Grasim completes trial run of caustic soda unit

The chemicals division of Aditya Birla group company Grasim Industries Ltd has completed the trial run of its new caustic soda unit, which will come up this year in Nagda (near Ujjain).

The company has invested Rs 95 crore in this unit, which has adopted the new membrane cell technology, mandatory for Indian caustic soda units by 2012.

A government source said, "The unit will start production this year." The unit is probably the first in India to adopt the technology, which will eliminate the use of waste like mercury.

Among 45 units manufacturing caustic soda in MP, the Grasim unit is one of the two with an installed capacity of 3.5 million tonnes per annum. The state produces more than 200,000 tonnes of caustic soda.

To offer relief to the caustic soda units, the MP government has reduced electricity duty from 8 per cent to 4 per cent. Power is a major factor for caustic soda manufacturing units. At present, the company uses mercury cell technology to manufacture caustic soda.

The major environmental problem with mercury cell technology is that when mercury gets entrapped into the circulating brine solution including by-product streams, it leads to contamination of water, wastewater, air and solid wastes generated.

Moreover, since the quantity of mercury involved in the production is very large, mercury gets leaked and evaporated and this requires proper and timely attention. Comparatively, membrane cell technology does not pose risks to the environment.

"The company will produce 144,000 tonnes of caustic soda per year (it produces 60,000 tonnes now) with the installation of the new plant," said a government source. The installed capacity of the Grasim Chemicals Division is 440 tonnes per day for 46-48.5 per cent Lye and 50 tonnes per day for 99.8 per cent flakes.

Although company officials were not available for comment, an industry source told Business Standard, "The new unit will create 319 jobs. The unit caters to the in-house needs of its staple fibre division at Nagda."

Caustic soda has wide applications in refineries, oil production, alumina, rayon and cellphones, sops and detergents, pulp and paper, and metal cleaning.