The Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Limited, abbreviated as FACT, is an Indian central public sector undertaking under the

ownership Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different ...

Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers in India is the federal ministry with administrative purview over three departments namely: *Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals *Department of Fertilizers. *Department of Pharmaceuticals. T ...

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. It is headquartered in

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Ca ...

. It was incorporated in 1943, by Maharajah Sree

Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma Sree Padmanabhadasa Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma , popularly known as Sree Chithira Thirunal, was the last ruling Maharaja of the Princely State of Travancore, in southern India until 1949 and later the Titular Maharajah of Travanc ...

of the

Kingdom of Travancore The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

. It is the first fertiliser manufacturing company in independent

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

and also the largest Central Public Sector Undertaking (CPSU) in

. It has 2 production units - Udyogamandal Complex (UC) at

Eloor Eloor is a suburb of Kochi and a municipality in Paravur Taluk, Ernakulam District in the Indian state of Kerala, India. It is an industrial area situated around north of the city centre. It is an island of 14.21 km2 formed between two dis ...

, Udyogamandal, and Cochin Division (CD) at

Ambalamedu Ambalamedu is a small township located in Kerala, India. Ambalamedu is located near the border of the former states of Travancore and Cochin and lies on a lake. History Ambalamedu is now associated with the Cochin Division of the Fertilisers ...

. In 1947, FACT started production of ammonium sulphate with an installed capacity of 50,000 MT per annum at Udyogamandal near

. The Caprolactam plant in Udyogamandal was commissioned in 1990. Main products include

Ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous ...

Sulphuric Acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular for ...

, Ammonium Phosphate-Sulphate (FACTAMFOS),

Ammonium Sulphate Ammonium sulfate (American English and international scientific usage; ammonium sulphate in British English); (NH4)2SO4, is an inorganic salt with a number of commercial uses. The most common use is as a soil fertilizer. It contains 21% nitrogen a ...

, Zincated Ammonium Phosphate,

Caprolactam Caprolactam (CPL) is an organic compound with the formula (CH2)5C(O)NH. This colourless solid is a lactam (a cyclic amide) of caproic acid. Global demand for this compound is approximately five million tons per year, and the vast majority is us ...

, and also complex fertilizers.

Gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywa ...

Nitric acid Nitric acid is the inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but older samples tend to be yellow cast due to decomposition into oxides of nitrogen. Most commercially available ni ...

Soda Ash Sodium carbonate, , (also known as washing soda, soda ash and soda crystals) is the inorganic compound with the formula Na2CO3 and its various hydrates. All forms are white, odourless, water-soluble salts that yield moderately alkaline solutions ...

and coloured Ammonium Sulphate are major by-products. FACT_Cochin_Division

History

The factory commenced production of

ammonium sulphate Ammonium sulfate (American English and international scientific usage; ammonium sulphate in British English); (NH4)2SO4, is an inorganic salt with a number of commercial uses. The most common use is as a soil fertilizer. It contains 21% nitrogen a ...

in 1947, at the dawn of Indian independence using wood as the raw material for production of ammonia. With the effect of time, wood

gasification Gasification is a process that converts biomass- or fossil fuel-based carbonaceous materials into gases, including as the largest fractions: nitrogen (N2), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), and carbon dioxide (). This is achieved by reacting ...

became uneconomic and was replaced with naphtha reforming process. Through a series of expansion programmes, FACT soon became the producer of a wide range of fertilizers for all crops and all soil types in

. It became a Kerala State public sector enterprise in 1960 and in 1962, it came under the

. Diversification to full-fledged engineering services (FEW) in the fertilizer field and allied areas followed. The next major step towards diversification was into petrochemicals. FACT has formed a joint venture company with Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited, named FRBL (FACT RCF Building Products Ltd) for manufacturing load-bearing panels and other building products using

phosphogypsum Phosphogypsum (PG) is the calcium sulfate hydrate formed as a by-product of the production of fertilizer from phosphate rock. It is mainly composed of gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O). Although gypsum is a widely used material in the construction industry, p ...

References

External links

http://fact.co.in/

Latest FACT Jobs

Companies based in Kochi Fertilizer companies of India Chemical companies of India Indian companies established in 1943 Chemical companies established in 1943 Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange {{kerala-stub