IICT bags CSIR Technology Award

Tarnaka: The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) received the CSIR Technology Award 2018 for Physical Sciences, including engineering, ‘technology transfer for commercial plants of para-tert-butyl toluene (PTBT) and para-tert-butyl benzoic acid (PTBBA)’.

The institute received the award on September 26, the CSIR Foundation Day, at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. It was presented by Dr Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Science & Technology, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ministry of Earth Sciences and Vice-President of CSIR, a press release from IICT said on Wednesday.

The institute has developed technologies for continuous production of PTBT and PTBBA and transferred the patented technologies to M/s Vinati Organics Ltd, Mumbai (VOL). PTBT is a specialty chemical that is not manufactured on a large scale by any Indian industry. PTBBA prepared by oxidation of PTBT is also a speciality chemical, which is used extensively in manufacture of sun screen lotions through its ester, and polymer industry, for production of anti-oxidants, rust inhibitors in resin coatings and lubricating oil. There is no dedicated capacity for production of PTBBA in the country. 

The release stated that the processes were developed at bench scale and the scale-up studies were carried out at pilot scale of 5kg/h for PTBT and 70 kg of PTBBA at IICT. The basic design reports for the two commercial plants were prepared by the institute and submitted to VOL, which has installed commercial plants of 4,000 TPA capacity of PTBT and 3,000 TPA PTBBA capacities at Lote Parshuram, near Mumbai. The production is underway.