Research & Development - Empowering by Innovation
IndianOil's world-class Research & Development is focused on developing, demonstrating and deploying novel, innovative, environment friendly, customer centric products and process technologies for addressing issues of national importance to attain self reliance in field of energy and allied areas. Apart from carrying out path breaking research in core petroleum activities like Lubricants, Refining, Petrochemicals and Pipeline; IndianOil R&D is pursuing pioneering work in promising & futuristic Alternate Energy segments like Bio-Energy, Solar Energy, Hydrogen, Energy Storage, Battery, CCU Technologies etc.
The state-of-the-art Research & Development facilities is located on a sprawling 65 acre campus in Faridabad, Haryana on the outskirts of the National Capital. An impressive array of most advanced equipment is available to experienced researchers and scientists round-the-clock.
IndianOil is first to achieve the milestone of 1000 patents filed among Indian Oil & Gas companies. IndianOil has won recognition for decades of pioneering work in fields of lubricants formulation, refinery processes, pipeline transportation/ maintenance and alternative fuel technologies. To further expand its footprint, IndianOil is planning to set up a net-zero power & water neutral research centre confirming to global level, consisting of following high end research centers :
- IndianOil Centre for Alternative & Renewable Energy (I-CARE)
- IndianOil Centre for Corrosion Research
- IndianOil Centre of Excellence in Nanotechnology
- IndianOil Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology
IndianOil with its consistent efforts has now achieved the status of refining technology exporter in a very competitive field, by licensing the INDMAX technology to global customers besides existing units in domestic refineries.
R&D Focus Areas:
Lubricants
Over 1000 grades of lubricants developed by R&D are marketed under the super lubricant brand name "SERVO" encompassing every conceivable application for complete lubrication solutions in the automotive, industrial and marine segments. The centre further act as a solution provider to the rising demand for innovative lubricants to achieve fuel economy & energy efficiency, especially for the Indian Defense Forces by indigenising the specialised products.
Refining Technology
Research & Development of IndianOil has established a prominent footprint in Refining Technology area. It has demonstrated its innovative prowess in development of basket of technologies, highly relevant in the emerging scenario, and their successful commercialization.
Most of these technologies have been demonstrated at IndianOil refineries and currently are in regular operation contributing to the gross refining margin.
For all its technologies, IndianOil on its own or through its technology partner provides a single point solution for technology licensing, including supply of Basic Design and Engineering Package (BDEP), catalyst, reactor internal, mandatory technical services, etc. as per the standard industry practice.
Pipeline Maintenance & Inspection:
R&D has been undertaking pioneering research in the areas of pipeline transportation and development of pipeline inspection tools (an area hitherto dominated by foreign companies) like MFL (magnetic flux leakage) based IPIG technology, gas pipeline inspection tool, advanced sensors for liquid pipeline inspection, Artificial Neural Network based Data analysis software and Integration of Inertial Measurement Unit for obtaining GPS coordinates. Transportation of neat Bio fuel and its blends, compressed Biogas as well as carbon dioxide through cross country pipeline are identified for research work in near future. Research & Development and Pipeline Division of IOCL are working together to create the in-house operational expertise for large scale deployment of these technologies.
Petrochemicals & Polymers:
IndianOil Research & Development is engaged in development idigenisation of catalysts, drag reducing agents, additives, packaging materials etc. IndianOil also renders technical support in the field of petrochemical & polymers to enhance product quality & reduce production costs. As an emerging centre of excellence in Ziegler-Natta Catalyst in polymer research, IndianOil R&D has helped standardize its polymer grades and produced new products/grades based on market requirements.
Fuels & Additives
IndianOil Research & Development works consistently to enhance quality of fuels by incorporating additives to improve engine performance and to reduce environmental impact with improved quality and cost effectiveness. New patented process technologies and novel chemistry additives are developed to improve quality of existing fuels and to produce next generation high performance products as Indane Nanocut, Premium automotive fuels, Marpol 2020 compliant FO for marine applications and special fuels for defense forces.
Alternate Energy:
IndianOil R&D is working for development, deployment and harnessing of different alternative energy sources like Hydrogen Fuel Cell, H-CNG and Solar Energy. IndianOil R&D has developed cost effective single step compact Steam Methane Reforming process for direct HCNG production from NG which is flexible and rugged allowing H-CNG production as per demand, by-passing energy intensive electrolysis process and costly high pressure blending.
Solar Energy Department has state-of-the-art laboratory infrastructure such as a Solar Photovoltaic Rooftop Test Bed Facility, Solar Product Development and Cooking Systems Laboratory, Solar Thermal Research Laboratory and Solar Hydrogen Laboratory, for development & validation of new technologies.
Bio-Energy:
The GoI through the initiatives taken under Bio-Fuel Policy 2018 has identified Ethanol Blending as a potent solution to stubble burning issue with possibility to increase farmers' income. IOCL has developed new and economical enzymatic pre-treatment process at pilot level using agriculture waste and is now scaling it up in demo plant at Panipat. IOCL R&D is also working on a bio-route to convert the Co2 from refinery flue gases to Ethanol by installing India's first of its kind Co2 to Ethanol production plant at Panipat.
IndianOil has developed a two stage anaerobic processes for converting various types of organic wastes to biogas with ability to produce 15-20% more methane than other contemporary technologies and higher gas yield.
Nanotechnology:
The thrust of Nanotechnology research in IndianOil Research & Development is to develop nano-materials, nanofluids and catalysts for applications in fuels, lubricants, processes & alternate energy segments including energy storage devices. Some of the game changing solutions developed by Centre are nano-dispersions agents for use in fuels and lubricants. Indane Nanocut LPG is a commercialized product developed at R&D, which enhances the efficiency of LPG as cutting gas in terms of high flame temperature, heat through put, low oxygen consumption, reduced cylinder inventory, thereby leading to better economy of use.
e-Mobility
Research & Development is pursuing cutting edge research in the field of advanced battery chemistries to develop India specific energy storage solutions in a cost effective manner using indigenously available materials for development of Metal Air batteries and chemically modified lead acid batteries with improved capacity and life cycle.
IndS_UP StartUp Scheme
Research & Development has been involved in incubation of projects through the IOCL IndS_UP StartUp Scheme. Under this scheme till date 24 Projects are on boarded in 2 rounds with filing of 11 Joint patents & 6 Copyrights thus generating IP wealth for IOCL. Major areas of funding/ support are artificial intelligence, Robotics, Societal relevance, pipeline surveillance & maintenance etc. Besides funding, IndianOil is being closely involved by handholding the identified StartUPs through dedicated Process Owners till achievement of Proof of Concept.
