Indian Oil Becomes First Oil PSU to Cross 1,000-Patent Milestone

New Delhi: State-owned refiner Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) said its research and development (R&D) centre has crossed the 1,000-patent mark, becoming the first Indian oil public sector undertaking (PSU) to do so.

The company’s Faridabad-based R&D Centre’s intellectual property portfolio comprises 794 active patents, of which 542 patents were granted abroad and 252 in India, IOC said in a statement.

Sanjiv Singh, Chairman, IOC said that several quality upgradation projects implemented at IOC refineries for production of BS-VI fuels were based on deep desulphurisation, isomerisation and dimerisation technology patents developed in-house.

IOC’s INDMAX technology patent, successfully commercialised at Paradip Refinery, has improved liquefied petroleum gas yields by 40 per cent besides ensuring the highest propylene yields in its class, the company said.

It further added that the Centre’s bio-methanation technology was best-in-class in methane yields and is being implemented at the Namakkal plant in Tamil Nadu for production of compressed biogas.

“With 50 per cent of its active patents in the refining category, followed by 16 per cent in biotechnology, the R&D team has made considerable progress even in the highly IP-crowded field of Ziegler-Natta catalysts, used in production of polymers (plastics),” said Dr S S V Ramakumar, director (R&D), IndianOil.

The R&D Centre has expanded its research domain to cover petrochemicals, nano-technology, alternative fuels, energy storage solutions and hydrogen-based fuel cell research, among others.

Source: ET

Image Courtesy: GovtJobsOfficial