TCL opens chemical plant in Netherlands

Mumbai: Tata Chemicals, the world's second largest producer of soda ash, has opened a hi-tech sodium bicarbonate plant adjacent to its Brunner Mond facility in Delfzijl in Netherlands.

The highly automated plant, the first of its kind in the Netherlands at an investment of about Rs 100 crore (€15 million), uses surplus carbon dioxide from the soda ash plant as one of its raw materials. This will lead to an improvement in local air quality and enhancing the efficiency of the whole manufacturing complex, the firm said.

The plant will take the company's global production of sodium bicarbonate to 200,000 tonnes per year.

In February, this year, the Tata group-promoted company had acquired the soda ash business of the US-based General Industrial Products (GPI) for $1 billion, to become the second largest producer of soda ash in the world.

'The additional capacities will allow us to continue growing our product and meeting worldwide demand efficiently. Our endeavour is to reach a wide range of sectors and applications.

This move is in line with our strategy of building a global scale Sodium Bicarbonate business,' said R. Mukundan, executive vice president and head - Global Chemicals Business, Tata Chemicals.

TCL in India produces a technical grade of Sodium Bicarbonate predominantly for the Indian domestic market, mainly for the food, tanning and textile sectors. Its European arm, Brunner Mond, on a global scale services about 500 customers in 60 countries mainly in the premium sectors – pharmaceutical, haemodialysis and food and the animal feed and FGT (Flue Gas Treatment) sectors on a regional basis.

Designed to meet the most stringent Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) requirements, the plant produces ultra coarse, medium granular and powder fine product grades as well as a general-purpose grade.

The new plant has ISO9001: 2000 quality standard, and the GMP with PVD (Dutch Animal Feed Board) certification permits supply to the strictly regulated animal feed sector. Further, the plant has BRC (British Retail Consortium) Global Standard – Food certification, which will enable supply into the food sector, said the release.