Praj Matrix - world class bio/chem/engineering research facility in Pune
We just visited Praj Matrix, a research subsidiary of Praj Industries, a little after Pirangut on the way to Lavasa. Very impressive.See http://www.praj.net/matrix_innovation.asp for details.
I was too busy being impressed and did not take notes, so I wont be able to write a good, informative article. Rather, let me do an "impressionistic" sketch of what I remember.They have about 20 PhDs, and 30 Masters amongst a total of 70 scientists and engineers.
They are working on 4 major focus areas:
1. Extracting fuel out of any biological substances - typically waste. So, cobs of corn (after the corn has been removed). Sugarcane remains after the juice has been extracted. Wood chips. Grass. They can extract bio-diesel out of all of this, and this is a fuel that can be burned like any other fuel. 2. Development of special germs (I guess the technical term is micro-organisms) which can be used by other bio-processing industries to do some chemical processing. For example, yeasts and bacteria are used to extract bio-diesel from the biowaste in #1. Similarly development of special enzymes that can be used to do some chemical processing easily. Enzymes are biological catalysts. They are rather expensive compared to "regular" chemical catalysts. But sometimes they can be used to produce some very high value chemical cheaply. Praj Matrix plans to develop such enzymes and sell the technology to others. 3. Developing new kinds of plants/seeds/algae/grass that can be used for #1 above (viz. extracting bio-diesel). The idea would be produce a new kind of crop that requires less water, or produces lots of biodiesel, or can be grown in areas that are not suitable for regular "food" farming. 4. Development of efficient, and proven processes for doing the above things. Note: this needs three different kinds of expertise - biology, chemical engineering, and process engineering. This is a combination that is not easy to find elsewhere. For example, there might be a research company somewhere that has disovered a new and cool micro-organism ("a funky bug", to use the words of Dr. Balu Sarma, head of Praj Matrix). But they don't have the process engineering expertise to be able to manufature it commercially. That's were Praj Matrix comes in. In its facility, it can figure out and prototype this process. WARNING: this is not my field. I did not take notes while I was there. And, I have not bothered to do the background research to figure out whether everything I've said is accurate. It is very likely that I've made major mistakes in what I've written. But chances are that, you know less than me, so this article will be useful for you :-) If you are a chemical, biological or process engineer, please doublecheck everything I've said from a more reliable source.
1. Extracting fuel out of any biological substances - typically waste. So, cobs of corn (after the corn has been removed). Sugarcane remains after the juice has been extracted. Wood chips. Grass. They can extract bio-diesel out of all of this, and this is a fuel that can be burned like any other fuel. 2. Development of special germs (I guess the technical term is micro-organisms) which can be used by other bio-processing industries to do some chemical processing. For example, yeasts and bacteria are used to extract bio-diesel from the biowaste in #1. Similarly development of special enzymes that can be used to do some chemical processing easily. Enzymes are biological catalysts. They are rather expensive compared to "regular" chemical catalysts. But sometimes they can be used to produce some very high value chemical cheaply. Praj Matrix plans to develop such enzymes and sell the technology to others. 3. Developing new kinds of plants/seeds/algae/grass that can be used for #1 above (viz. extracting bio-diesel). The idea would be produce a new kind of crop that requires less water, or produces lots of biodiesel, or can be grown in areas that are not suitable for regular "food" farming. 4. Development of efficient, and proven processes for doing the above things. Note: this needs three different kinds of expertise - biology, chemical engineering, and process engineering. This is a combination that is not easy to find elsewhere. For example, there might be a research company somewhere that has disovered a new and cool micro-organism ("a funky bug", to use the words of Dr. Balu Sarma, head of Praj Matrix). But they don't have the process engineering expertise to be able to manufature it commercially. That's were Praj Matrix comes in. In its facility, it can figure out and prototype this process. WARNING: this is not my field. I did not take notes while I was there. And, I have not bothered to do the background research to figure out whether everything I've said is accurate. It is very likely that I've made major mistakes in what I've written. But chances are that, you know less than me, so this article will be useful for you :-) If you are a chemical, biological or process engineer, please doublecheck everything I've said from a more reliable source.
