With the increasing population, India's demand in energy and fuel sector is increasing day by day. As India depends on other countries mainly for crude oil and other fuels, we need to search some alternative options for it. Dimethyl ether (DME) is an ultra-clean fuel. CSIR-NCL has developed an innovative, sustainable, and most efficient DME process with the help of our indigenous catalytic systems and reactor design.

Oxygen is required in higher concentrations for oxygen therapy in hospitals and in various applications in Industries. It can be as high as >95% purity for treating patients in ICU/operation theatre with lung diseases (COPD, asthma). Normal air has ~21% oxygen content. During the pandemic, the world faced a shortage of medical-grade oxygen for the treatment of COVID 19 patients. Thus, the production of high purity oxygen is a must.

4,4'Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a very important feedstock for the production of epoxy resins, polycarbonate and number of other polymers. India imports BPA of about 1,35,000 TPA. CSIR has started Bulk Chemical mission mode projects in 2020 and the aim of project is to develop cost effective, eco-friendly processes for the production of Bulk Chemicals. A catalytic batch process for the preparation of Bisphenol-A using phenol and acetone in the presence of catalyst (ion resin) has been developed.

Azelaic acid is widely used intermediate in the pharmaceutical industries for the preparation of ointments, cosmetics, and commodity chemicals. Azelaic acid finds its applications to treat mild to moderate acne, skin brightening agent and its derivatives are also used to antibacterial, keratolytic, comedolytic, and anti-oxidant activity. NCL has developed a continuous process for its synthesis via Ozonolysis of unsaturated fatty acids and demonstrated at pilot plant scale. The reactions involves using ozone, oxygen, oleic acid and a few solvents. It yields Azelaic acid (Product) and Pelorganic acid (by-product). The process is free of any metal catalysts and includes complete recycle and reuse of the solvents, making it a green process.

CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune jointly with Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) and several other companies from Pune have achieved a breakthrough to manufacture useful moulded plastic components from COVID-19 PPE waste.

CSIR-NCL has developed a technology for manufacturing precision silver nanowires in large scale. The technology has been developed by the team led by Dr. Amol A. Kulkarni from the Chemical Engineering and Process Development Division. It was carried out under the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMT) initiative by the Department of Science and Technology (DST).