FEASILBLITY REPORT CONVERSION OF PAPL Facility to produce POLYOLS Petro Araldite Pvt. Ltd (PAPL) was set up in the year 1996 as joint venture between Ciba India Limited (part of the Swiss Ciba Geigy group ) and Tamil Nadu Petroproducts Limited (TPL) to manufacture basic resins for epoxy applications. The Ciba s Stake was passed into the hands of Vantigo in the year 2001. This was subsequently taken over by M/s Huntsman in the year 2005. The performance of the JV had been cyclical, but in the recent past PAPL was incurring losses due to changed market scenario. With the conditions deteriorating, PAPL closed down the Basic resin Manufacturing facility during 2013-14 and was operating only the formulations plant. This operation was also suspended and the facility was closed during 2014-15. TPL s joint venture agreement in respect of Petro Araldite has been terminated. Consequent to the sale of shares held by the company, surrender of sub-lease of the PAPL and transfer of its plant assets to TPL has been carried out. TPL has in principle decided to use the assets for manufacture of Petrochemicals. The market of Polyurethane in India is having a double digit growth. The PU market in India is about 5 lakh tons and the local capacity is less than 1 lakh tons. The rest of the market requirement is met through imports. Polyol is the key raw material for polyurethane. Hence it is proposed to modifying the existing facility at PAPL to manufacture various grades of Polyols. Details of the Project It is proposed to set up 1,50,000 MTPA Polyol plant at PAPL facility. The Technology for Polyol will be provided by TPL s sister concern M/s MANALI PETROCHEMICALS LIMITED (MPL), CHENNAI AVAILABLITY OF RAW MATERIAL The main raw material for manufacture of Polyol is Propylene Oxide and Ethylene Oxide Propylene Oxide TPL has got Environment Clearance from the MoEF to convert its existing ECH manufacturing facility to manufacture 45 MTPD of Propylene Oxide. This PO quantity will be used in the manufacture of Polyols in PAPL facility. PO requirement, over and above this quantity will be sourced from M/s MPL, which has got facility to import / store PO in bulk at M/s Ennore Tank Terminals Private Limited (ETTPL), Ennore Port, Chennai.
PROPYLENE OXIDE is the major raw material for manufacture of POLYOLS and there is sufficient quantity available from both indigenous and imported source. Ethylene Oxide ETHYLENE OXIDE IS other major raw material. Ethylene oxide requirement will be met from M/s Reliance. M/s Reliance is the sole manufacturer of Ethylene Oxide in India. Apart from the above, the other Raw materials required are glycerine, sorbitol, glycols, pyrophosphate. These materials will be sourced indigenously or imported based on requirement. Power The total power requirement is 8-10 MW. This will be met by TNEB power. For emergency power the supply will be from DG set, this will ensure safe start up and shut down of the plant. Water The Total water requirement for the main plant and utilities would be approximately 2000 m3/day. This will be met from Chennai Metro water. PROCESS DESCRIPTION The basic process is based on propoxylation / ethoxylation of chain starters viz glycerine, sorbitol etc in presence of alkaline catalyst to produce raw Polyol. The neutralization of the raw polyol is followed by filtration process to give the final product Polyol. The different sections of the plant are a. Initiator Preparation b. Reaction Unit c. Treater Unit d. Filtration unit e. Finishing unit Initiator Preparation Initiator is prepared in the Mix drum by adding the catalyst to a starter. Liquid starters are pumped from storage to the mix drums and solid starters are charged from the solid hoppers. The catalyst as per m requirement is added. The water is dehydrated from the starter / catalyst mix. The heat required to evaporate the water is supplied by internal coil / and or external steam jacket in the mix drum.
Reaction Unit The required quantity of mix drum material is transferred to the reactor, to begin the polymerization of the product. The Propylene Oxide / Ethylene oxide is initially added slowly to start the reaction. Then the feed rate is increased to the design value. The polymer reaction is highly exothermic and the heat of reaction is removed using a heat exchanger. The required quantity of Ethylene Oxide / Propylene Oxide is added, as per the recipe. After oxide feed step is completed, the excess oxide which accumulates during the feed step is allowed to react. This is called soak step. This completes the reaction step. Treater Unit Crude Polymer from the reactor is pumped from the reactor to the treater. Any monomer remaining in the Crude polymer is removed by applying vacuum. The catalyst is neutralized by adding a neutralizing agent. After addition of neutralizing agent, the system is agitated to keep the powder suspended in the polymer and to provide sufficient neutralization process. The catalyst reacts with the neutralsing agent and forms a complex. Filtration Unit The Catalyst/ Neutralizing agent complex is removed from the polymer by filtration. When the polymer from the filter is clear, as noted by visual inspection, the product is sent to the day tank. Finishing Unit The Polymer product from the treater is temporarily stored in day tank. Product quality checks are made on samples. If required for certain grades antioxidants are added to preserve the product. The product is transferred to storage tanks via product coolers. UTILITIES AND OFFSITES The existing utilities and offsite facility of PAPL will partly meet the requirement of proposed POLYOL facility and some of the utilities like steam and DM Water will be supplied from the adjacent ECH facility. RAW WATER SYSTEM Raw water is required for the following a. As a make up to circulating cooling waters b. Drinking water and sanitary purposes c. Service water for hose stations d. Fire water make up
The total requirement of water is approximately 2000 m3/day. Two raw water pumps are available and one more will be provided to supply the water to the various requirements mentioned above One raw water tank of 5285 m3 capacity is available. COOLING WATER SYSTEM The Polyol plant and the utilities require about 6000 m3/hr of cooling water circulation. 1500 m3/hr of cooling tower is currently available. The cooling tower capacity will be augmented STEAM SYSTEM The requirement of steam for the Polyol plant is about 10-12 T/hr. Steam of medium pressure and low pressure is required. This will be supplied from the adjacent ECH facility. There are 3 numbers of existing boilers at ECH facility, each of which produces 14 T/hr steam at 17 ksc (g). COMPRESSED AIR SYSTEM It is required to supply instrument air and plant air to different parts of the plant. The pressure of the compressed air main is 7 ksc (g). The existing instrument air compressor will supply the air to the proposed Polyol plant INERT GAS SYSTEM Inert gas is required for blanketing the tanks and vessels, flushing of instruments, process lines etc.. The total quantity of nitrogen required will be about 600 M3/hr. The existing Nitrogen plant capacity is sufficient EMERGENCY DIESEL GENERATOR SET For the safe shutdown of the plant and for certain critical services emergency power will be supplied through a diesel generator set. 2 numbers, each of 1250 KVA generator set are available.. OFFSITE STORAGE SYSTEM. Storage for the following raw materials are available a. Propylene Oxide - Two numbers of existing storage tanks of 346 m3 capacity available at ECH facility will be used. Two storage tanks each of 3000 m3 capacity will be newly provided b. Chain starters / Catalyst storage / the existing storage tanks will be used for this purpose. c. For storing the products, existing storage of one number of 1000 KL capacity and 2 numbers each of 500 kl capacity at ECH facility will be utilized. d). For storing, Ethylene Oxide - 5 new storage tanks, each of 70 m3 capacity will be installed
. FIRE WATER SYSTEM TWO fire water tanks of 590 m3 capacity each with a common sump of 80 m3 is available. Fire water Jockey pump 10 m3/hr, one Electrical driven FW pump of 273 m3/hr and 2 diesel driven FW engines of 273 m3/hr are available. EFFLUENT TREATMENT PLANT Normally the effluent generated is only from cooling tower blow down and plant washings. Cooling Tower Blowdown will be sent / recycled to ECH for consumption at ECH-Po Plant. Plant wash water will be treated separately to meet the TNPCB standards and pumped to ECH facility. From ECH facility it will pumped to the sea through the existing marine discharge effluent pipeline of M/s Manali Petrochemicals LImited PLANT LAYOUT. The Polyol plant will be built by modifying the existing resin plant and if required additional equipments will be added. MARKET POTENTIAL The polyols are broadly classified based on application as given below 1. Flexible Polyurethane foams 2. Rigid Polyurethane Foams 3. Semi-rigid Polyurethane foams 4. Miscellaneous applications FLEXIBLE FOAMS Flexible foams are largely used for various household applications such as furniture cushions, beds, mattresses etc. Also, in automobiles, seat cushions, arm rests coverings etc. are made using flexible foams. In certain cases these are used as packaging material for high value items. Some of the miscellaneous applications include foam laminations, toys, novelties etc. RIGID FOAMS The specific thermal insulation characteristics of rigid PU foams are far superior to that of all other types of insulation. The obvious advantage of polyurethane rigid foam is its now hazardous nature and lesser thickness required to achieve the same thermal efficiency as compared to other materials. Rigid Polyurethane foams are used as insulating materials in 1) Air Conditioning and Refrigeration industry ( insulation of domestic refrigerators, air conditioners, water
coolers, refrigerated vans etc) 2) Process Industries ( Insulation of process equipments, pipelines, storage tanks etc) and 3) Transportation Sector ( Insulation of rail coaches, bus coaches, air craft, ships etc.) SEMI RIGID PU FOAM Semi-rigid PU foams are used in the manufacture of steering wheels, scooters / motorcycles / bicycles / car seats, and arm rests, shoe soles etc. MISCELLANEOUS APPLICATIONS Polyol are also used in the manufacture of polyurethane elastomer, coatings, paints, adhesives / sealants, binders etc. MANPOWER The manpower required will be met by deputing personnel from TPL/MPL and also recruiting new personnel. FINANCIALS The PAPL plant cannot be directly used to manufacture POLYOL without certain process and engineering modifications. Hence it was decided to use certain equipment from the existing PAPL facility and add certain new equipments to create the Polyol manufacturing facility. The approximate capital expenditure will be Rs 100 crores This will yield a plant capacity of 1,50,000 MT of Polyols. The viability of this project is as given below The discounted cash flow model was made for a period of ten years starting 2016. The investment of INR 100 crore was considered in the period 2017-2019. The Cost of Production was taken as the average of the previous 5 years using the specifications achieved by M/s MANALI PETROCHEMICALS LIMITED, CHENNAI Financial Results Investment (INR Crore) 100 IRR 16% Payback 5 6 years CONCLUSIONS Based on the numbers and the current market scenario, it seems to be a good option to convert the PAPL facility into a POLYOL plant. Considering all the above points as well as the financial returns, it is proposed that TPL goes ahead with this project to create a solid foothold across the country.