APL bid to attract entrepreneurs

Tag : pentaerythritol rosin

From Our Bureau
DIBRUGARH, June 2  The State government undertaking, AssamPetrochemicals Limited (APL) is going on an overdrive to attractentrepreneurs to set up downstream industries. The endeavour ischiefly to create a market for its upcoming 500 tonnes per day(TPD)-capacity methanol making plant. APL managing director OPTailor said the company is currently producing 100 TPD of methanoland another 100 TPD of formalin. The new 500 TPD methanol plantwill be established without any financial input from the Stategovernment. However, gas allocation for the new plant is yet to bereceived, but Tailor said he is not anticipating any major hurdlein the allocation process, as new gas reserves are being discoveredin upper Assam by ONGC and OIL.

Methanol and formalin are produced by cracking natural gas at APL'sinstallation at Namrup. After the Supreme Court ban on timberindustry in upper Assam, APL found it difficult to market formalin,as it is used in large quantities by plywood makers. However, thejolt has been remedied by selling formalin to markets in the restof the country, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Tailor said there is a vast scope to develop entrepreneurs in upperAssam to put up industries to produce a long list of products usingmethanol as the raw material. A day-long workshop to motivatepotential industrialists was held in this connection last Saturdayat the Dibrugarh University. Earlier, a similar motivationalworkshop was held at Guwahati.

The downstream industries that have been identified by APL includeunits to produce methyl chloride, di methyl ether, acetic acid,methyl amines and bio diesel. Downstream projects based onformaldehyde include units making phenolic resin, polyacetal,paraformaldehyde, rubber blowing agent, synthetic tanning agent,foundry resin, pentaerythritol and hexamine. Units making ammoniumbicarbonate can also be set up, using carbondioxide made by APL.