VOLUME I - ISSUE VIII

AUGUST - 2020

This issue covers

Grasim’s Chemicals business
Aditya Birla Chemicals is a leading manufacturer of
bulk and specialty chemicals and viscose filament
yarn. The business is spread across multiple
manufacturing locations in four countries – India,
Thailand, Germany, and China.
The business is creating a strong footprint in the
chemicals industry – it is a market leader in the
chlor-alkali segment in India; enjoys number one
position in viscose filament yarn and is the third-
largest manufacturer in sulphites globally.
By using advanced technology and ensuring
stringent quality control, the Chemicals business
produces a wide range of products, including chlor-
alkali, chlorine derivatives, and epoxy resins. These
products are used in a wide range of industries that
include metal treatment, textiles, water treatment,
pulp and paper, paint and coatings, civil engineering,
food and food processing, personal care products,
wind energy, composites, electrical industry, and
detergents. Thereby touching people’s lives through
product applications across various walks of life.

Highly confidential

1. Overview of the Business and Technology 02

content
2. Patent Portfolio 06
3. Leadership talk 07
4. Achievements 08
5. Food for Thought 10
© ABMCPL, 2020. All Rights Reserved Restricted Circulation
 Overview of the Business
and Technology

The Chemicals business has 16 manufacturing Overview of ABG Chlor-Alkali SBU

sites – nine in India, five in Thailand, one in
Germany, and one in China. These operations The Chlor-Alkali SBU in the Aditya Birla
are handled through: Group took shape in 2007-08 by combining
• In India – Grasim Industries and TANFAC; 3 separate units under different Group
• In Thailand – Aditya Birla Chemicals(Thailand) companies. Moreover, the SBU also acquired 3
and Thai Peroxide Company caustic units at Renukoot, Karwar and Ganjam
• In Germany – Aditya Birla Chemicals between 2011-2015, and also set up a
(Europe) Gmbh. greenfield caustic unit at Vilayat in FY14. Thus,
• In China – Aditya Birla Grasun Chemicals between FY05-FY16, the SBU had doubled its
(Fangchenggang) capacity share from 13.6% to 26.6%, driven by
organic and inorganic growth initiatives.
Their product portfolio includes:
• Chlor-alkali Caustic Soda and Chlorine are the basic building
• Sulphites blocks for quite a few downstream industries.
• Chlorine derivatives Caustic soda is used by players manufacturing
• Peroxides Aluminium, Viscose Staple Fibre, Pulp and
• Epoxy resins Paper, Soaps and Detergents, etc. Chlorine
• Fluorine chemicals is consumed directly for water treatment
• Phosphates and phosphoric acid (municipal, industrial) and in manufacturing
• Viscose filament yarn Chlorine derivatives.

Brief Timeline:

© ABMCPL, 2020. All Rights Reserved Restricted Circulation

2
 Overview of the Business
and Technology

Their product basket can be categorised as below, which has a detailed value chain:

Both Caustic Soda and Value Added Products Approach 1: Improving existing products/
(VAPs) have markets within as well as outside process for higher realisation
India. Products are distributed directly to the
end customer as well as through a network of SAB 18+:
distributors, dealers, commission agents and
sales representatives, within and outside India. Normal SAB18 Poly aluminium chloride (PAC)
liquid has a shelf life of 15-30 days, and
Product differentiation through application- settling of aluminium species is observed with
based approach for VAP yielded results in new time. Similarly, the powder made from this
products for refinery wastewater treatment, liquid also has deterioration nature of polymer
demulsification of resinous wastewater, with time. This nature of PAC product has
handling of dispersed and reactive dye residue, attracted a lot of customer complaints and has
processing of ceramic ingredients, etc. These a restriction for supplying SAB18 liquid where
products have been commercialised under the storage/ transportation time is higher.
brand name Vytal. There is a pipeline of at least
5 more products with initial success, which will A stabiliser was developed to ensure solubility
be commercialised shortly, converting RandD of the polymer in solution for a prolonged
efforts into solutions. time, which resulted in an extended shelf-life
of 4-6 months against earlier 15-30 days for
New product development and SAB18 liquid, and a patent has been filed for
improvement: the process. It enabled the business to develop
the overseas market and has a monopoly in the
New product development and improvement domestic market as a differentiated product,
in the existing product portfolio have been a which has also resulted in the development
great success in the water sector. Few of the of new applications with considerable higher
examples are as follows: product realisation.

© ABMCPL, 2020. All Rights Reserved Restricted Circulation

3
 Overview of the Business
and Technology

New High Basicity PAC: 10 ppm at negligible cost and technology

and has been disbursed to other plants of the
Manufacturing of high-basicity Poly aluminium chemical business. This has supported the CP
chloride required dilution of SAB18 PAC plant for continuous operation while providing
liquid to a great extent before reaction with value addition to byproduct.
alkaline aluminate. This dilution resulted in
50% capacity of PAC powder. The handling of Approach 2: Customised solutions to resolve
alkaline alumina also results in material losses customer pain points
as well as poor quality of PAC product due to
high turbidity in the final liquid product. The methodology to identify new product
applications was mainly driven by the out-in
A new high-solid recipe was developed without approach, where the voice of the customer was
using alkaline alumina, resulting in crystal clear considered as input excluding a few products/
liquid product and an 80% increase in the applications. The following key industrial
productivity of the powdered product. New sectors were identified based on customer
product has excellent performance efficacy requests and the market potential was studied
against existing conventional coagulants. The for specialty solutions. These developed
overseas market requirement is being met at solutions have market differentiation and
good realisation. excellent realisation.

Super coagulant: Oil Refinery:

Differentiation in water treatment portfolio During the refining of crude or edible oil, a lot
was required to capture the marketplace. of emulsified oil is carried over to the ETP,
New chemistry was identified and initially, which is difficult to remove and leads to the
the process was developed in-house. High- poor performance of Biological Treatment. The
alumina, high-basicity product manufactured industry is not able to run secondary treatment
by Grasim in India with a present manufacturing and subsequently difficult to meet end-use
capacity of 5000 MT per annum, having quality/discharge norms.
high potential for speciality solution in both
domestic and export markets. It has supported VYTAL 2810, a de-emulsification cum
the business to launch performance chemicals coagulating agent was developed for the
for both water and wastewater segments with removal of emulsified oil in wastewater, leading
considerably high realisation. to a removal of nearly 98% of emulsified oil.
This is a robust solution to treat wastewater
Process for removal of TOC from HCl: from mineral/vegetable oil source, containing
few ppm to % level of oil, and performing even
One MT of chlorinated paraffin product at 70- 90°C where most other commercial
consumes ~1.2 MT of chlorine and results in products get decomposed. The product has
~1.6 MT of high-strength, yellow organic-rich been commercialised in both oil exploration
hydrochloric acid. Degraded paraffin and low- and refinery oil industries and is performing
volatile organics present in paraffin are also well to meet customer expectations with great
solubilised in water during scrubbing of HCl realisation and EBITDA.
vapours. This organic-rich HCl having yellow
appearance has a higher negative price of Textile Industry:
selling compared to virgin HCl. It was difficult
to dispose of this HCl and it was hampering Dispersed dyes and pigments used in dope
the production capacity of the CP plant. dyeing of manmade fibres, lead to generation
of coloured effluent, which is difficult to treat.
Inhouse development of simple processes The industry is facing this problem from
resulted in a reduction of TOC content below past several decades. Treated wastewater

© ABMCPL, 2020. All Rights Reserved Restricted Circulation

4
 Overview of the Business
and Technology

containing colour has issues for surface water final stage, where cost of the treatment will be
discharge and even for reuse in other process recovered out of loss of material and cost of
applications. ETP operation.

VYTAL 641, a formulated product, was Resin Industry:

developed to address this issue and was able
to remove >98% colour and ~70% of COD load Wastewater from the resin industry contains
from the dye concentrated stream. The product sticky and hard-to-biodegrade organic
has been commercialised and has resolved the material. This sticky material also has issue
decade-old problem for handling wastewater in the process of wastewater treatment.
containing colour. Demulsification and removal of the same
remain a huge issue.
Similarly, VYTAL 630 has been recently
commercialised for reactive dyes and is able to High performance coagulant VYTAL 3310, was
resolve the customer issue of reducing colour introduced to tackle this problem in the resin
while adding negligible TDS and generating industry. There was almost 99% removal of
low sludge against conventional chemicals. turbidity with reduction in sticky material. The
solution provided is already commercialised
Ceramic Mineral Processing: and industry is able to produce almost clear
treated wastewater.
During the processing of feldspar for ceramic
industry, inconsistent and poor settling of fine High-performance coagulant for
feldspar particles leads to product loss and industrial wastewater:
increases load on ETP. Increasing the dose of
traditionally used flocculants badly affects the Differentiation of existing coagulants with
optical properties of processes feldspar. better efficacy was achieved by introducing
high-performance coagulant VYTAL 2803. This
VYTAL 612 was specially developed for quick variant has an excellent affinity towards natural
settling of fine feldspar particles, leading to organic impurities and is performing well for
higher productivity with no adverse effect on issues like problem of high-colour effluent,
optical properties. poor removal of TOC/TSS/COD etc. in the
industrial wastewater. The solution provided
Product has successfully been evaluated at is already commercialised, and industry can
5-6 feldspar processing unit and plant scale produce almost clear treated wastewater.
too. Commercialisation of the product is at the

© ABMCPL, 2020. All Rights Reserved © ABMCPL. All Rights Reserved

Restricted Circulation
5
 Patent Portfolio

The Chemicals business has accelerated R&D the areas of water treatment, raw material
efforts at its Aditya Birla Water Application and and process improvement. The Business has
Product Development Centre. The busines has partnered with reputed institutions viz. Institute
focused on customer-driven R&D, resulting in of Chemical Technology, Mumbai; Malaviya
providing solutions and solving problems at the National Institute of Technology, Jaipur; Central
customer end. The R&D team has also shown Institute for Brackish Water Aquaculture,
improvement in existing processes in terms of Chennai, National Environmental Engineering
efficiency and quality. Research Institute, Nagpur, Central Leather
Research Institute, Chennai, Vasantdada Sugar
The Business has also filed a few patents in Institute, Pune etc. on various projects.

Nature of the technologies secured

Title Executive Summary
A process for preparing a stable The aim of this invention is to develop a blend that slowly
blend for slow release of insoluble releases soluble phosphate when contacted with soil. It not
phosphate to soluble phosphate only has a higher shelf life but is also developed in a cost-
effective manner.
A method of preparing stable Poly Poly aluminium chloride (PAC) is manufactured in both
aluminium chloride (PAC) liquid liquid and powder forms. PAC is widely used as a coagulant/
and improving the stability of PAC flocculant in water purification, in treatment of drinking/
powder. potable water, and in wastewater treatment. Through this
invention, stability of PAC (liquid and powder) were increased
by delaying the settling of the white jelly-like material in PAC.
A process for preparing food- This invention provides a novel process for preparing food-
grade mono-calcium phosphate, grade phosphate suitable for human consumption. The
di-calcium phosphate and tri- process involves calcination step at a low-temperature unlike
calcium phosphate. suggested in other literature, which makes it an energy-
saving process.
A process for treating alkaline This invention provides a process for treating alkaline Red
bauxite residue obtained during Mud before sending it for disposal or landfill. Here, the red
Bayer process. mud is neutralised without using a large quantity of alkali.
Moreover, the water used in the process is recirculated
thereby making the process efficient.
A process for extraction of It provides a process for extraction of phosphoric acid from
phosphoric acid from rock rock phosphate, showing increased efficiency of extraction
phosphate. by reducing the number of extraction cycles. This process
involves using a novel organic solvent, which improves the
extraction efficiency of phosphoric acid by utilising fewer
contact cycles.
A process for increasing the This provides a process whereby metal impurities are
efficiency of phosphoric acid removed up to 95% before extraction of phosphoric acid
extraction. thereby increasing the extraction efficiency of the overall
process.
Disinfectant and cleaning material This latest invention provides a disinfectant composition
composition and preparation having a combined property of disinfectant and cleaner in
Thereof solid granular/ powder formulation.

© ABMCPL, 2020. All Rights Reserved Restricted Circulation

6
 Leadership Talk

for different organisations in the same industry.

These are very testing times. We have increased
communication to align and focus across the
teams. We have more frequent and transparent
communication with all stake holders in order to
understand and respond in best possible way to
changing situations. Most importantly, adhering
to our values in this testing time is what we have
been doing.
What is the next disruptive technology
that you think will hit the market?
“Disruptive” and “Revolutionary” to me are
exaggeration of expression to underline the
importance of certain factors. But to me, it is
What changes would you recommend always continuous evolution and their impact are
for advancement of technology and felt once it has crossed critical threshold. Just
intellectual property in ABG? to clarify, “internet” concept was developed in
1970s and it took decades and millions of other
We need to build capabilities in this vital area. The parallel developments to make it more relevant
growth of a business, society and nation is directly and impactful, be it new materials, new chips, new
linked to the adoption, creation and safeguarding languages of coding, new concepts of designs
of technology. We have made significant progress etc. This is true for discovery of laser and then
in this field, but we still have a long way to go its evolution to create most destructive weapon
where we can compare ourselves with our leading to most precise tool for therapy and complicated
peers in respective industries and businesses. It operation of human bodies and likewise for every
would be a competitive advantage if we leverage development.
the human capital which is available in plenty
with us. Technology is expanding both vertically and
horizontally and it is getting multidisciplinary and
What is your vision for CFI business and more complex as well. This is where collaborations
where do you see the technology growth of individuals and teams to bring multidisciplinary
of the business in 10 years? skills in solving new problems and creating new
solutions becomes extremely critical.
CFI is like a mini ABG in terms of diversity. This is
an aggregation of various businesses which are It is very difficult to say what will be next disruption
very different from each other. I would imagine but if we see through the human desire and
that in 10 years, all the businesses would have not market forces then the scientific community will
only developed internal capabilities and caught try to respond to “How do we stretch healthy life
up with global competition but also have taken span?” or “How do we multiply capabilities?” or
technological leads globally, at least in one of the “How do we make planet more sustainable?”. The
areas chosen by them. I would also imagine that answer to these questions will come from various
if we can leverage this dissimilarity and create sides and many in numbers. For example, the
something combing two or more businesses, first question will be answered through editing
then it can be unique to CFI and ABG. of DNA or new interventions through additional
medicines or implants or a combination of them
How do you deal with the unexpected and is difficult to predict.
how do you plan to take the CFI business
through this pandemic? More relevant to our context is new materials
which exhibit combined performance of organic
These are unprecedented times. All businesses and inorganic materials such as micro reactors
are impacted – some favorably but most of them for large-scale manufacturing, making operations
unfavorably. Even though the businesses which more agile and safer, and biosynthesis of various
have experienced favorable demands were not products may become more popular in coming
necessarily designed for it, they have been more decades which may reduce effluents, energy
successful relative to others due to their internal requirements substantially.
capabilities to respond to the situation. Likewise, - Mr. Pradeep K Dubey
the severity of negative impact has been different CTO, Grasim (CFI Sector)

© ABMCPL, 2020. All Rights Reserved Restricted Circulation

7
 Achievements

Implementation of Central Control processes to capture and use supply chain data
Tower: Live tracking of logistics to provide enhanced visibility for short- and
long-term decision making that is aligned with
Supply Chain Visibility is the key enabler strategic objectives. All the vehicle movement
for managing a business both within the can be controlled from a central location with
organizational boundaries as well as across accurate and real-time data for improving
the boundaries. This visibility provides speed, the en-route and plant safety in logistics
reliability and flexibility in order to gain a by advance technology. Control Tower is an
competitive advantage in the form of well ultimate source of all SCM/Logistics solutions.
controlled and managed supply chain functions. It offers centralised control and visibility of
In response to the need for Supply Chain the end-to-end supply chain. It facilitates
Visibility, the leading Supply Chain Visibility management and handling of supply chain
principles are increasingly being embodied in shocks and shifts real-time. From a business
Supply Chain Control Towers. perspective, it provides visibility of the impact
across the end-to-end chain, which is crucial
A supply chain control tower is a central hub for launching corrective actions.
with the required technology, organization and

Following are the key focus areas planned to be addressed through this initiative:

Nature of the technologies secured

Title Safety Cost and Service Level
In-Plant • Driving speed within plant • In-plant turn-around time (TAT)
• Excessive time spent within plant monitoring
• Parking/access in undesignated areas • De-bottlenecking of processes to
reduce Gate-in Gate-out time (GIGO)

En-route • Speed violation, harsh driving • Excess idling

• Deviation from determined route • Deviation from route
• Night driving • Missing geographic milestones
• Stoppage at undesignated areas

At • Halting of hazardous consignments • Monitoring of detention

Customer inside/outside customer location for • Control over malpractices around
long periods ‘ship-to-location’ to gain price
advantage

Outcome: The Business has taken this new COVID-19 Response:

initiative for better control of vehicle movement
and logistic activities. So far, 800 GPS devices I. Disinfection and Sanitisation:
have been installed across the plants and all
vehicles are tracked by the Control Tower. • Donated 80+ MT of bleaching power and
Now, all violation is captured and immediate 6+ MT of Sodium Hypochlorite to nearby
action is taken accordingly. It will result in districts and state of Odisha for sanitisation
better negotiations with transporters based of public places.
on the data captured for trips. Moreover, it will
reduce the cost of customer detention as the • Fogging and Sanitisation in plant, colony
actual time halt time can be calculated at the and local communities in Ganjam and other
customer location. districts of Odisha.

© ABMCPL, 2020. All Rights Reserved Restricted Circulation

8
 Achievements

• Disinfecting areas of Bharuch City with • Awareness campaigns conducted through

disinfecting material (Sodium Hypochlorite) leaflets distribution, posters in 11 nearby
through the use of our emergency vehicle. villages around Vilayat, Gujarat.

• Weekly sanitisation of 13 nearby villages V. Medical Facilities:

around BB Puram with HSB Solution.
• As per the instructions of Govt. administration,
II. Distribution of face masks prepared developed 10-bedded isolation/quarantine
by Self Help Groups (SHGs): centre at our Agriculture training centre in
Ganjam, Odisha
• Distributed 75,000+ masks to the nearby
villagers and government personnel like • Essentials Kit distributed to 125 young
police, health practitioners, drivers, etc. in vernacular freelance journalists around 4
Rehla, Vilayat, and Ganjam districts. nearby mandals of BB Puram, AP

III. Providing food and groceries to Awards and Accolades:

people in need:
2019
• Distributed raw food packages (each
containing 5 kg rice, 2 kg flour, 2 kg potato, • First Prize in the Chemical Sector in National
1 kg pulses, 1 Lit. mustard oil, 1 kg salt and Energy Conservation Award (by Bureau of
1 shop) to 100+ people in nearby villages Energy Efficiency, Government of India)
around Rehla, Gujarat.
2018
• Ration distribution to the people in need
around the plant premises, Vilayat and • National award for excellence in water
Ganjam management

• Distributed dry Ration kits to Migrant Labour, • IMC Ramkrishna Bajaj National Quality
Office of DC- Bharuch and DY Director Award
Factories
2017
IV. Awareness Campaign:
• Chairman’s WCM and Business Excellence
• Displayed leaflets, posters in various public Awards
places to raise awareness on COVID-19.

© ABMCPL, 2020. All Rights Reserved © ABMCPL. All Rights Reserved

Restricted Circulation
9
 Food for Thought

How COVID-19 is Changing IP Law - What You Need to Know

The rapid spread of COVID-19 brought about More proactively, the Korean Intellectual
massive global events that led to a dizzying Property Office has launched multiple initiatives
array of changes—including in intellectual to encourage innovative responses to the
property law around the world, shaking up pandemic, including a fast-track examination
administrative procedures, court rules, and law for related technologies. Brazil implemented
firm best practices. similar measures on April 7.

On March 23, the Supreme Court of India took Australian patent office will allow patentees and
suo motu cognizance of challenges faced by owners to request an extension of the deadline
the country due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) if the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their
pandemic, including the difficulties that legal ability to respond by a deadline.
practitioners and litigants may face. To obviate
such difficulties and also limit physical presence, There has been no uniform response to the
the Supreme Court invoked its plenary powers pandemic by courts to date, and different
under Article 142 of the Constitution to extend jurisdictions have widely varying and quickly
the period of limitation in all proceedings with changing procedures. One issue of ongoing
effect from March 15 till further orders. The concern is whether various companies were
High Courts and IP Offices have also announced sufficiently prepared for mass remote working
measures that will affect IP proceedings such arrangements to ensure that their trade secrets
as delay fee waiver. In a notice published in remain adequately protected.
March, the Patent Office advised applicants
and parties to use the provisions of Rule 6 Conclusion:
(6) of the Patents Rules 2003 to request an
extension of time or condone the delay in filing As the virus is spreading rapidly all over the world,
documents and other responses. it is expected that a greater number of national
IP offices will introduce measures to overcome
The European Patent Office issued a blanket the impact of the virus and may provide relief
extension of time limits expiring on or after to the IP holding companies, and practitioners.
March 15 to May 4, 2020 (an end date that For now, professionals, IP owners/holders and
could be extended further) and provided certain practitioners are suggested to manage their IP
remedies for earlier time limits “for users portfolio diligently to identify non-performing
located in areas directly affected by disruptions assets. IP holders should also design some
due to the COVID-19 outbreak.” Likewise, oral clever strategies which will help them adapt to
proceedings in examination and opposition the post-pandemic environment. To address IP
proceedings have been postponed until further infringement concerns related to crisis critical
notice. products during a pandemic, compulsory
licensing, IP pledges, and IP pooling are
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office becoming beneficial. Also, it is important to
has authorised extensions of deadlines for capture and protect any essential IP that is
trademark oppositions, in addition to patent- generated from the mass manufacturing of
related deadlines. Crisis Critical Products.

This bulletin is brought out for informational purpose only.

For further information / feedback, please contact: [email protected]

© ABMCPL, 2020. All Rights Reserved Restricted Circulation

10