The ongoing geopolitical tensions and navy battle in Western Asia involving the United States, Israel, and Iran have triggered renewed issues about world power safety. With potential disruptions to crude oil and pure fuel provides, researchers and business leaders are more and more wanting towards different and sustainable power applied sciences. In this context, a number of improvements developed on the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai are attracting consideration for his or her potential position in addressing the rising power crisis.
ICT Mumbai—previously the University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT)—has lengthy been acknowledged as one among India’s premier establishments for chemical engineering and technology. Over the many years, the institute has contributed considerably to the event of India’s chemical and allied industries and has produced quite a few industrial leaders, together with a number of billionaires and 19 Padma awardees.
Among the researchers engaged on options related to power safety is Professor Dr. Ganapati D. Yadav, former Vice-Chancellor of ICT and can also be a recipient of the Padma Shri (2016) and holds 137 patents. Dr. Yadav has served as an impartial director on the boards of a number of main industries and has contributed to coverage making by way of committees of the Government of India, together with the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), and CSIR. He at present chairs the Hydrocarbon Committee of MoPNG and serves on a number of different nationwide our bodies.
Over the previous 20 years, Dr. Yadav and his analysis group at ICT Mumbai have labored extensively on inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing, catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide into fuels and chemical substances, reforming of bio-alcohols, depolymerisation of waste plastics comparable to PET, nylon, and polyurethane, and the conversion of biomass into worthwhile chemical substances.
Dr. Yadav’s group has developed a direct catalytic course of for changing carbon dioxide into dimethyl ether (DME), a clear gasoline that may be blended with LPG up to 20 %. This work was supported by a UGC Kothari Post-Doctoral Fellowship and the National Science Chair scheme.
The technology is now being scaled up in collaboration with Godavari Biorefineries Ltd. at its Nashik facility, the place carbon dioxide from fermentation processes and hydrogen from dehydrogenation models can be found on website. The initiative has obtained sturdy help from Samir Somaiya, Chairman, Somaiya Group, who’s eager to take the technology to the worldwide stage after profitable pilot demonstrations.
This academia–business collaboration was acknowledged with the Okay. V. Mariwala Award of the Indian Chemical Council in 2025.
Commenting on latest bulletins by different establishments concerning methanol-to-DME routes, Dr. Yadav famous that India ought to develop a basket of applied sciences primarily based on a number of feedstocks and catalytic pathways to strengthen nationwide power resilience.
His laboratory has developed 4 pioneering applied sciences notably related to the current world power state of affairs. With help from the ONGC Energy Centre (OEC), the ICT, Mumbai workforce has developed catalytic processes for changing carbon dioxide into methane and better hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide into methanol, and water into inexperienced hydrogen by way of the copper–chlorine thermochemical cycle. The inexperienced hydrogen technology is at present being pilot scaled at Taloja.
According to officers related to the undertaking, the ONGC Energy Centre, beneath the management of Sunil Kumar and his colleagues, is eager to take these applied sciences in the direction of full industrial deployment.
Beyond fuels, Dr. Yadav additionally advocates the event of biorefineries primarily based on agricultural residues. According to him, farmers may considerably enhance their revenue if agricultural waste is pelletised and transformed catalytically into fuels and chemical substances. In such built-in biorefineries, cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin from biomass might be remodeled into a variety of business merchandise.
He has additionally proposed a novel coverage method to tackle plastic waste. Instead of banning plastics, Dr. Yadav suggests introducing a refundable deposit of Rs. 20 on each plastic article, no matter form, dimension or thickness, together with barcoding and digital monitoring. Such a system may encourage assortment and recycling on the supply whereas creating employment alternatives and integrating waste assortment with India’s UPI-based digital cost ecosystem.
Dr. Yadav believes that India is coming into a decisive part in science and technology and that universities, analysis laboratories and business should work collectively to develop options that profit society.
“India’s time has come,” he stated. “Nothing is waste—it is only wealth waiting to be transformed. What we need most is a change in mindset.”