The Ankleshwar plant of the German pigment company Heubach Limited has been honoured with the Indian Chemical Council's Acharya P C Ray Award by the government of Maharashtra for turning its toxic waste into medicine.

The plant has been awarded for developing indigenous technology for making pharmaceutical-grade ammonium hydroxide, which can be used as antacid. Group Captain (Retd), A G Chitre, Director of the Ankleshwar plant, who received the honour from Maharashtra Governor S C Jamir on September 7, said the treatment of the wastes started in 2000. The research and development team of 35 skilled experts realised that the storage of toxic residues will get overfilled and cause environmental damage. Now, around 1,500 metric tonnes of ammonia hydroxide is produced per year out of the 32,000 MT of sludge produced, he said.

“While producing around three tonnes of the green pigment, we are left with about 13 tonnes of the toxic sludge, which mainly comprises ammonium chloride and copper sulphate. The research and development team suggested that we could treat ammonium chloride and produce pharma-grade ammonium hydroxide,” added Chitre. Of the 32,000 metric tonnes produced by the company, Chitre said that around 70-80 per cent of the sludge is treated at the plant.

On the other hand, the residual copper sulphate is used to extract copper and sold to local retailers, he said. “We have pharmaceutical companies around the country, who buy the ammonium hydroxide. It is sold as antacids, commonly suggested to patients with digestive problems. Copper is extracted and sold to local retailers, while some of it is stored,” said Chitre. Since the inception of the treatment facility for the toxic sludge, the company has been able to add another Rs 6 crore per year to the company’s turnover. “The Rs 6 crore is generated from treatment by default as we do not market the ammonia hydroxide, but have fixed retailers who buy it from us,” he added.