All the tourist buses in Gir sanctuary now run on bio-disel produced by CSMCRI. After Bhavnagar's Central Salt and Marine Chemicals and Research Institute's (CSMCRI) jatropha based bio-diesel was granted patent in the US end of last year, it has started supplying the fuel to tourist buses in Gir sanctuary.
Around six to seven buses in the lions' sanctuary now run on 100 per cent bio-diesel without any engine modification. The tourism department is consuming close to 3,000 litres per month at an average price of Rs 45 per litre.
As CSMCRI starts work on monetising some of the 50 odd patents that it has been granted in the last eight years, some interesting tie-up opportunities are thrown up. The institute which is a part of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) is planning to earn anything between Rs 5-10 crore per year from royalty and licensing of its patents.
"We have started work with various partners to develop practical applications out of these innovations. Further, US and EU patents give confidence to the entrepreneur about the technology and its exclusivity as these have already gone through the rigorous examination and validation processes," said P K Ghosh, director of CSMCRI.
Ghosh estimated that the institute should be able to earn at least 15-20 per cent of its net fund requirements as of now, and over a period of time try to become a self-sustained institute. CSMCRI hopes to generate revenues between Rs 5-10 crore per year at present. As the jatropha-based bio-diesel project of the institute has become popular, it is now planning to set up a 10,000 litre per day plant to scale up the operations.
"The investment could be around Rs 13- 15 crore for such a facility," Ghosh said. The institute now collaborates with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) which is doing trial runs on millitary vehicles using bio-diesel. It has also entered into an agreement with the US Department of Energy(DoE) and General Motors (GM) to develop jatropha as a sustainable crop.
Another patented technology of the institute, which can be used to convert the effluent discharged by the soda ash manufacturers into salt. "The effluent is now discharged into the sea. But, by using this technology, we can convert it to salt that can be consumed by the manufacturers themselves. The Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) is keen to partner with us on this project," Ghosh said.
CSMCRI has had a meeting with the soda ash manufacturers in the state and GPCB a few weeks back, and over the next few months CSMCRI would work with these manufacturers to test the practical difficulties in implementation of the technology.
Ghosh talks about another recent innovation of the institute that it wishes to monetise: "We have been able to make some progress on the potash technology we had developed a few years back that would make potash from seawater. We were producing some co-products in the process. Now, we have a technology that will convert one of these co-products into refractory magnesia which can be used as an import substitute of magnesia in the steel plants. We have been granted a patent recently and are looking for companies to whom we can license this technology." The potash technology is already used by Chennai based Archean Group, and CSMCRI is also in talks with Tata Chemical for the same.
“We would also try to look for international licensing opportunities. For that we need to demonstrate any technology at a certain scale. We are now choosing technology that has potential for licensing opportunities, and would work on scaling up such set ups," he adds.
