CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) has bagged the TDB National Award for development of lab to commercial scale technologies for p-tert-Butyl Toluene (PTBT) and p-tert-Butyl Benzoic Acid (PTBBA) — used in pharmaceuticals and polymer industry.
Currently there are no manufacturing units for the two products in the country and CSIR-IICT has developed the process knowhow for PTBT and PTBBA at bench scale, scaled up the processes at pilot level and the basic design report for both technologies was submitted Vinati Organics Limited (VOL), Mumbai, for commercial plants of 4,000 TPA of PTBT in continuous mode and 3,000 TPA of PTBBA.
The developed processes for PTBT and PTBBA are an improvement over the existing processes. Indian demand for PTBBA is 2,000 MT/year for the personal care segment, and the estimated Indian market size is US$ 3 million. CSIR-IICT granted licenses for both technologies to VOL on an exclusive basis for a limited period of five years.
The firm represents the country’s independent speciality chemicals manufacturing capability globally and is the largest manufacturer of isobutylene with the import substitutes developed by CSIR-IICT being isobutylene based derivatives.
Chemical engineering department’s senior principal scientists - T. Prathap Kumar and B. Satyavathi, chief scientist Pravin Likhar, former director M. Lakshmi Kantam along with the mechanical engineering wing’s senior principal scientists - M. Ramulu and S. Anand Kumar, former chief scientist - instrumentation K. Ravindranath and principal technical officer K. Vijay Murty, were involved in the development of these technologies, said a press release on Monday.
