Hyderabad-based IICT develops technology for Rs 405 crore Gujarat plant

IICT have made major contributions in the development of Rs 405 crore Hydrazine Hydrate (HH) plant of Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd (GACL), Gujarat

Hyderabad: The researchers from city-based Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) have made major contributions in the development of Rs 405 crore Hydrazine Hydrate (HH) plant of Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd (GACL), Gujarat, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on October 10.

The premier chemical laboratory of CSIR from Hyderabad has developed the technology for production of 10,000 tonnes per year HH (Hydrazine Hydrate), fine-tuned and validated the technology at a pilot plant installed at GACL in Dahej, Gujarat.

The joint efforts by IICT and GACL, as part of Aatmanirbhar Bharat would cut-down the import Hydrazine Hydrate, which is a super-specialty chemical, by 60 per cent in India, IICT researchers on Thursday said.

Scientists and engineers of IICT and GACL collaborated for over a decade to develop the process from laboratory scale to pilot scale, and then to a commercial scale. The scale up ratio from pilot scale to commercial scale was upto 100 times. Joint patents, an Indian Patent and US patent have been awarded to GACL and IICT for this invention.

A unique feature of the plant is the partnership of an Indian Industry and a national CSIR laboratory, which saved the industry from incurring expenditure on technology license, while IICT will get the royalty on sales to aid its R&D programmes.

The project was initiated under the then Director of IICT, Dr JS Yadav and was consequently followed by former Directors Dr M. Lakshmi Kantham, Dr Srivari Chandrashekar and the present Director, Dr D Srinivasa Reddy. “This partnership is a landmark achievement towards Atmanirbhar Bharat, and also a display of the R&D capability of Indian scientists” Dr Srinivasa Reddy said.