Chloroform Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2017–2025

Chloroform is an organic compound with a molecular formula of CHCl₃ and belongs to the group of compounds known as trihalomethanes. It is available in the form of a clear colorless liquid with a typical odor. Chloroform is relatively unreactive, conveniently volatile, and miscible with most organic liquids, thus being used as a common solvent for laboratory purposes. It is usually non-flammable in nature, though it burns under extreme conditions. It is used as a solvent in the pharmaceutical industry and for producing dyes and pesticides. Chloroform is generally produced by the action of bleaching powder on alcohol or acetone. In this process, the bleaching powder acts partially as an oxidizing agent and partially as a chlorinating agent. Chloroform is purified by washing and rectification and is also prepared from chlorination of methane.

Chloroform proves to be an excellent solvent for alkaloids in their base form. In laboratories, Chloroform comprising of deuterium (CDCl₃), is commonly used as a solvent in NMR spectroscopy. Chloroform is also majorly used in the production of Freon refrigerant R-22. In laboratories, it is used for the preservation of organic tissues, which includes anatomical specimens, to prevent decay. It is also used as an industrial solvent in photography, waxes, fats, oils, resins, greases, adhesives, and dry cleaning.

Chloroform Market Taxonomy

On the basis of application, the chloroform market is classified into:

• Reagent
• Solvent
• Intermediate

On the basis of end-use industry, the global chloroform market is classified into:

• Pharmaceuticals
• Agriculture
• Chemicals
• Food and Beverages

 Chloroform is commercially used to extract morphine from scopolamine and poppies from Datura plants. In molecular biology, chloroform has many applications such as DNA extraction from cells, in extraction buffers, extraction of mineral oil from polymerase chain reaction samples, DNA recovery from polyacrylamide gels, handling phenol, storage of lambda cDNA, lambda plaques, and plasmid DNA extraction.

Chloroform Market Outlook – Increasing Demand in Chemicals and allied Industries to be the Major Market Driver  

Asia Pacific and North America are expected to be the most potential markets for chloroform manufacturers. According to IBEF, India was the seventh largest producer of chemicals in the world worldwide and third largest producer in Asia. The estimated size of the chemicals sector in India, accounts for around US$ 139 billion. During 2015-2016, around 23.9 million tons of major chemicals such as petrochemicals were produced.  The Indian chemicals industry has attracted various foreign investors such as Akzo Nobel, BASF, ADEKA, Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation, Syngenta, DuPont, Henkel, Croda, Wacker Metroark, DyStar, and Rhodla. India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) is a Trust established by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Commerce in collaboration with the Government of India, with the purpose to promote and create international awareness of goods manufactured in India, in turn expecting to boost investments in the country, by major international players

Extensive use of chloroform by the chemicals and pharmaceutical industries, is fueling growth of the chloroform market, especially in the Asia Pacific and the Middle East regions. Product innovation and expansion in various geographies is a key strategy adopted by the major players in the chloroform market. In January 2016, Aditya Birla Chemicals Limited merged with Grasim Industries, which is one of the leading chloro alkali manufacturers in India, to increase the production capacity from 453K TPA to 804K TPA. Some of the major companies operating in the global chloroform market include Amadis Chemicals, Sigma-Aldrich, Chem Tik, MP Biomedicals, Tokyo Chemical Industry, abce CGmbH, AKos Consulting & Solutions, Mcule, Acadechem, Wutech, Molepedia, iChemical, IS Chemical Technology, Chembase.cn, and Life Chemicals.