CSIR-IICT Chief Scientist, Dr Benjaram Mahipal Reddy has been elected as Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) in recognition of his notable contributions to chemical engineering.
 Dr Reddy is with Inorganic and Physical Chemistry Division of Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad. He has more than two decades of research experience in the areas of catalysis, chemical engineering, nanomaterials and green technologies. He is a recipient of CSIR Young Scientist Award and Catalysis Society of India (CSI) Young Scientist Award in addition to several other awards. He has authored more than 180 research publications in peer-re viewed journals and has 8 patents to his credit.
Dr Reddy is one of the prominent article contributors to Chemical Industry Digest. Titles of his articles that received considerable readership attention are as follows: Increasing Applications of Microwave-Assisted Synthesis in Chemical Industry Digest (November 2010), Carbon Dioxide-Based Technologies: Converting Greenhouse Gas to Value-Added Products (July 2009) and Industrially Relevant Hydrogenation Catalysts (December 2008).
The INAE, founded in 1987, comprises India’s most distinguished engineers, engineer-scientists and technologists covering the entire spectrum of engineering disciplines. IICT is a flagship laboratory of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) which is the largest network of publicly funded research institute in India.
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Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Hydrocarbon’s mid & downstream business has bagged a Rs.700 crore project order from the Petroleum Development Oman LLC (PDO) to set up a green field project to treat an average of 3 mmscmd of gas. There is significant growth potential in the natural gas market in the GCC region.
The Lekhwair Gas Field development project would comprise of a single train gas plant in the Lekhwair gas plant for exporting treated gas (CO2 removed and dehydrated gas) to the Government Gas Plant in Yibal and unsterilized condensate and water to the existing Lekhwair Production Station.
The project includes main gas treatment plant consisting of gas desulfurisation and gas dehydration units with required utilities and supporting facilities as well as flow lines well pad piping, remote manifold station, liquid and gas export pipelines.
The scope of the contract includes project management, residual basic design, planning & monitoring, residual process engineering, detailed engineering, procurement, supply, fabrication, manufacturing, inspection, transportation, storage, construction, installation, testing, mechanical completion, pre-commissioning, commissioning, performance guarantee run test.
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Tata Chemicals (Soda Ash) Partners, Church & Dwight Co. and FMC Corporation have formed a partnership to manufacture and market sodium-based, dry sorbents for air pollution control in electric utility and industrial boiler operations.
The sorbents, primarily sodium bicarbonate and trona, are used by coal-fired utilities to remove harmful pollutants, such as acid gases, in flue-gas treatment processes. Market demand for these sorbents is estimated to be in the $200-$400 million range by 2015.
The new entity, Natronx Technologies will be headquartered in Princeton, N.J. and will produce, sell and distribute sorbents to users of dry sorbent injection (DSI) technology. DSI technology enables utilities to reduce the significant capital investment required by the new regulations by using this sodium-based media in the removal technique. Natronx intends to invest around $60 million to construct a 450,000 ton per year facility to produce trona sorbents by the fourth quarter of 2012. The investment will be shared equally by the partners.
TATA Chemicals (Soda Ash) Partners has a soda ash mining and processing facility in Green River, WY.
Church & Dwight Co. manufactures a wide range of personal care, household and specialty products. FMC Corporation is a diversified chemical company with businesses in agricultural products, specialty chemicals and industrial chemicals.
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Bharat Petroleum Corporation plans to increase its refining capacity to nearly 42 million tonnes by 2015-16 with focus on low-cost expansions as part of BPCL’s Rs.40,000-crore investment outlay over the next 5 years. The money will also be spent on areas like gas and petrochemicals with Rs.10,000 crore set aside for exploration & production.
 Kochi refinery’s capacity will increase to 15.5 mt from 9.5 mt during this period. The capacity of the recently commissioned Bina refinery, a joint venture with Oman Oil, will be increased to 9 mt as part of a ‘creeping expansion’ exercise using the existing infrastructure. The Mumbai refinery will see its 20 year-old crude distillation units replaced by a new one, increasing its capacity to 14 mt from 12 mt. The capacity of the Numaligarh refinery in Assam (3 mt) is expected to be doubled at a later stage depending on the availability of crude.
The second phase of the Bina refinery expansion to 15 million tonnes will start after 2015-16. The company will then consider expanding capacity of the new Allahabad refinery (whose capacity could be 9-12 mt) depending on growing demand for petro-products in the northern region. BPCL’s refining capacity would be a little over 60 million tonnes by 2020, if the projects finish on schedule.
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Uhde India has successfully commissioned Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers Co. (GNFC’s) 300 tpd nitric acid plant at Bharuch, Gujarat.
Uhde India implemented the nitric acid plant on LSTK basis and was responsible for the supply of process knowhow/ license, basic & detailed engineering, procurement and supply of equipment, civil works, erection & commissioning of the plant, including guarantee test runs. The plant uses the Uhde mono pressure process for the production of nitric acid.
GNFC will use the weak nitric acid generated from the plant at its concentrated nitric acid and TDI plants, in addition to marketing any surplus generated.
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Hindustan Petroleum Corporation plans to spend Rs.45,000 crore on capital expenditure over the next six years, according to a newspaper report. Of this, Rs.32,000 crore will be spent on expanding capacities and setting up new refineries, with the rest allotted for exploration and production, gas distribution, tankages, pipelines and retail infrastructure.
S. Roy Choudhury, Chairman and Managing Director said at a press meet that HPCL is targeting refining capacity of 42 million tonnes 2016-17, a near three-fold jump from the present level of 14.8 mt from the Mumbai and Vizag refineries.
 The Bhatinda refinery (9 mt), scheduled for commissioning in the next few months will provide additional capacity along with the capacity expansion of Vizag refinery to 15 mt. The Ratnagari refinery, expected to come up in 4-5 years, will add 9 mt. After 2017, HPCL would consider doubling capacity of the Bhatinda and Maharashtra refineries to 18 mt each, which will put total capacity at 60 mt by 2020.
HPCL also has a 17% stake in Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL), where Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is the majority shareholder with 71% equity.
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