IIT Guwahati sets up facilities to develop sustainable materials, green technologies

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati has set up the NRL - Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Sustainable Materials Translational Facility on Bioplastics at its campus. The new centre has been established to work towards the development of environment-friendly sustainable plastics.

While issuing a statement in this regard, IIT Guwahati said: “Environmental concerns associated with existing plastics have resulted in an urgent need to develop alternatives that should have practically identical performance properties at comparable production cost.”

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The partnership between IIT Guwahati and NRL to establish the CoE for Sustainable Materials Translational Facility on Bioplastics is a “first of its kind academic-industrial collaboration”. This venture, IIT Guwahati said seeks to foster research and development work along with the production of biodegradable plastics utilising the waste and intermediate materials.

Speaking about the recently inaugurated Translational Facility at IIT Guwahati, Prof. Parameswar K. Iyer, Officiating Director, IIT Guwahati, said, “Such holistic technological advancement in the area of biodegradable plastics through industry support is a one-of-its-kind initiative in the country. We are hopeful that the industries will use the available knowledge base to speed up further commercial activities in the compostable plastics sector, as the current plastic problem needs to be addressed without further delay.”

As per the statement, the recently established translational facility on bioplastics at IIT Guwahati houses the first biodegradable plastic production pilot plant along with several processing facilities for various biodegradable plastic products such as compostable cutlery, carry bags, plastic containers, and glasses, among others, using customised film packaging line, injection molding, cast sheet line and thermoforming products line.

These facilities, it added, will help in sensitizing the industries throughout the country to gain initial know-how for developing commercial production facilities to cater to the need of a sustainable society.