Aimed at promoting agro processing, BPCL Kochi Refinery has launched the speciality product of Food Grade Quality Hexane (FGQ Hexane) that could turn out to be a boon to agricultural sector. This is the first time that Kochi Refinery is producing a ‘Food Grade Quality’ product, mainly used in the solvent extraction units for spices and vegetable oil.
FGQ Hexane is a light distillate produced from special cut Naphtha where the Hexane rich stream is extracted and purified to meet the required specification. It is also used by drug and pharmaceutical industry as solvent in speciality applications. Much of FGQ Hexane is imported.
D Rajkumar, CMD, BPCL, flagged off the truck carrying FG Hexane to the first customer AVT.
FGQ Hexane is being produced in the Isomerization unit of Kochi Refinery which came up as part of the Integrated Refinery Expansion Project. The company has the capacity to produce 5000 tonnes per year and FGQ Hexane is 21st in line in the product portfolio.
Kochi Refinery had always tried to promote industries based on farming sector. In the late 1990s, it had developed the Natural Rubber Modified Bitumen through its R&D Centre and had provided an alternative scope for rubber which is increasingly cultivated in South India. Thereafter, NRMB has been a prime product of KR which helped in laying better roads. The launching of FG Hexane is a similar kind of effort, said Prasad K Panicker, ED (Kochi Refinery).