Crude vermiculite ore produces the basic material used in the manufacture of fire protection and industrial insulation products. The process equipment consists of three rotary furnaces for heating and reaction. Torftech Ltd. (UK) replaced these with a single toroidal fluidized bed (Torbed) furnace of 1-m diameter with a capacity of 2 ton/hr. This led to a reduction in overall energy consumption and in vermiculite wastage and maintenance costs. The new process resulted in a payback period of 16 months. Now 11 plants are operational in Europe with this Torbed technology. This technique is also commercialized to produce silica from rice husk and roasting of sulphide ores, etc.

Milling and grinding have traditionally been done in ball, roll, or grind mills. Dispersed media mill operates in liquid media with small-sized steel, ceramic, or glass balls that are circulated in a vessel consisting of rotating members. A large reduction in power consumption and infrastructure was achieved by this innovative design. The new design has been applied to the paint and ink industry, red phosphorus, ferrite powder, pigments, etc.

PI can reduce the Dow Hazard and Dow Toxicity indices considerably. Mono- and dinitration of xylenes can be carried out in small-sized equipment with high heat transfer rates, thereby eliminating the need for inert diluents. A pesticide intermediate is prepared by chlorination at ?40 C since considerable exothermic heat is evolved. The process could be carried out in novel mixers and heat exchangers, so that an ordinary coolant system is...