IOC's R&D centre patent filing crosses 1,000-mark

State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) Tuesday said its research and development centre at Faridabad has become the first public sector oil and gas company to cross the milestone of filing 1,000 patents.

The Centre filed the 1,001st patent this week, the company said in a statement here.

"The R&D Centre's IP (Intellectual Property) portfolio comprises 794 active patents, of which 542 patents were granted abroad and 252 in India. The centre has also registered a healthy commercialisation rate for its patents, higher than the global average," it said.

Complimenting the R&D team for lending a competitive edge to IOC's business through innovative products, processes and technologies, company chairman Sanjiv Singh said several quality upgradation projects implemented at its refineries for production of ultra-clean BS-VI grde fuels are based on deep desulphurisation, isomerisation and dimerisation technology patents developed in-house.

IOC's internationally-awarded INDMAX technology patent, successfully commercialised at Paradip Refinery, improves LPG yields by 40 per cent besides ensuring the highest propylene yields in its class, the statement said adding the centre's bio-methanation technology is best-in-class in methane yields and is being implemented at the Namakkal (Tamil Nadu) plant for production of compressed bio-gas (CBG).

Established in 1972, the centre is a pioneer in downstream petroleum sector R&D and has received wide acclaim for indigenising lubricants technology by launching the SERVO brand. With over 5,000 formulations and over 800 active grades covering all conceivable applications, including rail-road and marine oils, SERVO has grown to be the largest selling lubricant brand in India.

From being the birth place of the highly successful, fuel-efficient 'Nutan' kerosene wick-stove in the late 70s, the R&D centre has come a long way in the past four decades.

According to SSV Ramakumar, Director (R&D), IOC, the centre has been focussing on developing high-quality, environment-friendly products and innovative refinery processes that boost resource efficiency, enhance refinery-petrochemicals integration, and offer flexibility in product pattern and yields in line with market demand.

With 50 per cent of its active patents in the refining category, followed by 16 per cent in bio-technology, the R&D team has made considerable progress even in the highly IP-crowded field of Ziegler-Natta catalysts, used in production of polymers (plastics). "We have not only created white space here but succeeded in earning a rich haul of patent grants that are well recognised by global majors," he said.

In line with IOC's business objectives, the R&D centre has expanded its research domain to cover petrochemicals, nano-technology, alternative fuels, energy storage solutions and Hydrogen-based fuel cell research, among others, the statement added.