India's Aarti Industries Commissions Phase I of Zone IV Chemical Plant

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 7, India's Aarti Industries officially commissioned Phase I of its Zone IV project at Jhagadia, Gujarat, with the initial scope of operations including the calcium chloride plant, the PEDA (2-Phenyl Ethyl Diethyl Aniline) plant, and a portion of the multi-purpose plant (MPP). A company filing with the Indian stock exchange confirmed that this marks the first substantive milestone in the phased commissioning of Zone IV, with the remaining process units continuing to progress.

Zone IV is an approximately 95-acre greenfield fine chemical manufacturing site being developed by Aarti Industries in Jhagadia. The multi-purpose plant features modular reactor trains and automated control systems, capable of scaling up multiple chemical processes validated through pilot trials, with a designed operating range of **-20°C to 200°C and up to 25 bar**. Equipment materials cover stainless steel, glass-lined steel, Hastelloy, and PFA, among others, enabling batch changeovers for different products.

The PEDA commissioned this time is a downstream product of Aarti Industries' ethylation product chain, primarily targeting the agrochemical sector; the calcium chloride plant serves applications in oilfields, energy, and additives. The company stated that following the commissioning of the partial MPP units, they will gradually enter the stages of commercial qualification, customer approval, and capacity ramp-up. According to Aarti Industries' Q1 project update published in August this year, the Zone IV expansion and chlorotoluene chain project had previously been delayed by approximately 4 to 6 months due to labor supply constraints, with the relevant units planned for phased commissioning over the subsequent three quarters; at that time, PEDA and MPP-related products had already entered the customer qualification stage.

Zone IV also includes a long-term raw material supply system. Aarti Industries previously signed a long-term chlorine supply agreement with DCM Shriram, under which the latter will supply chlorine from its adjacent chlor-alkali plant to Zone IV's downstream chemical facilities. The two parties plan to construct a jacketed underground chlorine transfer pipeline. Once the pipeline is fully operational, Aarti Industries plans to increase chlorine supply by approximately 200 tons per day on top of its existing daily procurement of 150 tons, providing feedstock for subsequent chlorine-based chemical units in Zone IV.

At present, Phase I of Zone IV has transitioned from engineering and construction into phased commissioning, customer qualification, and ramp-up stages, while other process units continue to be commissioned according to the company's plan. The company did not separately disclose the capitalized investment amount for this Phase I plant in its September 7 commissioning announcement.