Baradakanta Mishra, director, IMMT, Bhubaneswar, (second from left), and Fuji Masayoshi, director, Advanced Ceramics Research Centre and Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan, (second from right) sign MoU for exchange of research activities in Bhubaneswar on Sunday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 11: A collaboration with a Japanese tech institute has brought hope to students of Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT) that their alternate energy source projects could step on to the stage of industrial application.

IMMT students are working on chemicals to improve the life of solid oxide fuel cells, which may, in future, be the answer to the world’s need for energy, as fossil fuels become an increasingly rare commodity.

The students working on the project became even more enthusiastic today with the Nagoya Institute of Technology, Tajimi in Japan, signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with their institute for quality research, students’ exchange and technology transfer.

“We are developing special films made of specialised chemicals to convert solar energy to electricity. This collaboration will help us to further develop the product for industrial application as Japan is known for its technological innovations and use of technology to develop products with possibilities for day-to-day use,” said Kamalakanta Nanda, a PhD scholar in the colloids and materials chemistry department of IMMT.

Another PhD scholar Sanjukta Dey, who is working on developing special materials to develop resistance in alumina and steel so that the metallic surface is less affected by corrosion and temperature, said: “We are producing composite materials after research in our laboratory. With this collaboration with the Nagoya Institute of Technology, we will have be able to access an international platform from where to produce the product on an industrial scale.”

Singing the MoU, IMMT director Baradakanta Mishra said: “The Nagoya Institute of Technology is one of the leading institutes for industrial and engineering research in the world and we are the first institute in India to have a collaboration with them. I hope more students from our institute can use the opportunity of the collaboration to produce better industrial products. They can make a mark with the help of this MoU.”

Mishra’s counterpart from Nagoya Institute of Technology, Fuji Masayoshi, director and professor at Advanced Ceramics Research Centre, said: “We have been an engineering research institute for 100 years in Japan and are happy to collaborate with IMMT as you have also created a niche in research on metal extraction.”

The collaboration between the two institutes will also work towards developing advanced materials with better eco-friendly technology and less harmful effects on the environment. Students and faculty of IMMT believe that through this collaboration, it will be possible to meet the ever-increasing demand for energy through development of new solid oxide fuel cells and other modes.

IMMT is a leading institute of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in India, while the Nagoya Institute of Technology in Japan is strategically located near major heavy industries such as Toyota Motor Company, which is a big player in the automobile industry. It has already collaborated with institutes in US, Europe and Korea.