Of the 'salts' of the earth

Updated on: Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Mineral resources development is a significant economic activity that converts natural mineral wealth into goods for industrial and domestic consumption. Improved ways and means have to be evolved through continuous research for making the process of such conversion efficient, effective, and economical.

The significance of mineral resources embraces several areas. They are an integral part of industrial development, economic progress, national security, and struggle for survival. Mining and material processing are sister disciplines that complement investigations in the mineral sector.

An important institution that focusses its research in this area is the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT), Bhubaneswar – 751 013, Website: www.immt.res.in.

The IMMT was started in 1964 as the Regional Research Laboratory, Bhubaneswar, under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. It specialises in providing R&D support for process and product development with special emphasis on conservation and sustainable utilisation of natural resources.

The institute has expertise in conducting technology-oriented programmes in

Mining and mineral and bio-mineral processing

Metal extraction and materials characterisation

Process engineering

Industrial waste management

Pollution monitoring and control

Marine and forest products development

Utilization of medicinal and aromatic plants and appropriate technologies for societal development.
Research units

Advanced materials technology: Develops suitable processes for preparation of strategic and industrially important materials. Develops futuristic materials. The department has designed and developed extended transferred arc plasma reactors for melting, smelting, carbide synthesis, and so on. Studies cover the following as well: Technological feasibility of innovative processes in particulates and colloids; thermal and RF plasma synthesis of structural and advanced ceramics; preparation and characterisation of fine and ultra fine powders; smelting reduction; composite materials; ceramic slurry processing; and gel casting.

Central characterisation cell

Colloids and material chemistry: Interdisciplinary research in colloids, bio-materials, energy materials, hierarchical nanostructures, polymers, functional-inorganic materials, hybrid materials, and coatings.

The studies cover the following also: Development of colloidal particles with desired shape and size, their stabilisation and dispersion and multidirectional assembly and patterning; exploration of architectural chemistry for surface modification of mesoporous oxides and perovskites with nano metal and oxides; fabrication of catalytic materials for the decomposition of organic and inorganic contaminants; and development of conducting coatings based on alumina, prosthetic coating on metal implants, and rare-earth pigment-based surface coatings.

Exploring various synthetic approaches based on electrophoretic deposition, Langmuir Blodgett, and soft-chemistry to fabricate ordered arrays of perovskite, photocatalyst, and semi-conducting hierarchical nanostructures and their possible applications in catalysis, opto-electronic devices, and so on; photoelectrochemical water splitting and supramolecular photochemistry, which involves molecular photonics and chemical logics and molecular recognition exploiting the supramolecular host-guest interaction.

Design and rural technology: development of low-cost need-based technologies and associated products for rural industrialisation in the areas of energy, agriculture, and other socio-economic sectors for employment generation, enhanced agricultural production, and a better quality of life; waste utilisation.

Environment and sustainability: environmental pollution in industries, mines, urban, and rural centres; process metallurgy and solid-waste utilisation; greenhouse gases from rice fields, pulses, and wet lands; dry and wet precipitation chemistry; physical and chemical characterisation of aerosols; solid, liquid, and gaseous effluent monitoring and treatment; contaminated water and soil treatment; vulnerability and adaptation technology

Hydro and electrometallurgy: development of environmental and eco-friendly technologies to exploit primary and secondary resources employing hydro and electro-metallurgy roots; hydro and electrometallurgical processing of minerals, metals, and materials; treatment of lean, complex and off-grade ores and minerals waste and by-products from metallurgical and allied industries; electrochemical cleaning of contaminated soils; conventional and non-conventional energy technology; evaluation of refractory material of ion exchange and membrane technologies; preparation of battery grade nickel hydroxides, gibbsite, boehmite, activated alumina, barium titanate, titanium dioxide, and so on; design and detailed engineering of hydrometallurgical plants; corrosion and erosion studies

Mineral engineering: bioresources engineering: biomineral processing is an emerging technology with significant potential to add value to the mining industry and to deliver attractive environmental and social benefits to the communities within which the companies operate. Heap bioleaching units are cheaper to construct and operate and are therefore more suited to the treatment of lower grade ores.

Bioleaching; biobeneficiation; column leaching; heap leaching; bioremediation; bioaccumulation; algal oil from micro algae; microbial reduction of lateritic nickel ore for enhanced recovery of nickel and cobalt; biosynthesis of nanoparticles using extracellular enzymes secreted by filamentous fungus; mechanism of microbial desulphurization of calcined petroleum coke; modelling and simulation of biomineral processes; role of attachment of bacteria (bio-film formation) to ore particles; development of biomaterials

Mineral processing: problems related to utilisation of lean and off-grade ores; energy and environmental aspects of processing different ores and minerals; development of processes for recovery of values from wastes from mineral industries; and development of innovative techniques for utilization of complex ores.

Mineralogy: characterisation studies leading to determination of mineral phases, textural pattern, and liberation size including mineral chemistry, and metallography.

Characterisation of industrial products such as metal, slag, sinter, fly ash, and leached residues.

Environmental studies on mines, coastal water and groundwater.

Process engineering and instrumentation: Support to various projects for process instrumentation: modelling, simulation, and optimisation of mineral engineering processes; and development of soft sensors
ICPP

The Innovation Centre for Plasma Processing (ICPP) attached to the institute is an advanced facility for minerals and materials processing through the plasma route. Its thrust areas include:

Minerals processing and synthesis of new materials

Alloy, metal, and composite development

Surface engineering

Product development

Advanced characterization of materials

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