Thermax Limited needs no introduction in Indian industrial circles. Their Chemical Division, based out of Pune, has long been a serious player in specialty chemicals — water treatment, construction inputs, process solutions. But when the team started looking at expanding into polymer manufacturing, they needed more than gut instinct. They needed numbers, market context, and honest technical validation before committing capital.

That's where NPCS came in.

The brief was straightforward: evaluate new manufacturing opportunities that made sense for Thermax's existing capabilities, and help the team decide whether — and where — to invest. After working through the options, our recommendation was Super Absorbent Polymers, or SAP.

SAP isn't a niche product. It's the material inside baby diapers, sanitary pads, adult care products, wound dressings, and agricultural soil-retention applications. India was consuming roughly 50,000 tonnes a year as of FY2022, with projections pointing toward 100,000 tonnes by 2035. The growth rate is steady at around 5.4% annually — not flashy, but deeply reliable. And critically, the country was importing a significant portion of its SAP needs. That's a manufacturing gap sitting wide open.

For Thermax, the fit was clear. Their chemical expertise, existing infrastructure relationships, and process knowledge made SAP a logical extension — not a leap into the unknown.

We delivered a full techno-economic feasibility study covering everything the team needed to move forward with confidence. That included a detailed look at the manufacturing process — from raw material prep and acrylic acid neutralization through polymerization, cross-linking, drying, milling, surface treatment, and final quality testing. We mapped out the machinery requirements, identified key equipment vendors, and assessed raw material supply chains.

On the financial side, we built out capital expenditure estimates, operating cost models, break-even scenarios, payback timelines, and IRR projections. We also looked at the import substitution economics specifically — because for a domestic producer entering this space, that's where a meaningful portion of the early margin story lives.

The client reviewed our findings, accepted the recommendation, and moved into advanced project planning. That outcome — a decision made with clarity rather than guesswork — is exactly what this kind of advisory work is meant to deliver.