FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
The Patent Rules, 2003

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
[See Section 10 and Rule 13]
1. TITLE OF THE INVENTION
"A COST EFFECTIVE, ENVIRONMENT FRIENDLY AND INDUSTRIALLY VIABLE PROCESS OF UTILIZING AND CONVERTING WASTE AMMONIA AND CARBON DIOXIDE GASEOUS STREAMS INTO PHTHALOCYANINE INTERMEDIATES AND IN-SITU CONVERSION THEREOF INTO VARIOUS PHTHALOCYANINE COMPOUNDS"
2. APPLICANTS
(a) SARASWATI PIGMENTS PVT LTD.
(b) an Indian company,
(c) of Plot No. L/1216/3, Phase IV - G.I.D.C., Naroda, Ahmedabad, 382330, Gujarat, INDIA.
3. PREAMBLE TO THE DESCRIPTION
The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO THE RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims priority from Indian Patent Application No. 2755/MUM/2012 dated September 24, 2012, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a metal and metal free phthalocyanines especially copper phthalocyanine blue manufacturing process but not limited to other phthalocyanines than copper phthalocyanine blue ( CuPC). More particularly, the present invention relates to a cost effective, environment friendly and industrially viable process for utilizing and converting waste ammonia and carbon dioxide gaseous streams which is also referred as ammonium carbamate solution into usable pthalocyanine intermediates and in-situ conversion thereof into phthalocyanine compounds for example CuPc to reduce raw material consumptions especially urea compounds or their salts to produce phthalocyanine compounds at reduced cost and with very less environmental liability for treatment of phthalocyanine process waste streams.
The present invention makes the process of manufacturing phthalocyanines more eco-friendly and economical which is the need of today in order to manufacture these compounds at lower cost and with minimal waste generation. Moreover, the present invention drastically reduces the load of ammonica! nitrogen in waste stream generated in the phthalocyanine manufacturing plants.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
For the production of for example copper phthalocyanines, conventionally, there is industrially most widely employed a method in which a phthalic anhydride and/or its derivative, a copper compound and urea are heated in an inert solvent in the presence of a catalyst, and this method is known as a urea method or Wyler method.
The above urea method is widely used industrially at present. In the process, phthalic anhydride is reacted with urea compounds and a metal (I) salt in the presence of a catalyst, in general ammonium molybdate or Moo3, if appropriate in an inert solvent such as, for example, Hysolve, trichlorobenzene or nitrobenzene or nitroalkyl benzene, sulfolane, dichlorobenzene at temperatures between 150°

and 250°C, the solvent, if present, is removed, for example by filtration or distillation under vacuum, and the crude CuPc is extracted by boiling with dilute mineral acid. This gives yields of only between 70 and 90% of theory, relative to phthalic anhydride or Cu salt especially in the case of copper phthalocyanine, though an excess of urea is employed, in most cases 2 to 4 moles per mole of phthalic anhydride. Generally, the reaction time of phthalic anhydride/urea process is about 12 to 16 hours. In the course of the reaction, however, the urea compounds decompose throughout the course of reaction partly reacting and partly going out of the reactor into the atmosphere. In the commercial process these waste gaseous streams are absorbed in water and disposed or treated to produce ammonia solution or its salt such as ammonium sulphate, ammonium phosphate, ammonium carbonate and other salts.
Disposal of such byproduct poses a great problem. Also, these treatment / preparation involve the cost and hence decrease the profit margins. As a result, not only the cost, but also the extra consumption of urea compounds is not avoidable in todays manufacturing scenario in order to get purity and yield of the product.
There are no processes which overcomes the above defects/problems reducing the manufacturing cost. It has been and is therefore strongly desired to develop a process for producing a highly pure (copper) phthalocyanines at high yields in the most gost effective way by converting the waste ammonia and CO2 streams in to useful intermediates like phthalimide, 1, 3-diiminoisoindoline etc. and their in situ conversion into high purity phthalocyanines in good yield by reacting them with just sufficient urea compounds in the presence of metal salt and high boiling solvent, The present inventor has made diligent studies to overcome the above problems and to accomplish the above requirements, and have found the following invention. Various intermediates which eventually leads to phthalocyanine compounds in the presence of urea compounds and metals salts are shown below in Fig. 1.


[Various intermediates which finally leads to the formation of Phthalocyanines]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, a process has now been found which is able to solve and reduce, in a simple manner all the waste ammonia and carbon dioxide streams and related treatment problems which have been described, by scrubbing the waste ammonia and carbon dioxide streams in aqueous solution during reaction and saturated to give ammonia strength in the range of about 10-35 %. This solution is then treated with phthalic anhydride and one or more solvents to produce phthalocyanine process intermediates such as phthalimide, 1,2-phthalodinitrile, 1,3-diiminoisoindoline, 1,2-dihydro-3H-indazol-3-one with small amount of ortho phthalodinitrile etc. at 110 to 250° C in the presence of one or more suitable catalysts. These intermediates are then in-situ converted to copper phthalocyanine or other metal free and metal phthalocyanines such as Iron phthalocyanine,' Magnesium phthalocyanine, Cobalt phthalocyanine, Aluminium phthalocyanine, and other metal phthalocyanines such as Si, Cr, Mn, Ti, Ni, Zn,

Ru, Li, etc. with the help of threshold amount of urea compound which are just sufficient and metal salt. The process utilizes almost complete ammonical Nitrogen and small unreacted ammonical nitrogen is again captured and recycled to get phthalocyanine intermediates similarly as described above.
Suitable solvents of the instant invention are high boiling solvents such as nitro benzene, Nitro toluenes, chlorinated toluenes such as dichlorotoulene, chlorinated benzenes, linear alkyl benzenes, sulfolane, 1,2-dichlorobenzene, N,N-dimethylformamide and derivatives thereof.
Suitable catalysts of the instant invention are phthalimide, 1,3-diminoisoindoline or 1,2-dihydro-3H-indazol-3-one and inorganic compounds such as dilute nitric acid or its alkali metals salts.
Yet another aspect of the present invention relates to the copper phthalocyanine produced by the above processes.
The process flow diagram for synthesis of copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) according to the present invention is illustrated in Fig. 2 below:


Therefore, one object and advantage of the present invention is to provide a process which converts waste ammonia and carbon dioxide streams into usable intermediates in the copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) and other metal / metal free phthalocyanine manufacturing process to produce highly pure phthalocyanines at high yields in the cost effective and environmentally friendly way. The process is not limited to the other metal and meta! free phthalocyanines mentioned above.
Another object and advantage of the present invention is to provide a process for in-situ conversion of the intermediates formed in the copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) manufacturing process to produce a highly pure copper phthalocyanine at high yields.
Another object and advantage of the present invention is to provide a process which completely eliminates the ammonia and carbon dioxide waste stream disposal problem and converts the waste into valuable intermediates for the production of highly pure copper phthalocyanine at high yields.
Another object and advantage of the present invention is to provide a process which utilizes minimal quantity urea compound which eventually helps in saving on waste generation as well as treatment cost and raw materials consumption costs.
Another object and advantage of the present invention is to provide a process for the production of copper phthalocyanine by a urea process, which enables the production of a highly pure copper phthalocyanine and/or derivative thereof suitable for commercial use with high economic performance.
Yet another object and advantage of the present invention is to provide an economic and environmentally benign process with the desired consistency on the commercial scale.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present inventor has made diligent studies to achieve the above objects, and as a result, have found that the intermediates obtained in accordance with the process of the invention can, in-situ be added to the starting components, so that to have practically 92-95% yield, relative to Cu salt and phthalic anhydride/urea process; results.
Furthermore, it is not necessary to constantly add excess quantity of urea compound in the process since the ammonical value is always recovered along with carbon dioxide and recycled in the process in an active form. Because of the simple and economical manner of recovery and recycling of the reaction by-products it is furthermore not necessary to maximize the yield of the synthesis step, which inter alia has the consequence that it is possible to dispense with some of the large excess of urea as a result of which the flue gas problems, but above all the biological oxygen demand of the effluent, can be greatly restricted without substantially impairing the economics of the process.
Moreover, the advantages of the process of waste ammonia and carbon dioxide streams treatment according to the present invention are particularly important when using solvent-free synthesis processes or using processes which use small amounts of water-soluble or acid-soluble solvents, since in that case the entire reaction by-products pass into the effluent from the extractive boiling with acid. In order fully to be able to utilize the advantages of the process according to the invention even when using water-insoluble solvents, it is necessary first to distil off the solvent and then to extract the product by boiling with acid.
In the present invention, the conversion of waste ammonia and carbon dioxide streams into useful intermediates has outstanding importance in that the intermediates produced are the part of copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) manufacturing process itself. It has also great advantage over the consumption of urea compounds as the process utilizes lesser urea compound and, therefore, results into good economics.

The process, thus, provides for a complete recycling of ammonia compounds which were earlier going in to waste increasing waste treatment costs during reaction of phthalic anhydride/urea process in the copper phthalocyanine manufacturing process. Since, the process utilizes lesser urea compound it controls the economics by saving costs on waste treatment as well as on raw material consumptions.
The use of minimum urea compounds is advantageous with respect to manufacturing cost and environmental as well as logistics concerns. The overall economics of the commercial process of making phthalocyanines particularly copper phthalocyanine results into 8 to 10% reduction in cost as compared to the current standard process followed in the Industry.
EXAMPLES
In order to more clearly describe the nature of the present invention, specific example(s) will hereinafter be described.
EXAMPLE 1
1000 kg Parts of phthalic anhydride and 1400 parts of urea, 175 parts of cuprous chloride, 2.5 parts of ammonium molybdate, were heated in 3500 kg nitrobenzene. The off waste stream ( ammonia and Carbon dioxide ) both coming from main reaction and post treatments were eventually scrubbed in water scrubber to produce 25 w % ammonium carbamate liquid. The product obtained after solvent removal gave 925 parts of a crude copper phthalocyanine (purity 97.6 %, yield 94.0 %).
In another reactor the above ammonium carbamate solution obtained from scrubber was reacted at 35 to 90° with phthalic anhydride (1000 parts) which was added while continuously removing water. After that, 1000 parts nitro benzene and 950 parts Urea was added. To this mixture further added 175 parts CuCl and

2.5 parts Ammonium molybdate. The whole mixture was heated at 185 to 220° to get almost quantitative yield of copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) crude which is equivalent to the normal crude produced.
EXAMPLE 2
The ammonium carbamate solution is generated as described in Example 1 only Cobalt Chloride was used instead of copper (I) chloride and this solutions is recycled. and reused to produce cobalt phthalocyanine as described in this invention.
The ammonium carbamate solution obtained from scrubber was reacted at 35 to 90° with phthalic anhydride (1000 parts) which was added while continuously removing water. After complete removal of water, 1000 parts nitro benzene and 950 parts Urea was added. To this mixture further added 165 parts CoCI2 6H20 and 2.5 parts Ammonium molybdate. The whole mixture was heated at 185 to 220° to get almost quantitative yield of cobalt phthalocyanine (CuPc) crude which is equivalent to the normal crude produced.
From the foregoing description, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that many changes and modifications can be made thereto without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as set forth herein.
Accordingly, it is not intended that the scope of the foregoing description be limited to the description set forth above, but rather that such description be construed as encompassing all of the features of patentable novelty that reside in the present invention, including all the features and embodiments that would be treated as equivalents thereof by those skilled in the relevant art. Thus, it is intended that the scope of the present invention herein disclosed should not be limited by the particular disclosed embodiments described above but should be determined only by a fair reading of complete specification and claims to follow.

25
30

WE CLAIM:
1. A cost effective, environment friendly and industrially viable process for the
preparation of phthalocyanine compounds more particularly copper
phthalocyanine, other metal phthalocyanines and metal free phthalocyanine, the
process comprising the steps of:
scrubbing the waste ammonia and carbondioxide gaseous streams generated during /by phthalic anhydride - urea process in aqueous solution;
saturating the aqueous solution to produce ammonia in the range of about 10-35 %■;
treating the saturated solution with phthalic anhydride and one or more suitable solvents to convert into phthalocyanine intermediates in the presence of one or more suitable catalyst;
converting in-situ the phthalocyanine intermediates to copper phthalocyanine or other metal / metal free phthalocyanine with the help of minimal amount of urea compound and metal salt.
2. The process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the phthalocyanine intermediates are phthalimide, 1,3-diminoisoindoline or 1,2-dihydro-3H-indazol-3-one with small amount of ortho phthalodinitrile,
3. The process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of treating the saturated solution of waste gaseous stream with phthalic anhydride is conducted at a temperature of 110° to 250° C.
4. The process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the suitable solvents are high boiling solvents comprising nitro benzene, Nitro toluenes, chlorinated toluenes such as dichlorotoulene, chlorinated benzenes, linear alkyl benzenes, Dimethylformamide, sulfolane etc. and derivatives thereof.
5. The process as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of recycling the saturated aqueous ammonium carbamate solution comprising ammonical nitrogen in an active form.

6. The process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the suitable catalysts are selected from phthalimide, 1,3-diminoisoindoline or 1,2-dihydro-3H-indazol-3-one and inorganic compounds such as dilute nitric acid or its alkali metals salts.
7. The process as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the process utilizes almost complete ammonical Nitrogen and small unreacted ammonical nitrogen is again captured and recycled to get phthalocyanine
intermediates.