Young Scientists Awarded on CSIR Foundation Day CLRI And IIP get CSIR Technology Awards 2007 Mahindra And Mahindra Bags CSIR Diamond Jubilee Technology Award

Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Shri Kapil Sibal today gave away CSIR Technology Award 2007 for Physical Sciences including Engineering to ‘Team CLRI’ at Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai and CSIR Technology Award 2007 for Innovation to ‘Team IIP’ at Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun.

‘Team CLRI’ has won the award for developing chemo autotrophic activated carbon oxidation (CAACO) technology for the treatment of waste water. The technology involves biological and catalytic oxidations coupled in a single reactor. Biological oxidation of constituents of wastewater is accomplished by the immobilized aerobic and anaerobic bacteria (chemo autotrophs) in the meso pores of activated carbon and catalytic oxidation is carried out at the active sites of activated carbon. CLRI has also developed a packed bed reactor (CAACO Reactor) for the treatment of waste water. The CAACO technology has been implemented in more than 50 installations to test its efficacy on the treatment of wastewater discharged from different industries, software parks, residential colonies etc of varying capacities. The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 2 lakh, a plaque and a citation.

‘Team IIP’ has won the award for developing new catalysts for sweetening of lighter and heavier petroleum fractions. IIP after consistent R & D efforts has developed novel sweetening catalysts namely cobalt phthalocyanine sulphonamide for extractive sweetening of LPG/ lighter petroleum fractions and cobalt phthalocyanines dichloride for fixed bed sweetening of heavier petroleum fractions. Successful trial run of cobalt phthalocyanines sulphonamide catalyst was undertaken in FCC LPG Merox unit of BPCL Mumbai & LPG Merox unit of RIL, Jamnagar and the performance was found comparatively better than the commercial catalyst. IIP has filed twenty one patents for this innovation. Currently IIP is in the process of transferring the know how for the commercial production of these catalysts. The catalysts, being techno-economically superior, have the potential of replacing the existing catalysts world over. The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 2 lakh, a plaque and a citation.

CSIR Technology Awards, given annually, were instituted in 1990 with a view to foster and encourage in-house multidisciplinary team efforts and external interaction for technology development, transfer, marketing and commercialization.

Shri Kapil Sibal also gave away CSIR Young Scientist Award 2007. List of Recipients is as follows.

1. Dr M Jayakannan, Chemical Science & Techonolgy Division, National Institute for      InterdiscplinaryScience and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram

2. Dr Souvik Maiti, Preteomics and Structural Biology Unit, Institute of Genomics &

    Integrative Biology [IGIB] New Delhi

3. Shri Rabibrata Mukherjee, Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute, Kolkata

4. Dr Sundergopal Sridhar, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad

5. Dr N Vijayan, Materials Characterization Division, National Physical Laboratory,

New Delhi

DG, CSIR announced CSIR Diamond Jubilee Technology Award 2007 to “Mahindra and Mahindra Limited”. The Company has won the award for development and commercialization of Scorpio. The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 10 lakh, a shield and a citation. The CSIR Diamond Jubilee Technology Award, given annually, was instituted in commemoration of CSIR’s Diamond Jubilee in 2003 and is the most prestigious award in the country.

Source : Press Information Bureau
Date : September 26, 2007