KOLLAM: THE Titanium Sponge factory, being set up on the premises of the KMML, Chavara, as a joint venture of the KMML and ISRO, is likely to be inaugurated by February 15.
Industries Minister Elamaram Karim told a news conference in Chavara on Wednesday, before officially launching the functioning of the Tickle Purification Plant, set up as part of the Titanium Sponge factory, that the erection of the machineries imported for the project would be completed by the end of this month.
He said that the exact date would be announced according to the convenience of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
With the commissioning of the Rs 143.11 crore project, funded by the ISRO, India will become the 7th country in the world to produce Titanium Sponge, which has got great strategic importance.
The Defence Metallurgical Research Lab (DMRL), Hyderabad, has developed the technology for producing the sponge after a 20 year-long research.
India currently require 350 tonnes of Titanium Sponge for its space programmes per year. Bio-medical, shipping and other sectors require another 400 tonnes.
All these sponge are made available through imports. Currently, the United States, Russia, Ukrain, Uzbekistan, Japan and China are producing sponge. But these nations may not always be suppling the sponge to India, even though the country is ready to pay exorbitant cost for the strategic use. The sponge factory in Chavara will have the annual capacity for producing 500 tonnes.
The ISRO will buy back all the high purity Aerospace Grade Sponge, according to the agreement with the KMML. This will constitute 65 percent of the total production. The rest, Commercial Grade Sponge, can be sold directly by the KMML. Again, the ISRO will support the commercial fluctuations in the sale.
Through the value addition process of ilmenite, worth Rs 7000 per tonne, can be converted to sponge, worth Rs 7 lakh per tonne.
The Titanium Tickle Plant will remove the metal impurities from the Titanium Tetra Chloride and will help to reduce the impurities from one million to one ratio. The Titanium Sponge is created through a chemical process between titanium tetra chloride and magnesium.
The Tickle Purification Plant (TPP), through Double Fractional Distillation (DFD), converts pigment grade titanium dioxide into metal grade tickle. Other plants, nearing completion, are Metal Production Plant and Sponge Handling Plant.
The KMML Chavara project division is supervising the construction works of the project. The Kerala Police Housing Construction Corporation is entrusted with the civil works. P P Sinha said that the ISRO had another project, worth Rs 84-crore, aimed at separating magnesium and chlorine from magnesium chloride, the bi -product during the production of sponge, which could be re-usable. The DMRL has developed the technology for this too.
Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary T K A Nair is personally monitoring the project, KMML sources said.
DMRL Emeritus Scientist C S Ramachandran and KMML MD N R Subrahmaniam also spoke.