswal Stand Out in the Competition
With each passing day, rapid advancement in technology finds machines getting more sophisticated. However, the role of valve continues remain essential for the development and smooth function of machines...
- Ravi P Doshi, Director (International Business), Oswal Industries Ltd

Government's Supportive Gesture can Boost Healthy Growth of Chemical Industry
Carrying forward the great legacy of the organisation, ICC - Mumbai, organized ICC AWARD FUNCTION on September 30, 2010 evening at Crystal Room Central, Taj Mahal HoteL, Mumbai- 400001...

MACCIA Organizes Solid Waste Management Conference to Brainstorm over the Issue
Rapid industrialization and urbanization of Indian economy has led to waste management becoming an issue that needs combined effort of stakeholders, policy makers and industries to come together to address the problems. In the backdrop of increasing number of people migrating from rural to urban areas, waste management will offer ample scope for the industry players during the years to come...

S-CHEMCON 2010 a Great Success; Affirms Industry to take Giant Leap
The 6th Annual Session of Student Chemical Congress 'S-CHEMCON 2010' was based on the theme "Process Industries and Sustainable Development". The session was organized by IIChE', Department of Chemical Engineers. D P Misra, Director, TATA Consultancy Engineers Ltd, Mumbai, who was also the Chief Guest, inaugurated the session...

INTERVIEW

Manufacturing Sector to Drive the growth of Automation Sector
"In response to the changing market trend of manufacturing sector towards turnkey solutions, we are focused on being a main automation contractor of process automation needs of Indian customers," comments Sunil Khanna, Managing Director, Emerson Process Management, India. He delves on the company's plant wide solutions for process industry, future growth plans and huge scope for the automation players in the SME sector in India...
- Sunil Khanna, Managing Director, Emerson Process Management India Pvt Ltd

Q & A

'Chemtech will provide an excellent opportunity to gain exposure to scientific R&D professionals in India'
- Dr Steve Hamilton, Director Education, SLAS

FEATURES

The Application of Automation to Significantly Accelerate Polymer Latex Research
Polymer latexes are essential components in a wide range of commercial products and formulations such as, paints, cosmetics, coatings, biotechnology and functionalized supports. Many difficulties are intrinsic to the implementation of polymer latex research, particularly in the purification of the final latex dispersions and the control and reproducibility of particle size, therefore making high-throughput research in this area especially challenging. In this article, we demonstrate how the investigation of the influential synthesis factors on polymer latex materials properties can be swiftly and reproducibly achieved by the combinational use of experimental design, automated synthesis and a newly developed high-throughput purification process. Through the implementation of flexible automated platforms, a significant increase in the throughput of this previously manual process was achieved. Reaction models were used to examine the synergistic and antagonistic effects of the latex synthesis parameters, thereby allowing the controlled synthesis of fully characterized libraries of surfaceefunctional polymer latexes to be rapidly produced and screened for a wide range of applications. ( JALA 2010;15:313–8)
- Neil L Campbell and Jon Weaver

Using Particle Size Analysis for Optimal Processing Performance
One of the few upsides to the current challenging economic conditions is that running below full capacity presents opportunities to work on process optimisation. For many aspects of solids processing one key parameter is particle size. This article examines how particle size analysis using the well-established technique of laser diffraction can contribute to the development of optimal solids processing solutions...
- Paul Kippax and Jim Scotland

High Temperature Heating in Hazardous Areas
Complete insulation of analysis station is a challenge in hazardous areas that require close monitoring of temperature. Hot box with heating element and controller is an optimal solution. The article delves on the critical factors that need to be considered while designing and selectiong elements for the system. ..
- Martin Hess and Rohit Nath

10 Good Reasons to Invest in Robots
Robots have proved to deliver a host of benefits in a wide variety of applications. End users introducing robots to their production process have typically seen significant transformation in their productivity and efficiency, with higher levels of output, product quality and flexibility amongst the many improvements...

Bartec Provides Technology for Heating of Piping for Russian Refinery
Lukoil- Permenefteorgsintez, one of the largest oil refiners from Russia permanently invests in modernization of the plant in order to remain on a stste of the art level of technology to raise product quality.In the last modernization phase, Bartec provided safety technology for heating of the piping in the field of bitumen production as well as for gas line of the torch. The control technology recognizes even the slightest malfunctioning of the system thus ensuring safety during the process and also offers optimum price performance ratio...
- Alexander Schulgowski

Major Cost Component for Personal Labs to Maintain Accuracy in Results
Numerous industries utilize the calibration services of their in-house facilities or an external agency. However, it may be pragmatic that the calibration checks approved are initiated to be insufficient later when scrutinized by the evaluator. Sequentially to evade this in anticipation, some groundwork is a requisite...
- Vishwas Kale

Business Process Management for Chemical Industry
Business Process Management (BPM) is a positive approach of managing business processes in an enterprise to augment effectiveness and productivity along with consumer satisfaction through refining business process. Chemical society should implement BPM in order to avoid or curtail threats and sustain product value and safety...
- Kiran Thakrar

PET Resin Manufacturer Reduces Cost of Production
More frequently acknowledged as PTA or TPA bottle-grade PET is an engineering plastic produced out of terephthalic acid. Additionally to being effortlessly extrusion blow molded to any number of shapes, it is recyclable, clear, strong and lightweight...

MARKET INSIGHTS

Advertorial: Xiameter Offers Customers the Ability to Protect Cash Flow
As manufacturers begin to ramp up production in the fledgling economic recovery, e-commerce has become a critical tool in regaining a competitive edge by providing efficiencies for buyers and sellers throughout the supply chain, according to Shelley Bausch, Vice President and Global Executive Director of the Xiameter web-enabled brand of Dow Corning...
- Shelley Bausch

Ion Exchange Supplies Value Adding O&M Services
Ion exchange's Operation & Maintenance (O&M) provides the complete range of services that supports its total water and environment management solutions. Through these services the company has added significant value through savings in consumption of chemicals and energy, improved plant efficiency, consistent quality and quantity of treated water, conservation of fresh water through recycle and enhanced life of equipment and spares through efficient operation...

Banner Engineering Pioneers Wireless Network to Provide Serial Communication
Banner Engineering has introduced a scalable wireless network that can monitor and control I/O functions or provides serial communication at up to 56 locations. The new SureCross product line has replaced costly wiring in a wide range of industrial, agricultural, power generation, water supply and waste disposal applications. Discrete, serial and analog devices that can be controlled by the network include ultrasonic and photoelectric sensors, pumps, counters, thermocouple and RTD temperature sensors...

Rockwell Extends its Sofware Capabilities Industry with ERP
Milwaukee: Rockwell Automation, the world's largest company dedicated to industry automation and information, has announced that it has extended the capabilities of its Rockwell Software industry solutions with an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Integration Gateway application...

Discovering Innovative Prospect of Expansion
Atul Ltd, a Lalbhai Group Company has acquired Polygrip, India’s leading rubber and PU based adhesive brand. Polygrip is over three decades old brand and appears amongst top three rubber based adhesives brands in the country. It has an exceptionally reliable customer base with a customer retenstion rate in excess of 99 percent...
- Rajesh Bhasin

INTERVIEW

Making Right Choices; Multiplying Savings
Selection of right material is critical for any process or industry to ensure continuous maintenance free operations. Outokumpu’s range of stainless steel products for industrial applications not only promises long service life but also multiplies savings. The company set up its Indian office three years back under the leadership of Yatinder Pal Singh Suri, Country Head, Outokumpu India Pvt Ltd, who has been spearheading the company’s growth in the country. In an email interview with CEW, he talks about company’s future plans in the emerging market
- Yatinder Pal Singh Suri, Country Head, Outokumpu India Pvt. Ltd.

Q & A

'Nalco's Technology integrates the technologies necessary to anticipate system variability'
- Peter Drape Scrivener, Managing Director, Nalco India Ltd

FEATURES

Relocation of Plant Equipment
As governments and corporations across the world react to urban congestion and plan for rural growth, plant relocation is becoming increasingly common. This article will discuss the decommissioning and relocation of plant equipment, a specialised field in itself...
- Deepak Pimpalwadkar

Improved Margins, Safety and Reliability through Licensor Developed Operator Training Simulators
Today's economic, regulatory, and political drivers demand higher margins, more reliable operations and improved safety records. Plant and organizational economics demand higher yields, lower costs and more throughputs. Regulatory/political bodies demand fewer plant upsets and safer operation. These all lead to tighter, more complex process control to improve operations and result in an ever-increasing need for properly trained personnel...
- Ravi Guddeti, Prakash Ramdoss, Javier Vazquez Esparragoza, Surajit Dasgupta

Selection and Design of Industrial Dryer for Sodium Bicarbonate
Dryers occupy considerable speculation in their process, as they are energy intensive unit equipment. As a result choice of accurate dryer for a particular method becomes essential for curtailing the enduring force on the economies of a plant...
- Parish S Dwivedi

Achieving a Higher Standard
Sinopec Engineering Inc (SEI), a subsidiary of Sinopec, had reached pre-eminent status domestically, but faced challenges as it sought to grow globally with international partners and projects. The company adopted Intergraph's engineering project standard software to establish comprehensive work process to meet international standards for EPC projects...
- Wayne Smith

Economics of Resource Recovery from Sugar Cane and Distillery Industries
Cane molasses based distilleries are amongst the major water polluting industries in India. The distilleries are mainly engaged in the manufacture of alcohol by fermentation of molasses using yeast culture followed by distillation. The spentwash generated from the distillation of fermenter wash is highly acidic (pH is less than 5.0) with high concentration of organics, viz BOD and COD being more than 50 kg/m3, and 90 kg/m3, respectively, and suspended solids concentration above 2 kg/m3. The paper highlights the appropriate waste management option comprising biomethanation followed by concentration (evaporation technology) through multiple effect evaporators, and utilization of the concentrated effluent for biocomposting of pressmud (by-product from sugar industry) for production of biomanure thereby achieving zero effluent discharge, including cost analysis...
- S N Kaul, T Nandy, Y Sharma

Managing Time for Professional Success
This is the beginning of a new day.God has given me this day to use as I will. I can waste it or use it for good. What I do today is important, because I am exchanging a day of my life for it. When tomorrow comes,this day will be gone forever,leaving in its place something that I have traded for it.I want it to be gain, not loss;good not evil; success not failure; in order that I shall not regret the price I paid for it...
- Nikhil Desai

MARKET INSIGHTS

Real Time Specialized Engineering Training Propel Growth Aspects in Industry
Most of engineering professionals adopt experimental learning, which in turn may lose critical aspects of projects concepts, methodologies, fundamentals, delivery techniques, latest tools and applications due to their own interpretation through achieved results...

Chemtex to Introduce Slew of New Technologies in the Indian Market
Chemtex is synonymous with polyester technologies and has rendered expertise to 60 to 70 percent of world’s polyester plants. In fact the group is supplier of polyester technology based plants for 14 of Reliance, one of the biggest fiber manufacturers in the world...

Aquatech Commissions First Phase of Desalination Facility at UMPP in Gujarat
Aquatech Systems (Asia) Pvt Ltd has commissioned first phase of the 25,200-m3/day-desalination facility based on Sea Water Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) technology for Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd’s Mundra UMPP (5x800 MW capacity) project for production of high quality process water...

INTERVIEW

'We are Well-positioned in India's Fast Growing Market'...
...says Kiran Shesh, Managing Director, Pall India Pvt Ltd. The group offers filtration and separation solutions for most complicated processes across chemical industry verticals. The group has consolidated their business in India since they entered the Indian market in 1996. Shesh has been associated with the group for four years and sees helathy product demand in the Indian market.
- Kiran Shesh, Managing Director, Pall India Pvt Ltd

Q & A

'Latin American & Russian markets hold great business potential for chemical exports from India.'
- Anand Ladsariya, CMD Everest Flavours Ltd & Chairman CHEMEXCIL

FEATURES

Resin for Membranes
Kynar PVDF resin is well established in the chemical process industry due to its excellent chemical resistance, mechanical toughness and long-term durability. These qualities make this resin a choice material for Micro-Filtration (MF) and Ultra-Filtration (UF) membranes. These resins are soluble in several solvents allowing them to be solvent cast by the phase inversion process. These membranes may be prepared as flat sheets, tubular configurations and hollow fibres. Applications include potable and wastewater treatment, blood and protein filtration, high purity water, medical diagnostics and chemical process filtrations where outstanding chemical resistance is needed. This paper will cover introduction of Kynar PVDF, basic steps involved in membrane manufacturing, and key applications of these membranes...
- Mandar Amrute and Lonnie Bryant

A Definite and Infinite Water Source
Rapid urbanization of India has turned the country from high water surplus to water stressed region. Despite the fact that the country is surrounded from three sides by water, its availability for day to day and industry use is an issue that needs an appropriate solution. Countries in the Middle East are using desalination as the solution to deal with this challenge . Many countries including our own are emphasizing on setting up such facilities to meet with the growing water d emand and to conserve available water resources...
- Nitin Umbralkar

Filters for Chemical Process Industry
Pressure filters are first choice to pursue filtration in a chemical process instead of cost intensive vacuum filtration. The author delves upon various advantages offered by vacuum filters during the chemical processes that demand high throughputs...
- Umesh V Kulkarni

Continuous Separation of Solids from Slurry
The process of separation of solids and liquids from a suspension or slurry is important in process industry for recovery of solid products, solvents and process fluids. Whenever possible, this separation is carried out using decanters, thickeners or filters... - M V Rao

Fieldbus for Better Efficiency!
Fieldbus has developed into an integrated component of automation technology. They are tried and tested and widely established. It was this technology that enabled the wide-scale application of PC-based control systems...
- Ajey Phatak

Adoption of BI tools for Indian SMB Chemical Companies
The viewpoint of Indian chemical industry continues to be sturdy as well as striking however basics have not altered though the force of the comprehensive monetary calamity was perceptible to several degrees, nevertheless the diligence is capable to weather it superior than the industries in further urbanized countries...
- Sanjeev Dewan

Incessant Sun Rays Bring Hope
Countries like Maldives may disappear soon from the world map soon!! ‘Global Warming’ has been talked about so often that the real impact to search a long lasting solution is diluted. Copenhagen Conference in December 2009 could not bring all the countries under one legally binding agreement. Earth may loose its ecological balance due to short sighted desire of the economies towards their development and urbanization. On one hand, advances in science and technology play the key role in developing the longevity and lifestyle but on the flipside indiscriminate use of these techniques counteracts the forces of nature which poses the threat to human nature and ecosystem. In this gloomy environment, the incessant rays from the Sun reaching the Earth, bring hope of a positive and permanent solution!...
-Navin G Ashar

Stepping on the Shale Gas
Companies including Reliance Industries Limited (E&P), RNRL, and Genpact, have expressed interest in exploring for shale gas in India. Reliance Industries paid a reported USD 1.7 billion for a 40 percent share in Atlas Energy’s leasehold in the Marcellus shale gas play in the eastern US...
- Merly Simon

MARKET INSIGHTS

Metrohm Inaugrates Ultramodern Facility in Chennai
Metrohm India Ltd, a subsidiary of Metrohm AG, has opened its new headquarter office and application laboratory in Thuraipakkam, Chennai. The new facility will comprise of 8000 sq ft area dedicated for office and 4000 sq ft to be occupied by Metrohm Application Laboratory... - Deepak Parab

Air Products Sign Long-term Contract with PMSPL
INOX Air Products Ltd, a joint venture company of Air Products has signed a long-term contract with POSCO Maharashtra Steel Private Limited (PMSPL) to supply on-site nitrogen and hydrogen gases to its latest facility situated in Vile Bhagad, Maharashtra...

INTERVIEW

'We Aim to Achieve Sustained Development and Multidimensional Growth'
The state of West Bengal has been home to chemical industry for more than a century. From pre independence era to the era of globalization the industrial growth of chemical industry has been much below the potential available in the state. In 2009 the state government received the approval to set up the PCPIR to promote the growth of chemical and petrochemical industry. Nirupam Sen, Hon’ble Minister In Charge for West Bengal contradicts the negative perception about the state and the state getting back on to a high growth track in an exclusive interview with Mittravinda Ranjan...
- Nirupam Sen, Hon'ble Minister In Charge for West Bengal

Clean Environment: Legacy for Future Generations...
Ghanshyam Deshpande, Executive Vice President , Praj Industries has over 20 years of experience in design engineering and commissioning of bio fuels, water and waste water projects globally. Currently, he heads the environmental engineering division at Praj for end to end solutions for industrial water and waste water treatment to recycle reuse and reduce the water usage while producing energy in terms of biogas from wastewater. In an exclusive interview he talks about environment audits as an imperative for better environment management...
- Ghanshyam Deshpande, Executive Vice President , Praj Industries

Q & A

'We aim to deliver a differentiating customer experience in Indian market'
- Nirmal Shah, Managing Director, H2O Innovation India Ltd

FEATURES

CDM Project Development: Techno-Commercial Aspects
Developed nations account for a major share of green house gas emissions in the environment. To set up Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) in developed nations would require huge investments. However to offset the (Greenhouse Gases)GHG emissions, the same project can be set up in developing nations at significantly lower cost. The article highlights various aspects associated with the CDM projects... - Mathsy K

Plasma : The Fourth State
Plasma, the fourth state of matter has exotic properties, which can be exploited as a tool for various technological applications. During the last half century, low-temperature plasmas have made a dramatic impact on society. Plasma based technologies have made deep inroads in various industrial applications. Now these are playing a great role in environmental management with their efficient use in pollution control and waste management. This article gives a brief review of the developments taking place in the field of environment management...
- Dr S S Verma

Closed Recirculating Water Systems
Closed circulating water systems are used in some extremely critical industrial processes and comfort cooling systems. Since the water chemistry and system parameters in a closed loop system are expected to be stable, it is at times assumed, that a professional water treatment and monitoring program is not essential. This paper attempts to bring home the importance of a well planned water treatment regimen and reviews various treatment approaches available...
- Bharat Mendon

Desalination An Overview Of Reverse Osmosis
Desalination is removal of salts from water, however this has emerged as the global answer to the issue of water scarcity. V A Tech Wabag has used RO and energy recovery system for sea water treatment at HPCL refinery in Vishakhapatnam, which has already set a benchmark in this field...

Reuse of Effluent to Solve Problem of Water Scarcity
Industrial wastewater treatment covers the mechanism and processes used to treat waters that have been contaminated prior to its release into the environment or its re-use...
- Sachin Kukade

Bringing Wastewater Back to Life
Can raw sewage really be processed into pure water? Will industries realize that it is cost-effective and environmentally sound to use it in their processes? The water reuse industry is growing, and technology is growing along with it. Alfa Laval has taken another step forward with its latest Hollow Sheet technology...

Waste Lubricating Oil Purification and Recovery
It may be surprising to note that, under normal circumstances, lubricating oil cannot be easily destroyed, it only gets dirty and is easily contaminated by other solvents. This property makes a potential pollutant that must not be allowed to get into the environment. The only option is to collect it and treat it so that its original properties are restored and thus enable its re-use. Modern lube oil has at least eight additives blended into it so as to enhance its life and working properties...

Integrated Approach to Handle Corrosion
Experts admit that environmental pollution effects are quite often underestimated and that more research is needed to understand the connections between pollution and its effects on industries. The article emphasizes on integrating the information based on different parameters from various sources that can help in handling the problem of corrosion to a great extent...
- M Valiappan

MARKET INSIGHTS

BCPW : Over a Century in Chemical Industry
Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works Ltd. (BCPW) is precursor of the present Company, Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (BCPL). It is one of the oldest pharmaceutical companies in India...

Haldia Petrochemicals Enhance Capacity
Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL), modern naphtha based Petrochemical Complex located at Haldia, is a Joint Venture (JV) project between Government of West Bengal, The Chatterjee Group, the TATA’s with the Indian Oil Corporation as major stakeholders with an investment of Rs 5864 crores...

APL : Pioneers in Petrochemicals
Assam Petrochemicals Limited (APL) is a pioneer in the field as it is the first to manufacture petrochemicals in India using natural gas as feedstock...

Davite: Experts in Valve Manufacturing since 1934
My father Gouri Shanker Modi set up the organization in 1934," says BK Modi, Managing Director Davite Company. The company pioneers in manufacturing of industrial valves, gate valves, knife-edge gate valves, steel gate valves and control valves in Eastern India. "With valued customer's support, the organization has achieved great heights in Indian Valve industry and acclaimed a reputation of its own,"

Harbauer : Specialist in Arsenic Removal
Harbauer India is an innovative environmental company offering entire range of pollution control services for process industries. The group has a dedicated force which consistently works towards developing new technologies and improve existing processes...

SCTPL Sets up Manufacturing Unit in Chennai
Southern Cooling Towers Pvt Ltd is into business of manufacturing and selling cooling towers for over 26 years. Apart from having two manufacturing units in Kolkata and one in Gujarat, the company is also setting up another manufacturing unit in Chennai. It also has a wide sales and service network in India and overseas...

Arora Matthey Accomplishes GMP Certification
AML has added a new feather to its cap by adding platinum based Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) in its range along with accomplished GMP certification to manufacture platinum based anti-cancer drugs and is also marketing research chemicals of Alfa Aesar in India...

Jalan to Expand Production Capacity by 2015
alan Carbons and Chemicals Ltd. is a flagship company of Jalan Group of Industries. The group is the second largest coal tar pitch Manufacturer in India with a total installed capacity of 75,000 TPA for production of coal tar pitch...

Tata Chemicals Major Producer of STTP
Tata Chemicals Ltd (TCL) in Haldia, West Bengal is the only manufacturing unit for DAP/NPK complexes. The company is also the largest producer of sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP)...

INTERVIEW

'Cracker was the Last Piece of Puzzle to Integrate Petrochemical Business'...
Sven Royall, Vice President, Intermediates, Shell Chemicals Limited joined Shell’s agrochemicals business 30 years back and in the due course was moved into company’s bulk petrochemicals in 1996. He has witnessed the rise of Asian markets and demand shift of petrochemicals from West to East. Going on long treks is his other passion apart from carbon value chain. Be it business or excursion trips, he likes to take up challenges and has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and trekked through the Atacama Desert in Chile. On his recent visit to India during APIC 2010, he spoke to Mittravinda Ranjan...
- Sven Royall, Vice President, Intermediates, Shell Chemicals Limited

Q & A

'Demand to Grow by Minimum 12 to 15 percent Per Year'
- A Manduskar, Managing Director, Wam India

FEATURES

Logistics Challenges in Chemical Industry
A buyer rejected the chemical parcel from a supplier and discontinued the business as the composition was affected due to the heat of the engine. Simple declaration from the supplier to the ship liner could have saved him from this loss. Anand delves upon the nitty gritties of chemical logistics on how paying attention to small things can yield bigger returns... - M.Vijay Anand

Chemicals on the Wheels
Each chemical starts its journey from a chemical manufacturer and ends in another manufacturing set up before it undergoes transformations and ultimately gets consumed by the end user. These useful chemicals because of their hazardous nature require special attention while being handled either in a chemical plant or shipped. A new genre of haulers has emerged, which makes use of the latest available technologies towards mitigating the associated risks in chemical transport...
- Mittravinda Ranjan

Multiple Facets of Pharma Packaging
Pharmaceutical industry has been an interesting destination for the packaging designers. This is an extremely challenging area and has many facets to it that offers many opportunities to the packaging industry...
- Harshit Aggarwal

Rigid Plastic Packaging for Chemical Industry
Plastic processing companies have been into packaging business , helping the chemical segment and bringing innovations since past few years .Packing industry is also emphasizing on continuous improvement on research and development resulting in innovation in new products...
- Abhay Inamdar

Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals
With consistent and appropriate information on the chemicals either produced or imported into the country, the infrastructure to control chemical exposures, protect people and environment can be established in a comprehensive manner. GHS will provide and internationally comprehensible system for enhanced protection of human health and environment...
- Sunanda Kadam

Removing Blockages at Transfer Points
Martin Engineering, dealer of bulk materials handling has pioneered custom engineered transfer chutes that will assist deliver material control. These transfer chutes provide the dual payback of curtailing exposure to air as well as averting upsurge within the chute, mainly vital while dealing with flammable supplies... - Martin Engineering

Material Handling: Current Trends
The Material Handling Equipment (MHE) industry offers a broad display of products to various industries depending upon their needs. This division is a critical intermediary in today’s economy. MHE might not unswervingly add towards manufacture of goods however it suggests concerning effectiveness in handling, transport and storage of goods... - Tushar Mehendale

Plastics Plastics Everywhere!!
The global consumption of plastics is vast. The existing reuse and recycling volumes are insufficient in the overall management of plastic waste. It would be appreciated if the industry leaders developed a Plastic Code, as its demand grew exponentially...
- R V Krishnan

MARKET INSIGHTS

Differentiating Indian Chemical Sector
Indian Chemical Industry has witnessed tremendous growth during the past two decades. Globalization eliminated the trade barriers and opened whole lot of new avenues for the Indian chemical manufacturers in the existing markets... - Anand Ladsariya, Chairman CHEMEXCIL

Ethiopia Creates Conducive Environment to Grow Bio Feedstocks
The name Ethiopia does not paint a pretty picture. Country’s economy depends on agriculture, however the varying rainfall patterns affect the crop production that leaves the country subject to recurrent catastrophic draughts... - Meherab Mulugeta, Minister Counsellar, Business & Economy, Ethiopia

INTERVIEW

'E+H Plans to Develop World Regions with Emerging Markets'
Endress+Hauser (E+H) is recognized as a leading supplier of industrial measurement and automation equipment, providing services and solutions for industrial processes all over the world. The group intends to grow worldwide with emerging markets offering higher growth potential. Kulathu Kumar, President and Director, E+H Flowtec (India) Pvt Ltd heads the Indian operations, and is also a key member of the E + H Flowtec worldwide leadership team. He has more than 25 years of experience across various industry and has in-depth expertise in new operational initiatives. He has also been closely associating with Industry Institutions and Educational institutions. In an exclusive interview with Merly Simon of Chemical Engineering World, he talks about the new facility of Flowtec in Aurangabad that will strengthen their potential worldwide...
- Kulathu Kumar, President and Director, E+H Flowtec (India) Pvt. Ltd

FEATURES

Process Intensification in Indian Chemical Industry
Emerging equipment, processing techniques and operational methods promise spectacular improvements in process plants, markedly shrinking their size and dramatically boosting their efficiency. Process Intensification is a hot topic in chemical and process engineering and beyond that is now reaching a maturity that is seeing Process Intensification concepts are appliedapplied to a wide range of processes and technologies... - P J Lakhapate

The ABCs of Plant Lubrication
Manufacturers, engineers and maintenance professionals from a wide range of industries rely on their lubricants to provide dependable service. Especially in challenging environments engineers count on lubricants to maximize equipment productivity and operation reliability. By following a few simple guidelines plant engineers can minimize downtime and maximize profits...
- Dow Corning

Influence of Contaminants; Challenges in Petrochemical Plants
The petrochemical industry is relatively small in the Indian industrial scene. It registered rapid growth in the 1980s and 1990s. Major segments are plastics, fibre intermediates, elastomers, synthetic detergents and organic chemicals. Compared to per capita consumption of plastics in US at 109 Kg, China at 29 Kg and Brazil at 32 Kg. India at 5 Kg is still in nascent stage. India has the advantage of high population and expected to maintain high economic growth. This should propel the India's consumption in polymer to new levels in coming year.* Petrochemical plants are typically large and complex, where the combination and sequence of processes is usually very specific to the characteristics of the products manufactured...
- M Valiappan, Corrosion Management Consultant, Corrosion Management Services (CMS)

WTMS - An Innovative Energy Saving Product
The wireless trap monitoring system (WTMS) is a network for efficient energy management that can be used across chemical industries where steam is used for indirect heating. It can help monitor the health of steam traps at various locations in process plants. Even today, procuring quality trap grossly is overlooked in many process industries...
- Sumit Hakhoo Marketing Manager, Spirax Division, Forbes Marshall

Switching to Dynamic Mode for Process Control
The Control System is the Heart of Process Industry and the heart of the Control Cabinet is the Switch Mode Power Supply, which pumps the required energy to the rest of the process components in the cabinet. For this reason it is important that the SMPS power supply equipment used for process control should satisfy all the stake-holders...
- Phoenix Contact India Pvt Ltd

Cogeneration Opportunities in Process Industries
Cogeneration is the environmentally-friendly, economically-sensible way to produce power, simultaneously saving significant amounts of money as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It is a significant measure to enhance industrial competitiveness... - Na. Raghu, CEO, Technoplus Services

Leveraging the Power of Intelligent Motor Control to Maximize HVAC System Efficiency
Most HVAC systems, particularly those more than five years old, employ constant volume air handling units that use simple on/off controls.With fans often operating for long hours per day in many applications, fan energy requirements are a major component in a facility's energy costs.While most buildings use a variety of simple controls to manage HVAC systems, many facility managers have yet to take advantage of new control upgrade options capable of wringing more savings out of facility operations... - Rockwell Automation

Enabling Innovative and Sustainable Processes and Products
Dwindling oil reserves on the one hand and huge technological advances on the other make it increasingly attractive to employ white biotechnology for the production of commodity chemicals based on renewable raw materials. The chemical industry is thus at the threshold of a hybrid between petrochemicals and biotechnology. New production routes and processes will be necessary, the German chemical group Wacker has already come up with new models...
- Dr Gunter Wich, Head of Biotechnology at Corporate R&D, Wacker Chemie AG

MARKET INSIGHTS

McNally Targets Organic and Inorganic Growth
McNally Bharat Engineering Co Ltd (MBE) is an EPC based company working for projects in different industries like power, mining, non-ferrous, aluminum, steel, port and construction. MBE has successfully executed more than 300 projects in India and around the world... - Srinivash Singh Managing Director, McNally Bharat Engineering Co Ltd

Leading Indian Adhesives Market
Adhesives are the hidden champions of everyday life. Although they are rarely noticed, they are all around us, for instance cell phones, cars, aircraft, furniture, books, baby’s diapers, wallpaper, etc the list of things that would not work without adhesives is endless. Adhesives are what we call a critical 'C' component... - Sam Ewe, Country President, Henkel India and Henkel Southeast Asia

Q & A

'Strong regulatory guidelines and willingness to adopt clean fuel are strong drivers for bio ethanol blending'
- Shashank Inamdar, CEO & MD, Praj Industries Ltd.

LEADERSPEAK

Growth Drivers for Energy Security for Next Decade
Our country's energy demand is going to grow dramatically along with the rapid growth in GDP. So a scenario where our GDP growth rate could be impacted due to our economy's exposure to global crude oil prices cannot be ruled out. Rahul Dhir Managing Director & CEO, Cairn India Ltd deliberated on the issue of Energy Security in his keynote address during Oceantex World Expo 2010...
- Rahul Dhir, Managing Director & CEO, Cairn India Ltd

FEATURES

Sun Rises on Indian Biotech Sector
Rapid industrial growth during the past few decades has raised the concern towards global warming and climate change, as a result of green house gas emissions. Environmentalists have voiced out these issues time and again to draw the attention of industry to curb the impact of harmful gases that are released into the atmosphere. Sustainable industry practices, R&D to develop new processes and products now top the agendas of manufacturing sector across various industries. Worldwide, scientists are carrying out extensive research in the field of biotechnology to develop new products and Indian researchers are very much in the race...

Future is Bright for Analytical Instruments
Emphasis on Research and Development activities, fast growing manufacturing base, upcoming academia and research institutes are some of the reasons that have made India a lucrative market for analytical instruments. Many foreign players have restructured their operations in the country and consolidated their position in the Indian market to explore ample market potential. Deepak Parab, Vice President Sales and Marketing, Metrohm India Ltd has extensive experience in the field of Analytical Instruments. He takes over as the CEO of the company this April onwards. He talks about the growing opportunities, challenges and changing technology trends in this field...
- Deepak Parab, Vice President Sales and Marketing, Metrohm India Ltd

Melt Granulation in the Indian Chemical Industry
The petrochemical industry may have embraced melt granulation technology with open arms but the specialist granulation systems now widely used in sulphur processing could bring benefits to dozens of other potential applications across India’s broader chemical and associated industries...
- Kumar Swamy

Semivolatile Compounds DRS Screening GC-MS Analyzer
Agilent Technologies introduces new GC-MS system analyser for the screening of semivolatile compounds from various origins. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has published numerous GC/MSD methods for organic analytes in various matrices. US EPA Method 525 is specified for drinking water and Method 8270 for wastewater, each having its own set of compounds. The compounds lists for these methods are extensive and form the basis for the deconvolution databases discussed in this paper...
- Upendra Simha

Enhanced Intrinsic Safety in Chemical Industry
Any production area in a chemical factory is deemed as hazardous when the respective fire or safety officer of the factory classifies the area depending upon the frequency of occurrence of the hazards...
- Ashok Malhotra

Advanced Technologies for Temperature Control
Thermo Scientific offers a complete portfolio of equipment for precision temperature control including circulators, recirculating chillers, and immersion coolers. These accurate, efficient products improve the productivity in your laboratory, quality control process, or analytical instrument...

Surge into South American Economy
South American countries are showing phenomenal growth and offering tremendous business potential in various sectors. While the continent has not been immune to the global economic slowdown, its economy is expected to accomplish in the short term what many others will fail to do. Brazil is one of the fastest emerging economies in this region and the country is the world’s second largest producer and number one exporter of ethanol from sugarcane. The article gives an insight into the upswing in Latin America...

Alternative Fuels and Renewable Energy to Combat Climate Change
Currently, worldwide increasing demand of conventional fuels is contributing colossal emissions of the greenhouse gases causing climate change, therefore, alternative fuels like biofuels and renewable energy resembling solar, wind, etc must be utilized on large scale to combat climate change. In this article, author highlights the beneficial facts of alternative fuels and renewable energy, which are the basic efforts to minimize fossil fuels consumption and GHGs emissions...
- Hambir Singh

MARKET INSIGHTS

Alfa Laval India - Value through Innovation
Sustainable profit, for any company, is possible only if customer perceive a higher value than the price they pay; and when the price results in expected rate of return. Alfa Laval understands this and that is why it has constantly worked with customers to bring solutions and best fits...

Sulzer India has a New Address
"Our knowledge and long-term experience combined with continuous product development provides the advantage our customers in today's highly competitive environment."

Thermax Enters Strategic Alliances
Thermax has formed a Joint Venture with Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group (B&W PGG) to supply supercritical boilers for the Indian power industry. The joint venture agreement was signed by M S Unnikrishnan, Managing Director and CEO of Thermax and Richard Killion, President and COO of B&W PGG... - Leslie Frank

Tranter Inaugurates New State-of-the-Art Facility
Tranter is a global heat transfer company at the forefront of plate heat exchanger technology for more than 70 years, offering a wide variety of heat transfer products and solutions for industrial and commercial applications around the world. Tranter India has been growing at an aggressive pace with a number of project based orders and a large base of OEM customers...

Celebrating a Century of Serving Society
Kirloskarvadi, the flagship plant of Kirloskar Brothers Limited and one of India's first Industrial Townships, has completed 100 years of its contribution to society. Laxmanrao Kirloskar established Kirloskarvadi Industrial Township on March 10th 1910 with the vision of setting up his industry and communities for employees...

HRS Launches Value Added Heat Transfer Solutions
HRS Process Systems Pvt Ltd, an ISO 9001:2008 certified and ASME 'U' Stamp accredited company, is based in Pune with manufacturing facility at Koregaon Bhima. The company is part of HRS Group which operates at the forefront of thermal processing technology and is one of Europe's leading heat exchanger and fruit/food processing solutions specialists with a multi-million Euro turnover. The findings from the research center in Murcia in Spain enable the group to offer increased competitiveness in terms of new product development and processing techniques...

Forbes Marshall Forms Joint Venture; Enters Biomass Market
Pune-based Forbes Marshall and Belgian energy solutions company Vyncke Energitechniek has signed an agreement to set up a 50:50 Joint Venture (JV) in the presence of Prince Philippe of Belgium. The newly formed company, Forbes Vyncke, will have a manufacturing unit in Pune to tap opportunities in the biomass energy plant market...

Q & A

'Indian specialty chemicals sector offers opportunity to expand horizons beyond domestic territory'
- Dr Kishore M Shah, Chairman, Sauradip Chemical Industries Pvt Ltd

INTERVIEW

Endress + Hauser Delivers Global Quality Products to Indian Market
Since the year 2000, Aurangabad has been home to the Swiss group Endress + Hauser after they set up their first associated product centre to manufacture flowmeters. The group has expanded the existing facility and inaugurated the new plant to manufacture pressure and level controls. N Sriram, President and Director, Endress + Hauser (India) Automation Instrumentation Pvt Ltd talks about the new centre and its role in company's overall growth during the years to come in an exclusive interview with Mittravinda Ranjan of Chemical Engineering World...
- N Sriram, President and Director, Endress + Hauser (India) Automation Instrumentation Pvt Ltd

FEATURES

Aker Accomplishes 50 Years in India
This decade saw us enhancing our headcount to 1600 plus and moving into a state-of-the-art operating centre in Mumbai. It has always been our endeavour to build up a unique reputation for performance and in the process, become an engineering contractor of choice to a dedicated customer base, said Mr Pothen Paul, Chairman and India Country Manager, Aker Solutions that has accomplished 50 years in India in an exclusive interview with Mittravinda Ranjan of Chemical Engineering World...
- Mr Pothen Paul, Chairman and India Country Manager, Aker Solutions

The Year 2009 was Challenging for Aker Powergas
Mr Sanjay Joshi, Director of Operations at Aker Powergas Pvt Ltd talks about healthy order book and interesting opportunities globally, in a exclusive interview with Mittravinda Ranjan of Chemical Engineering World...
- Mr Sanjay Joshi, Director of Operations at Aker Powergas Pvt Ltd

Adopting the Integrated Chlorine Dioxide Process for Pulp Bleaching to Comply with CREP Regulations
The Charter on Corporate Responsibility for Environmental Protection (CREP) guidelines impose several new requirements on pulp and paper mills in India to adopt more environmentally friendly practices, including a reduction in AOX emissions that will require a shift away from chlorine (or hypochlorite) based pulp bleaching. The worldwide acceptance of ECF pulp in recent years ensures that chlorine dioxide will continue to be the dominant pulp-bleaching agent for the foreseeable future. Aker Solutions, recognizing the on-going need from the pulp and paper industry for a reliable and cost-effective method to generate chlorine dioxide - offers the integrated chlorine dioxide process that produces chlorine dioxide solution at the lowest operating cost...
- Barr A, Gopalakrishnan R*, and Saha M

Our "Iron Pillar" Way to Resolve Corrosion Management Challenges in India
The latest surveys show that the worldwide direct cost of corrosion is between 3.1 to 3.5 percent of a nation's GDP annually. These results reflect only the direct cost of corrosion that include essentially materials, equipment and services involved with repair, maintenance and replacement and does not include the environmental damage, waste of resources, loss of production or personal injury resulting from corrosion. Corrosion experts have concluded that a net of 20 to 25 percent of that annual cost can be saved by applying currently available corrosion control technologies...
- M Valliappan

Plasma-Assisted Chemical Processes
The ever-growing use of operating conditions characterized by extreme temperatures, velocities and reactions time is a main trend in the development of today's chemical processing and technology. It has been of increasing interest to develop chemical processes which exhibit unique functional properties and potential applications in order to meet desired outcome with low cost, minimum waste and energy conservation. In this regard, plasma (the fourth state of matter) due to its exotic properties is playing a great role in many desired chemical processes required in chemical industries like combustion, chemical synthesis and pollution control. The present paper highlights the different advances made with respect to various chemical processes of importance making use of plasma as a catalyst...
- S S Verma

Teflon* Heat Exchanger : Save Energy for Better Tommorrow !
Thermal power plant, Flue gas coolers (Heat exchanger) using DuPont Teflon® maximize power plant cost-efficiency and solves corrosion problem with flue gas...

Guidelines for Compressed Air Systems
Compressed air is used widely by chemical process industries for various applications. Process engineers estimate air demand by totaling the demand of equipment using it. The article highlights the guidelines to design plant air and instrument air utility systems...
- R Rajesh Kumar

Fertilizer Granulation Briquetting and Pelleting
Pressure agglomeration is most often used to shape mineral and organic fertilizers. Processes used to shape them are part of Euragglo know-how to produce in particular, compacted granules using roller compactors, briquetted doses using roller presses and pellets with the help of die presses...
- Pascal Herevieu

MARKET INSIGHTS

Schneider has Made Strong Impetus in Energy Efficiency in India
Global warming is one of the most critical issues and most widely discussed subject today. Though already a mandate exists to cut down carbon emissions, targets have been the biggest bone of contention among the developed and the developing economies. Recent Copenhagen Conference has witnessed the heated debates and targets have been revised based on the emissions produced by the countries. Energy management is being given much impetus as energy security becomes a challenge for the industry. One cannot runaway from the fact that all the nations have to move to low greenhouse gas emissions and energy development path...

Victrex Chalks Out Growth Strategy in India
India is huge territory both in area and volume wise, and covering the fairly large area is the biggest challenge that Victrex Plc, faces. "India is the opportunity land where many foreign Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) companies from automotive, energy, emerging markets, semiconductor, aerospace, medical industries are investing." says S T Namgoong , Marketing Manager, Victrex Asia Pacific...
- S T Namgoong , Marketing Manager, Victrex Asia Pacific

Green Tech Consultants Introduce Wonder Building Material
The construction industry's prayer for a wonder building material has just been heard. Extruded concrete is being touted as a hassle-free and perfect replacement to not just brick walls, but sound barriers, lintel, doors and windows as well... - Leslie Frank

Q & A

Flowtech Focus on Volume, as Expansion Takes Place
- K Kumar, President and Director, Endress+Hauser Flowtech (India) Pvt Ltd

INTERVIEW

Indian Stance An Interview with Jose Hernanz, MD Alfa Laval India
"In India, those who invest in cutting-edge technologies would grow at a faster pace." Jose Hernanz, the new Managing Director of Alfa Laval India remarked during his exclusive interview with Mittravinda Ranjan. Jose Hernanz arrives in India at the moment when Indian industry is carving out a cozy niche on Global Business map. Armed with a degree in Business Management and a graduate in Marine Engineering and Naval Architect, Jose is Alfa Laval's one of the most experienced Managing Directors who has held several top positions for nearly two decades in Portugal, Spain, South America (as regional manager) and most recently in Iberia. In a one on one interview he shares his views on how his 'cutting-edge technology strapline is no exaggeration for the growth dynamics of India's 'incredibly promising economy'...
- Jose Hernanz, Managing Director, Alfa Laval India

FEATURES

Preventing Corrosion in Tubes for Heat Exchanging Equipment
Process industries use boilers extensively for steam generation for basic operations like heating media, motive force for turbines or process stream etc. Steam accounts for 46 percent of total process energy consumption in the industries. Industries can improve the bottom line if they can generate steam at lower cost and conservation of all resources required to produce steam, which can be achieved by optimizing operations and taking adequate preventive maintenance initiatives...
- R P Sharma

Automated Marble Milling - Better Product Quality, Lower Energy Costs
Finer calcium carbonate products produced by milling white marble has an extensive demand in the paper, paint and plastics industries. These applications stipulate materials with strongly definite particle size and allotment while this parameter directly impacts performance. Accordingly automated marble milling supplies improved product quality in addition to lower energy costs...
- Alberto Ferrari and Alain Blasco

Achieving Cost Reductions in CVI Process
Demands in the processing industry to reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint are higher than ever before. The correct sizing and selection of vacuum systems can contribute significantly to optimizing throughput and efficiency, thus reducing energy consumption, capital and running costs and pollution. This article compares traditional steam ejectors with liquid ring pumps supported by mechanical boosters and 'dry' mechanical systems, as well as discusses how these alternative systems enable chemical plants to achieve higher efficiencies and save energy, looking at the Chemical Vapour Impregnation (CVI) process...
- Dr Don Collins and Vic Cheetham

Concepts of Sustainable Development and Carrying Capacity
The emergence of the concept of sustainable development in recent years has brought in the general realization that societal perceptions must shift towards ecological determination so as to achieve qualitative growth within the limits of eco-system carrying capacity. As most ecological problems are the cumulative result of environmental and social impacts of human activity in the region, the paper argues that Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) could form a major instrument for the assessment of developmental activities in the context of regional carrying capacity. It also delineates implementation measures for designing a viable role for EIA in sustainable development...
- Dr S N Kaul and Lidia Szpyrkowicz

Potential and Scope of Rice Husk Agribiomass
Problem to dispose rice husk waste is the main compulsion behind its vast chemical, economical, environmental and thermal studies. Main hurdles associated with the use of rice husk fuel are documented. Besides composition and pyrolysis behavior of rice husk, scope of rice husk is discussed. This includes the cheap production of valuable chemicals such as Si, SiC, and SiO2 etc., which are cost-cutting materials in cement, polymer, semiconductor chip, and steel industries...
- Sanjiv Arora and Mahender Kumar

MARKET INSIGHTS

Vivek Singh to Lead Ashland India
Ashland is one of the world's leading manufacturers of composite technologies for use in building and construction, transportation and marine and for energy generation. In addition, the company is active in India from a number of business perspectives and provides products along with services for variety of applications, such as water treatment, paper manufacturing, pharmaceutical and food ingredients and other industries...
- Vivek Kumar Singh

Overcoming the Challenge to Move from Batch to Continuous Centrifuges
Driven by the increasing domestic demand, Indian chemical manufacturers are in the expansion mode and increasing the capacities to bridge demand supply gap. Same is the case with pharmaceutical industry, which is exhibiting phenomenal growth in india. Currently in India many pharmaceutical manufacturers rely on batch processing for production ranging from 100kg/day to 10000kg/day. Batch processing has its limitations for higher volumes. It is getting critical for manufacturers to switch over to continuous processing to meet with the desired product quantities...

PM Apprises Against Distortion of Emission Reduction Goals
Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions is no doubt an important goal, but it must co-exist with other equally important goals, according to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh...

Shroff's Rubber-Lined Pump Cuts Costs
The industry's consistent drive towards cost savings, propelled by the rising price of steel, has opened a niche in the market for a Rubber-Lined hard iron pump. The Shroff Cast Iron Rubber Lined (CIRL) centrifugal pump, a product by Shroff Process Pumps (SPP), is finding its way into mines, dyes, chemicals and process industries, locally and internationally...

Q & A

Steam Energy Conservation can Reduce Energy Cost Notably
- Dr. Naushad Forbes, Director, Forbes Marshall