How Chemical Intermediates Drive Efficiency in Bulk Chemical Manufacturing
As History accumulates, so does the learning and along with it the associated science and art, which starts determining the present and future of any activity including chemical manufacturing.
In the initial days when science and art started getting documented, mostly everything was tantamount to philosophy. Documented and declared pieces of information and facts constitute the journey traversed by any community in general and the Chemical manufacturing, in particular. The legend and the folklore associated with them notwithstanding. The art component also gets integrated within the realm of manufacturing activities. As the science behind the art and the art behind the science start piling and compiling, a systematic comprehendible, predictable and formulated activity ushers in heralding a new era of enterprising manufacturing activity.
Chemicals and their manufacturing is one of the mainstay activity of several countries including India. India has emerged as a major chemical manufacturing hub and is valued at around 300 billion USD.
The Indian chemical industry was valued at 220 billion USD 1,2 in the year 2023 and is expected to reach about 450 Billion USD by 2030. As we parametrize with defined yard sticks, comparisons with other manufacturing activities and also with other members of the chemical community seems inevitable. The attention attracted is worth its salt as it is an industry big in size and growing at an enormous rate.
The crop protection chemical manufacturing sector constitutes a significant portion of the total global chemical manufacturing enterprise. The Indian companies have also made a mark as one of the largest producers of crop protection chemicals.
Almost 60 % of Gharda Chemicals Ltd. (GCL) is comprised of agrochemicals 3. GCL has made its presence felt globally by exquisite contributions to chemical manufacturing hallmarked by process innovativeness and scientific resourcefulness both unprecedented and unparalleled in the chemical patent literature and backed up by unique manufacturing propositions.
Every finished formulation for crop protection is a destination and the chemical intermediates along the supply chain pathway constitute the journey. It is no wonder that the pioneering giant manufacturing companies have a vast intermediate chemical portfolio. GCL too has a very significant intermediate chemical portfolio.
The chemical intermediates is a large family and ranges from alkalis, bases, acids, solvents, phenols, amines, alkyl carbonates and ammonia, amines to name a few. And several that form on the way to a finished active ingredient which qualifies as a crop protection chemical. They are the smaller building blocks which connect together and make the required finished product. The de novo design is an essential criteria for driving the efficiency in chemical manufacturing. It is a very large portfolio and is spread among industries all over India and the world. The ease of preparation, handling, storage and their purifications, re use and recovery determine the destiny of a product.
There are two distinct patters that the industry seems to be following. Some of them specialise in technology platforms and building the product trees around them, the rest follow the mix and match approach. In the second approach mostly the technologies vary from one another and are exclusive to making a product or family of products. Examples for technology platforms are like the CMAC intermediate pioneered by GCL, which leads to a series of pyrethroids which vary from each other by a functional group or a stereo chemical identity.
Some other examples for platform technologies include phosgene based intermediates of a few Indian companies and Thiophosgene technology of GCL, glycerol derivatives of an MNC, amino acid platform of an MNC and so on.
GCL boasts of specialising in all the categories of crop protection chemicals namely, Fungicide, herbicides, insecticides and plant growth regulators.
Hexaconazole, a fungicide has chemical intermediates such as the substituted olefin, triazole, epoxide and a chloro substituted aromatic ring. Propioconazole is another one from the same family and has several intermediates such as 2, 4-dichloroacetophenone, 1, 2-pentane diol, an aliphatic bromide and a triazole ring.
Gharda Chemicals manufactures about 8 herbicides and involves many intermediates such as 2, 5-Dichloro-aniline, 2,5-Dichloro-phenol, tetra substituted benzoic acid, tri-substituted benzoyl chloride, Cyclohexane 1.2-dione, Acrylonitrile, Butanol, 3,4-Dichloro-aniline, Thiocyanates, Dimethyl amine, phosphorous pentasulphide, p-chloro-aniline, chloroacetyl chloride, 4-amino-isopropylbenzene, 1,3-Imidazoles, trisubstituted pyridine, phenol, substituted phenols, Diethyl-thiophosphoryl chloride, Trimethyl amine, 1,2-diamino benzene,.
The largest portfolio of insecticide manufactured by Gharda involves intermediated such as 2, 3, 5-trichloro-pyridin-6-ol, 2-amino-pyrazole, 5-chloro-indanone, 1, 2-pyrazole derivative, Anthranalic acid derivative, meta-phenoxy-benzaldehyde, cypermethric acid and its isomers, glycerol derivatives, 4, 4-Thiodiphenol, 2, 6-Difluoro-benzoic acid, and P-Chloro-aniline.
The plant growth hormone Mapiquat has a piperidine intermediate,
A large chunk of chemical intermediates are supplied by the petrochemical industry and drive most of the chemical processes in the chemical industry. Ketones, phenols and derivatives, alcohols are some of the major chemical intermediates sourced from the petrochemical industry.
The tailored production pathway which starts from conceptualization and ends with the packing of the manufactured product bound towards the customers place. Along the way, we encounter raw materials, quality of raw materials, efficient consumption, re use and recovery of side products, excess raw materials and solvents including water, energy needs in terms of heat, steam, hot oil, electricity,
Judicious use of raw materials (material efficiency), in other words the stoichiometric usage, complete conversions (yield and waste), avoiding side products by performing efficient chemistry, consume energy as per requirement by preventing heat loss, collecting the condensates, re use and recovery of excess solvents, reducing the batch times (Time efficiency) creating the synergy between side products to serve as a raw material for another product, all these are the drivers.
The OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) @ 85 % is rated as world class performance, and a similar asset utilization rate as the energy demand increases to fulfil increased productivity which is influenced by technology impact as well.
Scalability is best supported by increasing the production capacity within the existing infrastructure and resources. GCL stands out for its achievements in scalability with products being manufactured from 100 MT to 1000 MT per month. The technical leaders of the company have guided this through their visionary leadership. Process standardizations, smart design approaches, strategic automation and essential digitalization, all have contributed to the scalability.
As the paradigms shift towards efficient approaches, sustainability has become a mandatory requirement and no longer an additional initiative on part of the companies.
Sustainability would require, smart strategies and strategic alliances which would combine need based expertise, decades of experience, performance history, advancing the manufacturing portfolio, combination of technologies and Green chemistry.
Green chemistry involves reduction of hazardous substances, catalysis in preference to stoichiometric reactions. Using safer substances, prioritization of renewable feed stocks, minimum energy consumptions, enzymatic reactions, waste reduction, biodegradable products, minimizing accidents and prevention of waste, and nanotechnology based products.
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