Exactly on 31st March 2010 we reached our target for the year and I jumped shouting loudly and proudly...WE MADE IT!!

IMMT has maintained its growth trajectory in the year 2009–10, despite the ongoing recession in mineral and metal industries. This year we have recorded contract research funding of Rs. 10 crore and 100 SCI papers that are at an all-time high. We owe a lot to CSIR for the financial support that we received over the last few years.

We have built on our continued interaction with mineral based industries especially in the iron ore processing sector and today we can proudly state based on our credibility and trust earned from the industry that we are no less than anyone in the world. We have developed several important flowsheets for the processing of low grade iron ore, chromite ore, tailings and slimes to recover desirable grade feed material for iron and steel industries at an acceptable yield. Based on these work, the availability of ore resources for the iron and steel industry has increased significantly. Furthermore, we have been working on some cutting edge technologies in this sector. One of the important R&D initiatives launched this year involves hydrogen plasma based iron making and microwave processing of iron ore. Similarly, we continued our R&D work on microbial leaching and beneficiation of various low grade ores. In one of the applications, microbial desulfurization of pet-coke is being considered for further scale-up studies after successfully completing the laboratory scale evaluation.

The Innovation Centre for Plasma Processing is being set up with funding of CSIR and upon completion it will house state of the art plasma processing facilities for processing of minerals and materials for different high value applications.

Energy is at the heart of country’s economic performance and obviously it figures at the core of our research activities. In relation to energy, we have continued our work on deriving bio-fuel from micro-algae, bio-methanation of vegetable waste, improvement of efficiency of various combustion devices especially conversion of oil to coal fired furnaces, etc. We have also made significant R&D contributions towards development of solid oxide fuel cell and hydrogen generation using photocatalytic method.

We have continued our work under COMAPS which involved monitoring of coastal Odisha, Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh for water quality. We are carrying out environmental impact assessment studies for Paradip and Dhamra ports. Studies on nitrous oxide flux from farm land, monitoring of ozone and aerosol, climatic data collection, etc., are underway with support of various government agencies. Setting up of the demonstration plant for high volume utilization of fly ash is going on as per plan. Once completed, it will be a unique facility in this region to demonstrate fly ash based technology to potential entrepreneurs.

We continued our efforts in carrying out surveys of microbial diversity in our marine environment and mangroves. Besides, we are building a digital database on the traditional knowledge of various tribes in this region to provide intellectual property protection to them on various natural remedies used by them.

On the societal front, the Terafil™ water filter developed by us is now immensely popular all over the country since its inclusion in the Bharat Nirman Programme. Fabrication of this simple gadget not only helps generate rural employment it also provides clean and safe drinking water. A Terafil™ demonstration centre is being planned at IMMT to cater to the requirements training and quality monitoring.

I am proud to report that for the first time we made the one-year PGDME and the two-year PGRPE programs operational. The purpose of these programs is to meet the HR demands of industry as well as the research laboratory. The 2-year course on Materials Resource Engineering is already into one year of its existence and hopefully the batch will get post-graduate degree recognition under the proposed CSIR Academy.

On the whole, the last financial year was a consolidation and growth of R&D efforts of the previous two to three year period. Nonetheless, it has been a very productive and promising year for IMMT and I believe our future rests on identifying areas—from appropriate technology to advance materials—where either product or process innovation could be realized through our research efforts. I also believe that we are approaching a new horizon in our approach to R&D at IMMT which is going to benefit all of us.