Colorants industry must support technology upgradation efforts aiming for sustainable growth
The colorants industry – spanning dyes, pigments and their intermediates – is an important segment of the Indian chemical industry. It is largely comprised of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and supports important industrial sectors, including textiles, leather, paper, and plastics, to name a few. Like only a few other sub-sectors of the Indian chemical industry, the colorants industry is a net foreign exchange earner, and has consistently been so for more than a decade.
But in recent years the industry has clearly lost some of its sheen, and much of this has to do with its structure and inability to modernise, innovate and improve processes so as to better the quality of products, and importantly, its environmental compliance. While it is unfair to tar the whole industry for the awful actions of some, it is a fact that the industry has for long been in the crosshairs of regulators – particularly in Gujarat.
The industry is also stuck in a commodity groove out of which only a few have been able to come out. There are simply too many units making ‘me-too’ products and they compete in local and international markets with price as the sole differentiator.
It is the nature of the colorants industry that it handles several chemical processes such as nitration, reduction, sulphonation, neutralisation,
diazotisation, etc., many of have a high and recalcitrant waste burden.
It is therefore refreshing to learn that the CSIR- National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), in Pune, is planning to set up a Common Research &
Technology Develop Hub (CRTDH), with part funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology, and a strong emphasis on technology upgradation of the colorants industry. The CRTDH aims to address some of the common operational problems faced by the colorants industry – energy consumption,
chemical footprint, solvent choices, effluent load, etc. The solutions are expected to be free of intellectual property (IP) restrictions and expected to be widely available for the industry.
While the hub has been conceived with public funding, it will probably need to be supplemented with assistance from industries. Given the shared nature of the problems and the benefits that can accrue to many, it will be in the interest of the colorants industry and its industry associations to partner this initiative.
#dyes #pigments #indianchemicals #dyeing #plastic #paints #paperindustry #wastemanagement #effluenttreatment #cpcb #nitiaayog #textiles #csir #ncl #dst
Head of Scale-up at Epoch BioDesign Ltd
3moWelcome Chandula Walgama to Epoch Biodesign