Neeri-developed technology gets US patent

NAGPUR: Industries which use or generate arsenic in any product manufacture and have problem for its disposal due to its high toxicity can now look forward for to the city-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (Neeri) for a safe and cheap solution.
Neeri has developed an unconventional, safe and effective technology for safe disposal for which its parent body, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has been granted a US patent recently.
Tapan Chakrabarti, acting director, Neeri said, "The institute had invented the technology while trying to solve the problem of about 450 cubic meters of arsenic solution stored in a pit for over 30 years due to non availability of any technology for its safe disposal. The Zuari Industries Private Ltd in Goa used arsenic in manufacturing urea using an old technology since the 1970s. The industry approached Neeri when the Supreme Court Committee on hazardous waste disposal raised an objection to such storage and directed the industry for immediate disposal of arsenic in 2004."
Mahendra Patil, who developed the technology under the guidance of Chakrabarti, Sukumar Devotta, former Neeri director and two other scientists Ashok Deskar and S Deshpande, told the TOI that although the technology was developed specifically to solve the issue for a particular industry, it can be used for other industries like veterinary medicine industry, pharmaceutical industry, fertilizer industry etc for arsenic removal, stabilisation and safe disposal.
The technology for which the institute applied for the US patent in 2006 and obtained it now basically consists of two simple tried and tested steps.