Heavy Water board is a unit under the Department of Atomic Energy which is entrusted with design, engineering, Construction, commissioning and operation of large scale heavy water plants. It has today seven plants operating in different parts of the country. These plants are based on three different process technologies. The Board has well over three thousand well qualified technical personnel who have developed expertise in different fields, right from design to operation.

Technologically the process of heavy water manufacture is similar to many of the chemical processes, the principal difference being in terms of the large magnitude of the systems involved due to the requirement of thousand fold enrichment requirement to produce almost pure heavy water.

The Board can offer its services to evaluate different process technologies and aid in choosing of the best process suited for a particular application for the Indian scenario. This activity involves process analysis, evaluation of process package and the various utilities and off-site systems review. This will be achieved by use of models wherever needed to evaluate the processes.

Often, the process evaluation involves analytical support and all our plants have well equipped modern laboratory facilities where certain laboratory scale experiments can be conducted. Evaluation of certain claims made by the process licensees can be verified by modelling, simulation, checks and experimental analysis.

The systems are critically analysed for pinching effects or bottle-necking areas and then modifications are carried out by use of many of the modern tools like pinch-technology, expert systems and models. After identification of the limiting systems or the equipment, the retrofitting of certain critical equipment using latest type are carried out. While taking up such modifications, it would be ensured that the operability is in no way compromised and we would also carry out Hazards and Operability Study (Hazop)

In the course of commissioning our plants, the experience gained has given us tremendous confidence to take up commissioning jobs of any large chemical/petrochemical plants. Commissioning plan involves moduling the plants, identifying critical activities in each of the sub-modules, writing down commissioning procedures and interconnecting various commissioning activities involved. The practices and procedures adopted by Heavy Water Board have got evolved from plant to plant and can be utilized for commissioning of any large scale process plant in a safe and efficient manner within the shortest possible time.

Heavy Water Board has developed over the years, full capabilities with regard to provision of engineered safety features at the design stage, safety and quality assurance during construction commissioning and operational stages. The Board has undertaken safety review and reassessment of their own operating plants and is capable of providing similar services in the areas of HAZOP/HAZAN studies and preparation of 'on site' and 'off site' emergency action plans to mitigate the most unlikely events involving large scale release of toxic gases/vapours, through detailed gas dispersion modelling and risk evaluation studies.

HWB has now diversified its activities into the field of production of high quality Organo-phosphorous Metal Extractants, at its facility in Talcher, Orissa. The first solvent in the TOPS (Talcher Organo-Phosphorous Solvent) series is TOPS-99.

TOPS-99- Di(2-Ethyl Hexyl) Phosphoric Acid - is an effective metal extractant, used for hydro-metallurgical recovery and separation of various metals like Zinc, Rare Earths, Cobalt, Nickel, etc. from Wet Phosphoric Acid and also Iron from metal solutions. TOPS-99 is a useful solvent for concentrating and purifying the valuable metal solutions of low grade complex ores, slags, leach residues, effluents and other secondaries using Solvent Extraction (SX) technique.

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TOPS-99 is a high quality solvent meeting the stringent requirements of Nuclear Industry. The process used for production was first developed at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and then further refined and scaled up for commercial production by HWB. The quality of TOPS-99 matches with the quality of well known international manufacturers and has been tested independently at BARC and Regional Research Laboratory, Bhubaneshwar (RRLB). The diester content of all the samples has been found to be in the range of 95-97% by wt.

TOPS-99 is already being used in the country at various commercial operations for separation & recovery of Zinc, Cobalt, Nickel and Rare Earths. Di-2 Ethyl Hexyl Phosphoric Acid (D2EHPA).