The process is adaptable to the traditional brick and tile industry with appropriate mechanization and conserves upto 80% of natural clays and use up to 80% of fly ash. The cost calculations based on the pilot plant demonstration trials show that the price of the fly ash products will be in the similar range as clay products. The plant should be preferably in the premises of the thermal power plants and the process is suitable for pond ash and stored ash as also with dry fly ash. All machineries and the binders/additives are available in the country.

Investment required : Total investment for a plant producing 60,000 bricks/tiles/glazed tiles: Rs.2-2.5 crore. Brick cost Rs.2.50-3.0 per piece, tiles at Rs. 4-5 per piece and glazed products Rs. 6-8 per piece.

Returns /Benefit: 15-18% returns on investment over a period of 5 years.; Validation level: Pilot-scale.; IPR Status: Patented in India.

The conventional extraction processes like retting leads to serious problems like methane and sulphide emission, water contamination and other environmental pollutions. Emission of methane and sulphide during the retting process is a major source of environmental pollution as they contribute to greenhouse gases. Owing to the above factors, Biological method is preferred to mechanical and chemical routes for extracting fibres of good quality from the embedding matrix. It is in this context that NIIST devised a clean bioprocess which has the potential to replace the traditional method of retting in which the plant materials are left to decay in humid conditions or in water to free the fibre from matrices.

Validation level : Real life.; IPR Status : Filed.

\”White pepper\”, the de-skinned black or fresh pepper is the most valued form of pepper (almost double value of black pepper). Common method for making white pepper is traditional retting, which affects the product quality significantly.

The innovative clean bioprocess from CSIR-NIIST helps in fast and bulk production of white pepper without losing its spicy principles. The process is designed to cleave the pectin molecular bonding between the skin and oil glands of the pepper kernel by the action of enzymes produced in-situ, This is facilitated in tanks by circulating liquid from a reservoir of a microbial culture grown on degraded pepper skin medium. This bioprocess completes skin removal in 2 days for green and 4 days for black pepper under designed conditions.

Major advantages for the new process are the following:

• Achieves better quality white pepper (No foul smell)
• No loss from process damage
• Inexpensive and fast
• Simple operation and scalability
• Pollution free process with the recovery of energy and bio manure as by-products

• Fresh flavour retained in the end product
• Higher percentage of flavour / active ingredient recovery
• Low energy consumption
• Less possibility of aflatoxin contamination

AutoCAST-X1 with FLOW is one of the very few products entirely designed and developed in India, This product positioned as an easy-to-use, world-class, yet affordable simulation software to Indian foundries and gives them the competitive edge of simulation at an affordable cost (compared to similar products) to deliver defect-free castings right first time and every time. Major benefits of using this product in foundries are reduction of lead time for first good sample casting, very less rejection rates and better customer satisfaction.

  Indigenous_casting_simulation_software_for_small__medium_scale_foundries.pdf (258.2 KiB, 1,027 hits)

CSIR-NIIST have developed and commercialized Fresh Ginger Processing Technology since 2000 for producing value-added products such as ginger oil, dry ginger powder, etc. The institute has set up three processing units in the North East and has transferred this technology to many other industries, CSIR -NIIST provides the know-how, technical assistance insourcing of the machinery, engineering consultancy, training the operating staff, assist in erection & commissioning and troubleshooting. The same technology can be adopted for post-harvest operations of other spices like turmeric, cardamom, etc.
Considering the climatic conditions of Northeast, cost-effective mechanical drying of various agri crops can also look into for value addition and shelf life enhancement.
The major advantages are

• Yield of oil 30 % more than the conventional process.
• Processing time reduced to 4 hours instead of 18 hours.
• Reduced energy consumption.
• Processing cost around 12 % of the total cost of production.
• Superior quality of flavour.
• Possibility for byproducts utilization.

CSIR-NIIST had isolated a filamentous fungus from decaying wood in 2005, which was identified as Aspergillus niger and designated isolate no. NII 08121. The fungus produced a BGL which was active at 0.5M glucose and had a glucose inhibition constant (Ki) of 0.2M. The technology developed is a solid-state fermentation process for the production of NII 08121 BGL.

Beta-Glucosidase is an important component in the enzyme (cellulase) cocktail for hydrolysis of biomass to generate sugars for biofuels and other applications, as this is the rate-limiting enzyme. The availability of enzymes for biomass hydrolysis is important for the future energy security indigenous technologies for enzyme production are warranted. CSIR-NIIST has a solid-state fermentation (SSF) technology for the production of BGL using the fungus Aspergillus niger demonstrated successfully at a semi-pilot scale (up-to 10kg level). The technology would help to produce BGL at a cheaper rate than existing processes and would help in development of efficient biomass hydrolyzing enzyme cocktails for biorefinery applications.

A Process for making banana fiber polymer composites. It is a cost-effective substitute for glass fiber reinforced plastic to make variety of products e.g. simple trays, mirror casings to voltage stabilizer cover and electrical panels.

The process consists of preparing moulds of metal, wood or plaster of paris; mixing the resin and dye in requisite proportion; shaping the banana fabric by laying it over the mould; reinforcing the polymer over banana fabric; curing the mould; demoulding; cutting, trimming and polishing.

CSIR-NIIST  has developed a process for the production of Nanoparticles starting through hydrolysis-peptisation technique. The process in general consists of hydrolyzing titanyl sulphate or chloride to titanyl hydroxide by addition of ammonium hydroxide followed by washing and removal of all the undesirable ions.

Investment required: For a plant size of 10 kg/batch capacity, the cost of the plant will be about Rs. 250 lakh. The machinery cost will be about Rs. 160 lakh.

Returns /Benefit: The abundant deposits available in the country could be gainfully utilized.

Validation level: Till now, the process has been optimized in the laboratory and being scaled up to Bench/Pilot scale with M/s Indian Rare Earths Ltd., Mumbai which is set up in IREL Kollam is expected to get commissioned in June, 2010. The average cost of the nanoparticles will be Rs. ~1000-2000 per Kg only.

IPR Status : Filed.