Tata Chemicals Wins Top ICIS Innovation Award

LONDON, October 11, 2010 - ICIS (www.icis.com ), a leading global provider of news and
information for the chemical and energy sectors, today announces the winners
in the ICIS Innovation Awards 2010 (www.icis.com/awards ).

The annual awards are supported by Dow Corning (www.dowcorning.com
) as lead sponsor, with CRA International (www.crai.com/chemicals )
sponsoring the category for Best Product Innovation and U.S. Chemicals
(www.uschemicals.com ) sponsoring the category for Innovation with
Best Environmental Benefit.

Overall winner for 2010

The panel of five leading industry experts (see below) awarded Tata
Chemicals of India the prize for best overall innovation.

This is the second year the ICIS Innovation Awards have selected an
overall winner. In 2009, the Award was won by CECA/Arkema of France

    The winners of the four award categories are:

    Best Product Innovation
    Tata Chemicals (India)

    Best Innovation by an SME
    NiTech Solutions (Scotland)

    Best Business Innovation
    Huntsman Advanced Materials (Switzerland)

    Innovation with Best Environmental Benefit
    Teijin Fibers (Japan)

These four innovative companies were chosen as the best from the
shortlist of 15 entrants, details of which were published earlier this year
in the 2 August issue of ICIS Chemical Business (
tinyurl.com/InnovationAwardsSL2010 ).

Full details of the winning entries and interviews on innovation strategy
with the sponsors are published in today's 11 October issue of ICIS Chemical
Business. View the article here
cde.cerosmedia.com/1X4caee2d8b0ccf443.cde .

(See below for full details of the winning innovations.)

Awards highlight environmental and sustainability themes

John Baker, who manages the Innovation Awards at ICIS, commented that:
"The Awards continue to highlight the best the chemical industry has to offer
in the way of innovation and providing solutions to society's needs.
Increasingly, entries are focused around helping the environment and
maintaining the sustainability of the industry, as well as helping customers
and driving bottom line growth for companies."

ICIS congratulates all the winners and indeed all those companies that
reached the short-list. The Awards will be presented at a lunch in London on
10 December.

DETAILS OF THE WINNING ENTRIES:

    Best Product Innovation/Overall Winner

    Tata Chemicals
    Ramakrishnan Mukundan
    Tata Swach nanotech water purifier

Mumbai, India-based Tata Chemicals has designed a novel purifier for
drinking water that uses a combination of natural materials - ­silicaceous
material derived from rice husks - and cutting-edge nanotechnology in the
form of minute particles of silver. The Tata Swach delivers safe drinking
water at low cost and has a safety cut-off so that when the purifying
capacity of the filter cartridge is exhausted, the water flow is stopped.

    Best Innovation by an SME

    NiTech Solutions
    Ian Laird and Xiong-wei Ni with Peter McDonnell (Genzyme)
    Use of innovative NiTech reactor by Genzyme to manufacture one of its
    products

Working with Genzyme, Scotland's NiTech has commercialized its novel
tubular baffled reactor (TBR) to make a pharmaceutical active ingredient
(API) in the multi-hundred tonne/year range. The continuous reactor has
advantages over batch reactors conventionally used. It creates uniform mixing
throughout the reactor and works well with a three-phase solid/gas/liquid
system. It has a smaller footprint than conventional stirred tank reactors
and reduces the carbon footprint and capital cost.

    Best Business Innovation

    Huntsman Advanced Materials
    Philippe Michaud
    New generation of rapid manufacturing equipment and resins

With its Araldite(R) Digitalis(R) polymeric additive fabrication system,
Huntsman Advanced Materials, based in Basel, Switzerland, has transformed
rapid manufacturing of 3D parts using stereolithography, opening up
significant potential for its UV-curable photopolymers in what it estimates
is a $1.2bn/year market. At the heart of the innovation is a radical new
exposure system, which uses computer-controlled micro-mechanical shutters,
allowing a large surface area of photopolymer to be exposed (cf a
photo-copier) resulting in the fast production of parts.

    Innovation with Best Environmental Benefit

    Teijin Fibers
    Nobuyoshi Miyasaka
    ECO CIRCLE innovative closed-loop recycling system for polyester

Japan's Teijin Fibers has addressed the problem of polyester recycling
using a chemical recycling technology that decomposes polyester in clothes
and textiles into new polyester raw materials with purity comparable to
virgin materials. Marketed as ECO CIRCLE, the closed-loop recycling system is
claimed to significantly reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions compared
to producing polyester from new raw materials and disposing of the product at
the end of life by incineration. Teijin is working with more than 130
companies worldwide to develop recyclable products and collect them for
recycling using a plant at its Matsuyama factory in Japan.

    NOTES TO EDITORS

    1. The awards are organized by ICIS, the chemical publishing arm of Reed
       Business Information, part of global publishing group Reed Elsevier.

    2. ICIS is based in the UK, with offices in Sutton, Surrey. It also has
       offices in Singapore and New York and Houston in the US.

    3. This is the seventh year of the awards. The originator and organizer
       of the awards is John Baker, the head of custom publishing at ICIS
       and a former editor of ICIS Chemical Business (formerly known as
       European Chemical News).
       Contact: john.baker@icis.com; Tel: +44-20-8652-3153.

    4. The awards have been sponsored for all seven years by Dow Corning,
       which has a strong focus on innovation and R&D as part of its growth
       strategy.

    5. The judges this year were:

       Dr Neil Checker, vice president and head of the Europe and Middle East
       region for chemicals at CRA International

       Dr Alfred Oberholz, ex-Evonik Industries board member for research and
       technology

       Simon Smith, CEO, RockTron

       Dr Graham Hillier, director of strategy and futures at the UK's Centre
       for Process Innovation

       Dr Gregg Zank, senior vice president and chief technology officer, Dow
       Corning

About ICIS

ICIS, the trusted information provider for the chemical and energy
industries, is part of Reed Business Information (RBI), a division of Reed
Business and a member of Reed Elsevier plc (525), (UK:REL) (US:RUK)
(NL:45443), the world's leading publisher and information provider. For more
information on ICIS visit www.icis.com

RBI publishes over 100 market leading publications, directories and
online services, and organises many industry conferences and awards. For a
full listing visit www.reedbusiness.co.uk

About Dow Corning Corporation

Dow Corning provides performance-enhancing solutions to serve the diverse
needs of more than 25,000 customers worldwide. A global leader in silicones,
silicon-based technology and innovation, Dow Corning offers more than 7,000
products and services via the company's Dow Corning and XIAMETER brands.

Dow Corning is a joint venture equally owned by The Dow Chemical Company
and Corning, Incorporated. More than half of Dow Corning's annual sales are
outside the US.

About CRA International (CRA)

CRA (www.crai.com ) is a global consulting firm specializing in
management, litigation, financial, and regulatory consulting. Since 1965,
clients have engaged CRA for its unique combination of functional expertise
and industry knowledge, and for its objective solutions to complex problems.
Headquartered in Boston, CRA has offices throughout North America, Europe,
the Middle East, and Asia.

CRA's Chemicals Practice applies keen insight and rich experience across
the industry, from upstream petrochemicals and polymers to downstream
specialty chemicals and materials. We specialise in strategy, technology
management, M&A, performance improvement and organisation restructuring.

About U.S. Chemicals LLC

U.S. Chemicals, LLC, is a 50-year-old worldwide specialty chemical
distributor serving the textiles, paint, flame retardants, plastic, cosmetic,
personal care, food and pharmaceutical industries. A woman-owned business
based in Darien, Connecticut, US, U.S. Chemicals actively supports
environmentally responsible manufacturers and distributors of chemical
products and services.

    CONTACTS FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

    The winning companies can be contacted as follows:

    Tata Chemicals
    Chintan Joshi
    Corporate Communications
    Tel: +91-22-6665-7496
    Email: chintan.joshi@tatachemicals.com

    Huntsman Advanced Materials
    Benjamin Wiekenberg
    Marketing communication
    Tel: +41-61-299-2280
    Email: benjamin_wiekenberg@huntsman.com

    Teijin Fibers
    Rie Mashiba
    Public relations & investor relations
    Tel: +81-3-3506-4055
    Email: pr@teijin.co.jp

    NiTech Solutions
    Ian Laird, managing director
    Tel: +44-777-582-6966
    Email: ian.laird@nitechsolutions.co.uk

    For further information, please contact

    John Baker
    ICIS
    Tel: + 44-20-8652-3153
    Email: john.baker@icis.com
    Web site: www.icis.com

    Jarrod Erpelding
    Dow Corning
    Tel: +1-989-496-1582
    Email: jarrod.erpelding@dowcorning.com
    Web site: www.dowchemical.com

    Dr Neil Checker
    CRA International
    Tel: +44-20-7959-1582
    Email: nchecker@crai.com
    Web site: www.crai.com/chemicals

    Carol Piccaro
    U.S. Chemicals LLC
    Tel: +1-203-655-8878
    Email: cpiccaro@uschemicals.com
    Web site: www.uschemicals.com

CONTACTS FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: The winning companies can be contacted as follows: Tata Chemicals, Chintan Joshi, Corporate Communications, Tel: +91-22-6665-7496, Email: chintan.joshi at tatachemicals.com; Huntsman Advanced Materials, Benjamin Wiekenberg, Marketing communication, Tel: +41-61-299-2280, Email: benjamin_wiekenberg at huntsman.com; Teijin Fibers, Rie Mashiba, Public relations & investor relations, Tel: +81-3-3506-4055, Email: pr at teijin.co.jp; NiTech Solutions, Ian Laird, managing director, Tel: +44-777-582-6966, Email: ian.laird at nitechsolutions.co.uk; For further information, please contact: John Baker, ICIS, Tel: + 44-20-8652-3153, Email: john.baker at icis.com; Jarrod Erpelding, Dow Corning, Tel: +1-989-496-1582, Email: jarrod.erpelding at dowcorning.com; Dr Neil Checker, CRA International, Tel: +44-20-7959-1582, Email: nchecker at crai.com; Carol Piccaro, U.S. Chemicals LLC, Tel: +1-203-655-8878, Email: cpiccaro at uschemicals.com