Ozone-Friendly Refrigerant Developed

The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) here has developed an eco-friendly substitute for the freon-12 gas used in air conditioners and refrigerators. The new chemical, HFC-134A, which will not destroy the earths ozone shield, will soon be ready for commercial production.

The freon-12 gas is blamed for breaking the ozone layer that protects against the suns harmful ultraviolet radiation.

Under the United Nations Climate Change Convention to which India is a party, all nations are expected to switch to ozone-friendly refrigerants by year 2005.

There are only five companies in the world that have the know-how to make the freon substitute. The technology can be purchased for $25 million. By developing it on its own, the institute will be saving the country a huge amount of foreign exchange.

IICT is one of the 40-odd institutes under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and is credited with having so far transferred 175 technologies to some 200 industrial units in chemical sector.

k V Raghavan, the institute director, said that the HFC-134A developed at the institute using an indigenous catalyst, will be ready for commercial manufacturing by the middle of 1998.

Raghavan said construction of a pilot plant to produce this chemical is in progress under a Rs 5 crore project jointly funded by CSIR, the department of science and technology, and two industry groups Sri Ram Fibres and Navin Chloride which will set up the commercial plants.

The institute has also taken a Rs 14 crore loan from the World Bank to launch and ambitious programme to design drugs using computers and for rapid screening of natural products, Raghavan said. The loan is being used to buy the latest equipment and strengthen the analytical facilities at the institute, he said. The World Bank loan is part of our plan to reorient our policies and business strategies to meet present and future challenges at global and national levels, Raghavan said.

The new facilities planned under the World Bank programme will be implemented by the end of December 1997.

Under the World Bank project, IICT expects to create a world-class facility for `combinatorial chemistry that would allow evaluation of as many as 10,000 compounds in a single day.

It is also setting up the countrys first `chemical repository for preserving all chemical compounds that scientists routinely make for possible future use. The repository will have a capacity for 50,000 chemicals.

IICT has also become the target of multinational companies for contract research with more than a dozen foreign delegations visiting the institute last year alone to sign contracts.

Raghavan said the institute has renewed its agreement with the National Cancer Institute in Washington on screening of new molecules for anti-cancer and anti-AIDS, and has extended its contract with DuPont for a period of two more years to develop new agricultural chemicals.

Early this year, IICT signed research contracts with two more US companies - Cytomed Corporaton and Searle R and D for synthesis of proprietary compounds. IICT is also negotiating with Dow Chemicals and the agricultural giants Monsa-nto and Cargill.

According to IICT scientists, contract research with foreign companies has not only brought foreign exchange but also exposed them to the latest technologies and clean production processes. Raghavan said the current agreements with foreign companies allow IICT joint ownership of any patents that might result.

Under the natural products research, indigenous medicines which are popular in the market, will be scientifically analysed by IICT and 18 other CSIR institutes to understand their chemistry, make them more potent and increase exports.