The Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL&FS), India, recently launched a nationwide trainer's training programme series to phase out use of carbon tetrachloride (CTC) in the textile sector. The training was mooted under IL&FS's Cluster Development Initiative (CDI) with the support of Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), a German enterprise for sustainable development.

The project is aimed at stopping the use of CTC in the textile industry before 31 December 2009 to comply with the norms laid under the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete ozone layer, said Mr. N.V.R. Nathan, Vice-President, IL&FS (CDI). He said that owing to the phasing out of CTC, which was mainly used for stain removing in the export-oriented apparel industry, the enterprises would be told to switch over to water-based detergents and non-ozone depleting alternatives. The training programmes would be conducted at all the 55 training centres of IL&FS in the country.
Source: www.thehindu.com

An R&D project was undertaken by Man-made Textiles Research Association (MANTRA) to phase out carbon tetrachloride (CTC), an ozone depleting substance that is often used in stain remover formulations, from the decentralized textile processing sector. Under the project sponsored by Gujarat government's Department of Industries & Mines, and Colourtex Pvt. Ltd., MANTRA developed an eco-friendly stain remover-cum-scouring agent called MANTRA CTC Substitute. This product does not contain CTC and other harmful solvents. The product is: non-ozone depleting; effective in removing stain and oily impurities from grey fabric; ideal for polyester and its blends; and has 38 per cent solids content.

Contact: Dr. S.K. Basu,7VATIS UPDATE: Ozone Layer Protection .. May-Jun 2009 Director, Man-made Textiles Research Association, Near Textile Market & Telephone Exchange, Ring Road, Surat 395 002, Gujarat, India. Tel: +91 (261) 232 3211, 233 7062; Fax: +91 (261) 232 2500; E-mail: director@mantrasurat.org.
Source: www.mantrasurat.org

The institutional and similar cluster-oriented refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) applications in India have been identified during the formulation of the National CFC Consumption Phase-out Plan (NCCoPP). The refrigeration systems in these applications, especially pre-2003 ones, use CFC- 12. Most of these units, with open-type compressors (OTC), have high refrigerant leakage rate.

There are several applications for OTC-based systems, such as ice candy plants, cold rooms, cold storages, menthol plants and railway airconditioning systems. The poor servicing procedures used - like topping-up of refrigerant in leaking systems, venting out the refrigerant, using system compressor or single-stage vacuum pump for evacuation, etc. - release of large amounts of CFCs into the environment.

Much of the CFC emissions could be arrested by adopting good practices during operation, servicing and decommissioning of RAC plants, such as preventive maintenance, refrigerant recovery, flushing and leak testing with dry nitrogen, and evacuation and charging of refrigerant in the system. Retrofitting these plants with low-ODP or zero- ODP solutions is another option to reduce the CFC demand for servicing of such units. Training on good service practices and retrofitting of OTCbased CFC-12 refrigeration systems would help reduce the CFC consumption in this sub-sector. To this end, a two-fold approach was followed. First, an ice candy plant working on CFC-12 was retrofitted with HCFC-22, changing only a few system components during the conversion. The retrofitted unit's performance was excellent, with the unit providing 20 per cent more cooling than the CFC-12 system. This has encouraged the ice candy plant owner, as his production increased by 20 per cent. The other system parameters were similar to CFC-12 unit.
Source: www.nccopp.info