IIT Guwahati, NRL to set up centre of excellence

Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati and Numaligarh Refinery Limited will jointly set up the 'NRL-Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Sustainable Materials' to develop products from various waste sources generated from multiple industries.

Director of IIT Guwahati T G Sitharami and NRL's Senior Chief General Manager (Corporate Affairs) Nikunja Borthakur signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Memorandum of Agreement, according to a release issued by the institute on Friday.

The COE will act as an umbrella for many upcoming collaborative research projects on the development of sustainable materials such as bio-plastics, Sitharam said.

''This alliance between IIT Guwahati and NRL is a first of its kind academic-industrial collaborative venture and it will work towards production of biodegradable plastics utilising the waste and intermediate materials from the existing oil and bio-feedstock based industries'', he said.

The current global emphasis on environmental sustainability has made it a necessity to develop eco-friendly and sustainable materials for commodity applications using various inexpensive, renewable and waste sources from petroleum industries bio-refineries and agro industries.

"This CoE will serve as an umbrella for many such upcoming collaborative research projects on the development of sustainable materials like bio-plastics and other value added chemicals under one platform to serve industries like NRL in tackling environmental pollution," he said.

This will result in value addition to the wastes, reduce carbon footprint of these industries and increase India's imprint on the development of sustainable materials on a global scale.

The Department of Chemical Engineering of the institute has received an initial research grant of Rs 4 crore for the project from the state-run refiner to begin work by utilising by-products generated from NRL and allied industries.