Greener & Sustainable Practices at

Dr. Reddys Laboratories Limited

CTO Unit-2

Agenda
Introduction to the company

Green Co Journey
Manufacturing Activities
Waste Management Practices
Air Pollution Control
Material Conservation, Recycling & Recyclability
New Project undertakings

Our Purpose

Providing affordable and innovative

medicines for healthier lives

Participated in the Green Co rating system to strengthen our

environmental capabilities

Green
Green Co
Co Journey
Journey

The rating system recognized our achievements and also

identified areas for improvement

We are the First Company in Pharmaceutical Sector to

receive the prestigious GreenCo rating (Bronze)

 Manufacture Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)

13 production blocks
Each production block consists of reactors, filters, dryers, sieving and
milling equipment

Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Activities
Activities

The raw materials are added as per the directions given in the Batch
Production Records
Use organic, inorganic chemicals and solvents
Utilities like RT water, chilled water, brine, hot water, steam, DM water
and electricity are used

Waste
Waste Management
Management Practices
Practices

Waste water is segregated as process effluent from production & non

process effluent from utilities

Process effluent is pre-treated and evaporated in multiple effect evaporator

Evaporator condensate is bio-treated and further treated by Reverse

Osmosis. RO permeate is used in boilers and cooling towers. RO rejects will

Waste
Waste Water
Water

be send back to MEE

Evaporator concentrate is send to dryer to isolate mixed salts. Mixed salts

are send to secured landfill

Non process effluent is pre-treated and bio-treated & further treated in RO.
RO permeate is used for boilers and cooling tower makeup. RO rejects will

Hazardous
Hazardous Waste
Waste

be send to MEE
The wastes are segregated as process residues, spent carbon, mixed spent
solvents, chemical & bio sludge and mixed salts

Hazardous waste suitable for co processing in cement industries are process

residues, spent carbon, spent solvents etc.
Waste oil and used oil are send to authorized oil reprocessors

Alternate
Alternate Reuse
Reuse

Used lead acid batteries are returned to the manufacturers

Spent catalyst is returned to the manufacturers for recovery
Detoxified containers are reused by sending to authorized agencies
Reuse of MS drums for transport of spent solvents

Process
Process Effluent
Effluent
Treatment
Treatment

Clariflocculator

Hides Filter

Non
Non Process
Process
Effluent
Effluent
Treatment
Treatment
Triple
layer bag
filter

In order to reduce the air emissions into the atmosphere and to limit them
within the standards, several strategies were taken up such as:
Boilers provided with bag filters. Boiler emissions like SPM, NOx and SO2

Air
Air Pollution
Pollution
Control
Control

are monitored regularly based on IS standards

Process equipment are provided with multi stage scrubbers
Closed centrifuge operations
Primary and secondary condensers are provided to reactors to minimize
fugitive emissions
Automation of the Solvent Recovery System
Monitoring of all ambient air quality parameters like PM2.5, PM10, SO2,
NO2 to ensure that they stick to the legal norms
Online and portable VOC meters to ensure control over emissions

Material
Material Conservation,
Conservation, Recycling
Recycling &
& Recyclability
Recyclability
During manufacture of Ciprofloxacin HCl compacted material, the packing of
the batch and finished product analysis were being performed two times. This
lead to wastage of packing material and chemicals used for analysis.
o An intermediate step of QC Analysis for input material was eliminated

Packaging
Packaging initiatives
initiatives

o Resulted in Material and packaging savings of Rs. 19.65 Lacs/annum and

reduced the cycle time by 72 hours
Replacing HDPE drums with SS drums for packaging recycling so that they
can be cleaned and reused
Introduced plastic pallets in place of wooden pallets which are recyclable and
less prone to damage

Process chemistry change was carried out to improve Atorvastatin Calcium

yield

Yield
Yield Improvement
Improvement
through
through Continuous
Continuous
Improvement
Improvement

Two new reagents were introduced to accelerate the reaction

This improved the yield and reduced the reaction time
Yield improvement from 286 kg to 340 kg within six month
Savings: Rs. 33.6 lacs/tonne of product

Material
Material Conservation,
Conservation, Recycling
Recycling &
& Recyclability
Recyclability

Acetonitrile Recovery improvement was initiated to improve recovery from 50 to

65 %

Improvement
Improvement in
in
Solvent
Solvent Recovery
Recovery
Process
Process

Steps taken for the improvement:

Material balance study was carried out to identify the losses

Additional equipment to minimise loss and improve recovery

Contamination due to intermixing of methanol & acetonitrile mother liquor

eliminated

Increased overall utilization of SRS capacity and generated increased amount of

distilled and reusable solvents.

Fractional distillation was introduced for distillation of IPA MLs to enhance

recovery

The recovery percentage significantly improved from 46% to 79%

This overall annual saving due to introduction of the fractionation distillation

column amounted to Rs.10.8 Million

New
New Project
Project Undertakings
Undertakings
One more decanter centrifuge will be provided to handle the biological
sludge and chemical sludge separately

Decanter
Decanter Centrifuge
Centrifuge

The centrate from the bio decanter centrifuge can be directly fed into bio
treatment facility
This will help us in avoiding 3500 KL per annum of load to the multiple effect
evaporator

Paddle dryer will be installed for drying bio sludge to 5% moisture content

Paddle
Paddle Dryer
Dryer

Enclosure
Enclosure for
for effluent
effluent
collection
collection tanks
tanks

This will help us to reduce the hazardous waste generation by 180 TPA

Top cover hoods arrangement for open process effluent collection tanks

THANK YOU !!!