1

Centre of Excellence (CoE)

on

“Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Polymers” (CoE-SusPol)” at

Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

1. Brief Note on The Project work: “Centre of Excellence for Sustainable

Polymers” (CoE-SusPol) The Centre of Excellence in for Sustainable Polymers (CoE SusPol) has been established at Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Assam 781039, India through the support of the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals (DCPC), Ministry of Chemical and Fertilizers, Government of India with the mandate to Develop biodegradable Plastics and its products for the need of Indian Industries.

2. Advantages of Project Work The Centre was established in the year of 2013-2014. Since then the Centre has achieved several important milestones in order to disseminate the knowledge acquired on biodegradable and biobased polymers to the society, both in India and Abroad. Currently, the centre is focused on developing indigenous and innovative technology to the world to mark its footprint to the global technology initiative. In this regard, the centre has trained significant number of Post-Doctoral Fellows, PhD research scholars, M Tech and B Tech students, who have been under training for different periods of time to carry out high impact scientific research on biodegradable plastic-based technology. So far Ten PhD students have graduated from the centre by utilizing the resources of the centre, and more than twenty PhD students are working currently under different projects. In addition, five post-doctoral fellows had worked under the centre and currently two post-doctoral fellows are involved in different research projects related to biodegradable polymers and their composites. Senice the inseption of the Centre more than 100 research articles have been published in reputed peer-reviewed international journals published by the American Chemical Society (ACS), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Springer, Wiley and Nature publishing group. In terms of the intellectual property, we are happy to inform that we have filed fourteen patent applications to Indian patent office of our new inventions. In order to disseminate the knowledge created exclusively at CoE-SusPol laboratories, four series of international symposiums on sustainable polymers have successfully been conducted till date. We have established world class facility on polymer synthesis, characterization, processing, testing, polymer degradation studies, migration studies, and fabrication of raw materials utilizing the resources provided by the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals. The centre has also developed technologies on synthesis of biodegradable polymers and nanocomposites with excellent properties that are capable to overcome the limitation of properties with the currently available biodegradable polymers on the shelf. The excellent research work being carried out in CoE-SusPol has been highlighted not only in India but also across the world by delivering invited talks in several conferences in different countries across the globe. With our state-of-the-art research capabilities, excellence in basic science, engineering and proven delivery of applied solutions, we aim to advance the field of additive manufacturing

2

in India. The centre invites interested industrial partners to actively participate for collaborative research.

3. Agreements made with following for technology transfer/ commercialization of the technology Discussions are ongoing with several industrial clients for new material development as well as structural understanding of materials that have undergone the printing process. We have already joined hands with Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), Assam, India with the broad objective of developing Biodegradable Plastics from various waste and byproducts sourced from multiple sectors like petroleum industries bio-refineries and agro industries. NRL has provided an initial research grant of Rs. 4.0 crores to fulfil the above objectives. It is noteworthy to mention that due to current global emphasis on environmental sustainability, it has become a necessity to develop environment-friendly and sustainable polymers for commodity applications using various inexpensive, renewable and waste sources.

4. Publications on the Project No. of publications (published/ accepted/ under review) below

In International Journals (referred): 120

In International Conferences: 250

Number of Awards/honour received: 25

Invited/Keynote Talk about CoE-SusPol Activities during Meetings/Visit to International:

85

Industries have shown their interest to working with CoE-SusPol at IIT Guwahati: 10 Research and Development Details

Number of PG Project Guided (M. Tech.): 15

Number of PhD Thesis Guided (Involved in/ Finished): 31

5. Details of Patents granted for the project No. of Patents (Granted/Filed/In Process) below:

No. of Patents (Granted/Filed): 14

No of Patent in process: 06

6. Equipment/ Machines available at CoE Name of Machinery

Polarizing Optical Microscope

Hardness Tester

Melt Flow Index

Dynamic Heat Flow Differentiated Scanning Calorimeter

Round Vacuum Oven

Optical polarimeter

Thermo-gravimetric Hyphenated with Frontier MIR System

3

ANSYS Acadmic Research CFD

Rack Mounted Server

Glove Box with two hands

2 TNO Migration Cells

Autolab 204 Compact Modular Potentiostat Galvanostat with internal dummy cell

Visible Spectrophotometer

Work Station Computer

Reactive Distillation Unit

Ultrasonic Cleaner

Scrap Grinder and Mixer Grinder

High Pressure Set up with autoclave

UV Visible Spectrophotometer with microplate reading

Polycondensation Reactor with Downstrean Purification

Round Vaccum Oven

Fluorescence Microscope Attachment

Twin Screw Extruder with Injection Moulding and accessories

Low Temperature Recirculation Bath

Magnetic drive

Air Compressor

Peristaltic Pump

Stainless Steel Autoclave closed

Refrigerator

Migration Cell Set UP single side

Crucibles

Mould for minijet pro

Automatic Vacuum Forming Maschine

Digital Tearing Resistance Tester

Temperature Control Viscometer

Fermenter

NE71, J-Shaped Needle, Stainless Steel with stainless steel Luer lock

Air Jacketed CO2 Incubator

Headspace gas analyzer for quality control modified

Contact angle measurement

Low Temperature Recirculating Bath

Hand Operated Hydraulic Compression Molding Machine with cooling Machine

Desktop PC (10 Nos.)

Karl Fischer Coulometer

Ultrsonic Homogenizer

Oil Free Compressor

ICP MS

Electrospinning Unit

DMA with TMA

High Temperature GPC

4

7. Facilities available at CoE The materials characterization facility is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment for measuring the structure and properties of macromolecular materials at various length scales.

Monomer & Catalyst Synthesis & Purification Equipments

Polymerization reactors (high pressure & vacuum reactor)

Reactive distillation plant

Facilities for Barrier Properties

Water vapor Permeability tester

Facilities for Morphological & Surface Studies

Polarizing optical microscope (with Hot Plate)

Contact Angle Measurement Device

Facilities for Migration Studies

ICPMS

Micro compounder with Injection Molding Machine

Blown film extruder

Thermoforming Machine

High Shear Mixer/Grinder

Electro spinning Setup

Computational Facilities

Material studio

High Performance Computing Facilities

Biodegradability test setup

Biocompatibility test setup

Polymer nanocomposite based Cast Film processing line

Nanocellulose production set up

8. Contact details for further information

Prof. Vimal Katiyar, Ph.D. Coordinator, CoE-SusPol Dean, Research & Development (Ext: 2082) Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering (Ext: 2278) Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati Guwahati, Pin-781039, Assam, India Email: vkatiyar@iitg.ac.in Phone: +91 03612583350; +91 7896123664 http://www.iitg.ac.in/chemeng/vk/home http://www.iitg.ac.in/coesuspol

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal, The Honourable Minister of Human Resource Development, GOI Inaugurated the NRL sponsored Center of Excellence for Sustainable Materials in Prsence of Dr. T.G. Sitharam, Director IIT Guwahati and Shri S.K. Barua, MD, NRL.

Visit of School Children’s from North East under The MHRD Scheme of Ishan Vikas, Year-2017

Visit of Shri P. Raghavendra Rao, Secretary, Department of Chemicals & Petro-Chemicals, Government of India

Visit of Mr. Kenichiro Toyofuku, Director, Corporate Planning, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal, The Honourable Minister of Human Resource Development, GOI Shared his thoughts on Center of Excellence for Sustainable Materials and gave his best wishes to the faculty members and students of the center for their research.

Shri Sanjay Dhotre was presented with biodegradable plastic-coated bag by the Co-ordinator of CoE-SusPol Prof. Vimal Katiyar

13

Shri Jagdish Mukhi, Governor of Assam, Shared his thoughts about his visit to IIT Guwahati and CoE-SusPol on social media

Dr. B.V.R. Chowdari, Director, NTU-India Connect was presented with a compostable bag developed at CoE-SusPol, during his visit.

IIT Guwahati and Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) Signed a MoU for setting up the “NRL-Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Sustainable Materials”

CoE-SusPol organized an Awareness Campaign at Guwahati Central Mall and Demonstrated Biodegradable Platic Products on 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi

14

Exhibition of CoE-SusPol Products, in BioJapan-2019 at Pacifico Yokohama, Japan

CoE-SusPol organized an Awareness Campaign at IIT Guwahati and Demonstrated Biodegradable Platic Products on 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi

15

Lab made products and awards Biopolymer based 3D Printed Product

Biopolymer based 3D Printed Product Bio absorbable Cortical Screws

Biopolymer monofilaments Lab synthesized biodegradable plastic bowls

3D Printed Lumbar Vertebrae Bioabsorbable Bone Plate

Film Extraction Lab Made Biopolymer Products