Safety has to be the key parameter for any chemical company: S R Lohokare, National Peroxide

National Peroxide Ltd, a pioneer in India for peroxygen chemicals, is the country’s largest manufacturer of hydrogen peroxide. In conversation with Rakesh Rao, Suhas R Lohokare, Managing Director, National Peroxide Ltd, emphasises on initiatives taken by the company in health, safety and environment (HSE) arena.
 
Could please brief us about National Peroxide Ltd & its business?
National Peroxide, which was incorporated in 1954, has been one of the largest manufacturers of hydrogen peroxide in India. At the present, the fully integrated manufacturing site at Kalyan (Maharashtra) has capacity of 84,000 metric tonne per annum (MTPA) of hydrogen peroxide, which we intend to scale up to 95,000 MTPA in 2014. In addition to hydrogen peroxide, we also make sodium perborate and per acetic acid.
 
Is implementation of stringent environment regulations leading to increase in demand for hydrogen peroxide?
With green chemistry gaining traction in the industry, the demand for hydrogen peroxide is likely to go up since it is a green product, as it provides a very clean process without the production of any harmful or environmentally unsafe products. It can be used in environment applications where it is difficult to degrade the chemicals that contribute to chemical-oxygen demand. This is already happening in agrochemicals and specialty chemicals plants, which are using technologies (involving usage of hydrogen peroxide) to treat their effluent. And, we see demand for this application to grow over a period of time.
 
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What steps have National Peroxide Ltd taken in HSE?
Safety has to be the key parameter for any chemical manufacturing company. National Peroxide has in place robust HSE strategy and is certified with ISO 9001 (for quality), ISO-14001 (environment), OHSAS-18001 (health & safety) and ISO-50001 (energy) standards. National Peroxide has been awarded number of awards by National Safety Council which speak volumes about our efforts on the safety front.
 
In 2008, we replaced naphtha with natural gas, as feedstock, which enabled us to reduce our carbon footprint substantially. Similarly, we use natural gas as fuel in place of fuel oil (which used to result in emission of sulphur dioxide), thus completely eliminating SO2 emission.
 
Besides, we have set up a plant based on ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis for treatment of wastewater to recover water, which is then used in the cooling towers. Our aim is to further improve the wastewater treatment process and reuse the treated water back into our processes.
 
We have taken various measures to reduce waste and raw material consumption. As a result, indirect emission, power and fuel consumption have been reduced by 50% from what it was in 1995-96.
 
According to you, how important is the role of technology in improving the efficiency of the plant?
In India, many of the processing technologies used in chemical industry are licenced and not developed indigenously. However, we have taken a different route. National Peroxide expanded capacities in 2006 and 2011 using processes developed by our in-house experts, instead of licenced technology, and that too at reduced cost. Even, the planned 2014 expansion will be undertaken by the company on its own.
 
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Thus, technology is the key for reducing cost of production. If you do not have efficient technology, you cannot compete in the market.
 
What are your long and short-term growth plans for the company?
First, increasing the plant capacity to 95,000 tonne in 2014. Then, we plan to further raise it by another 30% over the next few years. Our core competency is in hydrogen peroxide and we will continue to develop it further.
 
(This was featured in Business Standard newspaper on October 30, 2013)