Bhubaneswar: The National Institute of Technology - Rourkela (NITR) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Thursday with Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL) for the purpose of developing technologies that aid in recovering iron oxide from waste that has been generated from the alumina industry.

The memorandum was signed by NITR Director Sunil Kumar Sarangi and Chief Operating Officer of Vedanta Aluminium Ltd. Mukesh Kumar. As an initial deposit for conducting research, VAL had presented the institute with a cheque of Rs.21.2 lakh.

An alumina refinery has been set up at Lanjigarh in Orissa by VAL. It has a production capacity of one million tonnes per annum and, after it has been established successfully, the new technology would be available to be implemented across other alumina refineries under VAL.

An exchange of expertise between the institute and the company for future research via M.Tech or Ph.D programmes as well as for skill upgradation has also been included in the memorandum of understanding.

According to the company, one of the main aims for signing the MoU was to help in bridging the gap between institutions and industries as well as to provide an exemplary model for others. Also, the MoU would help in establishing a direct link between industry and research.

Dr. Mukesh Kumar said that through the research that will be conducted at the institute and funded by VAL, the development of technology that will help in separating iron oxide from red mud would revolutionize the alumina industry.

"This is because the utilization of the technology brought about by the research would not require any big red mud ponds and this, in turn, will help in diminishing or altogether avoiding environmental hazards," he said.

NITR Director Sunil Kumar Sarangi said during the occasion that breakthroughs had already been made by the institute as they had made several achievements while conducting laboratory scale testing. "The signing of the memorandum of understanding will help in the commercial utilization as well as development of our own technology," he said.