That was the line illuminating Tata InnoVista 2012, the annual ...

That was the line illuminating Tata InnoVista 2012, the annual

festival of creativity Tata companies celebrate, and it was an

appropriately individualistic touch to yet another assemblage

of innovative ideas — some realised, others with promise —

born and bred across the Tata group of companies

By Cynthia Rodrigues, Gayatri Kamath, Sangeeta Menon and Suchita Vemuri

June 2012 n Tata Review 69Tata Review n June 201268

special reportspecial report

Thinking out loud

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas,” said Linus Pauling, American scientist, author and two-

time winner of the Nobel Prize. A similar philosophy pervades InnoVista, the ever-growing, ever-evolving, ever-maturing celebration of innovation that has become a highlight of the Tata calender. Held on April 26 every year — in memory of the great Indian mathematician S Ramanujan, who

died on that day in 1920 — InnoVista’s stock has risen with every passing year, as has the power of the ideas unleashed in this crucible of creativity.

Innovation was not always such a big deal in the Tata group. “There was a time when Tata companies neither recognised nor rewarded innovativeness,” says Sunil Sinha, chief, Group Quality Management Services. “We studied the most innovative companies in the world and realised that they all had one thing in common: they recognised and rewarded innovation. Around that time, we surveyed 2,000 people in the Tata group and found that almost 95 percent of them thought that Tata companies were not innovative.”

The results of the survey were shocking. Employees unconsciously trod the beaten path because they were not inspired to be innovative. Their failure to be innovative exacted a heavy price, causing Tata companies to slide in terms of mind leadership and market prominence. This learning resulted in the launch of the InnoVista, which is now a global platform for recognising and rewarding innovation and creativity in the Tata group.

Tata InnoVista, which started as a prize-giving ceremony for creative

efforts, has grown into an international, pan-Tata celebration of

innovation, driving employee engagement and recognising those

with the capacity and the courage to believe in a good idea

InnoVista: Over the years

2006

3,500

3,000

2,500

2,000

1,500

1,000

500

02007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Companies

Num

ber

of e

ntrie

s re

ceiv

ed



A time to growInnoVista started with one category (for the most successful innovations). Last year there were three categories:n Promising Innovations: For the most successfully implemented innovations during the year. n The Leading Edge: For the most innovative business idea. n Dare to Try: For sincere and audacious attempts to create a major innovation that failed to obtain the desired results.

Subsequently, the categories were regularly revised to reflect the changing nature of the kind of work that was to be encouraged within the group. This year, for instance, participants in The Leading Edge: Unproven Ideas category had to choose from a set of themes provided by Tata Industries. These themes related to businesses that Tata Industries was looking to promote — in areas such as health care, water management, etc — where it could later choose to finance some of the winning entries.

Over the years the participation figures for InnoVista have increased substantially — from 101 entries from 35 Tata companies in 2006 to 2,852 entries from 71 Tata companies in 2012. “The numbers prove that more people are attempting innovations and taking risks,” says Ravi Arora, vice president, Tata Quality Management Services. “We have also seen an improvement in the quality of innovations.”

This year the Tata Group Innovation Forum (TGIF), which facilitates innovation within Tata companies, organised a special coaching programme two weeks before InnoVista. External faculty members were invited to train the finalists on the best way to present their ideas to the jury.

All for oneThis year’s winners received their awards from Cyrus Mistry, deputy chairman, Tata Sons. In his address Mr Mistry said that he would like to see more collaboration between people of different companies across sectors. Taking a cue from the suggestion, TGIF is working on introducing a category for the most successful

collaborative innovation. This will require support infrastructure to be put in place and that is what the forum has set its mind on accomplishing.

InnoVista has brought about a sea change in the attitude of Tata managers vis-à-vis innovation. It has sent a strong message to Tata managers that innovation is for everyone, and not just for research and development teams. It has also enhanced the perception of the Tata group as an innovative organisation.

The greatest achievement of InnoVista, though, has been its ability to unify Tata managers everywhere in the shared pursuit of innovation and innovativeness. ¨

— Cynthia Rodrigues

Cyrus Mistry, deputy chairman of Tata Sons, at the event

R Gopalakrishnan, director, Tata Sons, welcomes the gathering



Quick and green

The background The reputation of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has always rested on two great automotive brands that have become iconic thanks to their exceptional design and engineering capabilities. Environmental issues have driven new areas of innovation at JLR and the low-cost, start-stop device is a great example of this.

Engine stop-start is a technology that improves the fuel economy in passenger vehicles by enabling the engine to be turned off when the vehicle is stationary at signals and in traffic jams. The challenges in the way of this innovation were the speed of the eco-start and the noise of the restart.

The Belt Integrated Starter Generator (BISG), the original starting device selected as JLR’s automatic transmission stop-start enabler, was widely believed to be the only way to achieve the start time target of 350 milliseconds (msec). It was felt that the starter motor used in the 2010 Land Rover FreeLander TD4, a diesel manual vehicle, could start the vehicle no faster than the target for manual transmissions of 750msec.

The apparent benefits of low start time and low noise of the BISG came at a significant

cost, in investment and the requirement of eight additional hardware components per vehicle.

The innovaTionThe JLR team of David Marshall, Ben Neaves, Adam Brant, Chris Carey and Andrew Senior believed that with some development the lower-cost starter motor solution could achieve a similar start time and acceptable noise performance. The JLR management directed an eight-week study into the potential of this idea, despite having already made commitments to go the BISG way.

Working with a significant time constraint, the team conducted a feasibility study on diesel powertrains. Diesel engine start times were investigated and work started on a groundbreaking fuelling strategy that used the starter motor. The results of this study proved that the team was on the right track.

Meanwhile, discussions were initiated with Denso UK, a JLR supplier, to determine how a starter motor could be designed, validated and manufactured in time for the launch of the 2012 Jaguar XF, a tough timing challenge. It was necessary to have close collaboration with Denso UK in the feasibility study to enable the development of the system.

The breakthrough came with test confirmation that the diesel engine could indeed be reliably started and brought to its idle speed in less than 350msec, this by using a conventional starter motor, something considered impossible by industry standards.

A new technology allows Jaguar

Land Rover to make automobiles

that are faster off the mark and have

a lighter load of carbon emissions

Promising Innovation



Following this confirmation, the system was developed into production in a short time to support the 2012 Jaguar XF. This made JLR the first company in the automotive industry to market the stop-start feature in an automatic vehicle.

The payoff Stop-start technology is designed to recover idle fuel when the vehicle is stationary. On the ‘new European driving cycle’ — employed to represent the typical usage of a car in Europe, this also assesses the emission levels of car engines — it is estimated that the fuel recovered through this feature would be approximately 8-10 percent, depending on the capacity of the vehicle’s engine.

On a Jaguar XF 2.2l this feature would ensure CO2 reduction of approximately 10-15g/km. This figure, multiplied by the number of vehicles sold and the distance they would cover, will ensure a positive impact on the environment. JLR can now use the technology in future vehicles.

For customers the development ensures improved fuel economy and vehicle range, and reduced release of CO2. For JLR the innovation promises a green, marketable technology that can ensure a big reduction in the company’s carbon footprint. ¨

Category: New product CompaNy: Jaguar Land roverINNovatIoN: a low-cost stop-start deviceteam: adam Brant, Chris Carey, David marshall, Ben Neaves, andrew Senior



No crack on this track

The background The key to the safe transportation of humans and goods lies, to a significant extent, in the systematic and judicious care with which rail infrastructure is maintained. Every year rail companies spend enormous amounts of money in their attempts to ensure that rail tracks are kept in good condition.

Conventional pearlite rail steels have undergone incremental increases in hardness to address the problem of degradation of tracks. In recent years heat treatment has been widely used to refine the microstructure to produce harder and more wear-resistant rails. These have been successful and account for, typically, 25 percent of world rail demand.

Considerable research has also been carried out into the potential use of other steel microstructures, including bainitic and martensitic steels, but these have made minimal impact on the market thus far.

There are three dominant failure modes for rail in most railways: wear, plastic deformation and rolling contact fatigue (cracking). Heat-treated rails have been successful in improving the wear performance and resistance to plastic deformation of rail, as compared with standard

grades, especially on heavy haul railways where wear and plastic deformation are the dominant forms of rail degradation. However, many experts believe that there is an unavoidable balance to be struck, with softer rail required to control cracking and harder rail to control wear.

Network Rail, a customer, approached Tata Steel’s Europe operations for help in optimising the rail-wheel interface and to develop a rail-grade strategy that would minimise their cost. Initial investigation was focused on performance on track, to understand degradation mechanisms and the attributes required in a rail to offer improved performance. This was then used to guide laboratory research to develop an improved rail.

The innovaTion The team, led by Dr Jay Jaiswal, began by challenging the prevalent belief that increasing hardness was the only way to build resistance against wear. They experimented with the microstructure of rail steels to develop rail steel with improved resistance to wear and a step change in resistance to rolling contact fatigue.

They used a three-pronged approach to metallurgically engineer the pearlite microstructure in an attempt to reduce the incidence of ratcheting, which denoted cumulative plastic strain. This approach required an increase in the carbon and silicon content, and additions of vanadium. The result was the development of HPrail®, high-

By making rail steel stronger and

less prone to wear and tear, Tata

Steel in Europe has helped make

railway journeys less expensive




performance steel, which was initially tested in seven sites in England and is now being introduced widely across the network.

The payoff On the first HPrail trial site, the cost of 1,208m of HPrail was about 10 percent higher than standard rail, an increase of about £4,000. This amount was more than recovered six months later, when the customer realised savings of close to £5,000 from not having to undergo two cycles of maintenance. At this one site alone, Network Rail has projected savings on maintenance and inspection over a five-year period of £140,000 relative to standard rail, which translates into more than three times the cost of the rail.

In the United Kingdom alone, the objective is to grow sales to 40ktpa to address the high-duty areas of corners and also switches and crossings. Additional profit for

Tata Steel of £2.4 million per year is projected for this volume of sales. The income-generating potential of this innovation will be multiplied as the product is introduced in other countries in the European Union and beyond.

Network Rail was delighted with the HPrail development and it has been fully engaged in trials, benefit evaluation and approval for widespread use across their network.

For Tata Steel, HPrail enhances its rail-products portfolio, differentiating it from competitors. HPrail has already been granted a European patent, which will benefit Tata Steel. This is also an environment-friendly product, reducing the carbon footprint of rail by over 50 percent over its lifecycle (when compared with standard-grade rail). Tata Steel’s Europe operations has the satisfaction of having risen admirably to a difficult challenge that had been plaguing the steel rail industry for years. ¨

Category: New product CompaNy: tata Steel’s europe operationsINNovatIoN: tata Steel Hprailteam: george Ibbeson, Dr Jay Jaiswal, Dr Howard Smith, andrew Wilson, Dale Winney



Speed aligned to quality

The backgroundThere is a rising demand for tools that enable the design and development of new products in the fastest possible time, which means with the shortest time-to-market. This is especially true in the automotive industry worldwide. Most automakers opt for new technologies like knowledge-based engineering (KBE) and product lifecycle management (PLM) tools that allow them to drastically reduce cycle time for new product introduction. KBE empowers designers to quickly navigate through the number of iterations involved in the design process and arrive at an optimised solution.

In today’s product design environment there exist numerous KBE applications in the fields of vehicle ergonomics, suspension systems, noise-vibration-harshness, safety, regulations, etc. Some of these have brought design time down from days to mere minutes, but there are several complex applications that still take long.

Tata Technologies has developed its own propriety software framework in line with next-generation KBE technology, and this has already been put to work at Tata Motors’ Pune plant. What the company has done is to speed up KBE applications by using the graphic cards of

existing workstations for computational purposes, in essence enabling parallel processing without having to source additional hardware.

Using graphics processing unit (GPU) computing and compute unified device architecture (CUDA), the KBE kernel has been restructured to incorporate a parallel programming model that helps applications run faster on the GPU, thus achieving time reduction from hours to seconds.

The innovaTionIn all software applications, arithmetic calculation happens in the central processing unit (CPU) of the computer and visualisation or graphics processing through the GPU. With its new-generation graphic cards, Tata Technologies has successfully applied a parallel processing algorithm for all iterative calculations using threads at one go.

This generates a huge performance boost; KBE applications, which used to take hours to deliver results, can now be executed in seconds. The model also saves on cost as it uses existing graphic card capability instead of increasing the hardware configuration.

The next-generation KBE system provides far more power and flexibility in the development of engineering products. These systems are designed to incorporate complex rules, artificial intelligence and agents to be embedded in the system. In addition, they provide more direct control over geometry and topology creation, manipulation and advanced geometry introspection capabilities. They leverage reuse of corporate design

By using workstation graphic cards

for computation, Tata Technologies

has come up with a way to design

new products quickly and cheaply




knowledge to the maximum extent possible, eliminating mundane tasks within the complex process of transforming a product concept into production-ready details.

With the implementation of GPU technology, KBE applications get even better. Productivity increases as the designer can do many more iterations in less amount of time and spend more time on creative thinking. At Tata Motors all CAD workstations are equipped with CUDA-enabled NVIDIA graphic cards. The KBE applications take advantage of GPU computation capability without compromising on visualisation quality.

This innovation required a lot of hard work. Tata Technologies’ programming experts were trained for two weeks in CUDA technology at NVIDIA, Pune (NVIDIA is the inventor of the graphic card and CUDA language). Then the developers had to delve deep into engineering mathematics, KBE kernel mathematical algorithms, parallel processing algorithms,

CUDA, etc before practically rewriting the KBE algorithms for thread processing. This took up almost half of the total development time.

The payoffThe impact of the new product is huge. The savings per workstation configuration works out to `30,000, which means `15 million in savings across 500 workstations. By making additional hardware unnecessary, the company is also reducing environmental load and contributing to energy savings. The new technology will not only improve Tata Motors’ product design time and quality, but also improve the brand image of Tata Technologies as a tech-savvy company.

The knowledge-based engineering kernel (KNEXT) is a totally in-house developed, proprietary product of Tata Technologies. The lesson learnt: it’s better to use existing resources to their optimal strength. And there are big advantages in thinking laterally. ¨

Category: New service CompaNy: tata technologiesINNovatIoN: KBe applications using gpU computingteam: Dr milind ambardekar, yogesh Deo, prasad Kulkarni, Dilip Sahu, avijit Santra



Partnership payback

The backgroundIndia has one of the highest levels of aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses in power distribution, averaging 30 percent of total power distributed. About 5 percent of this happens due to power theft in slum clusters, through practices like ‘hooking’ from open network cables.

Within the area served by Tata Power Delhi Distribution (TPDDL), there are more than 220 slums. Having managed to reduce AT&C losses from 53 percent in 2002 (at its inception) to 15 percent in 2009, TPDDL decided to focus on last-mile losses in slum clusters. This challenge was special and needed a sensitive approach. Committed by people without much money in their pockets, power theft in slums is mostly due to need and the lack of resources to pay.

A new business model was needed to provide affordable, legitimate electricity connections to slum dwellers. TPDDL set up a ‘special consumer group’ to address this issue.

The innovaTionThe social innovation initiative began with a survey, conducted in partnership with Koreth Consultancy, to identify activities that could

serve as bridges to the community, such as education and health care, along with the generation of livelihood opportunities that would enhance the capacity of community members to pay.

Nonprofits partnered the TPDDL team to mobilise community members and organise activities such as free medical facilities, accident insurance schemes, drug de-addiction programmes, training courses, and educational support through scholarships and remedial education.

But the most innovative aspect of the plan was to involve community members as franchisees for metering and bill collection in the slum clusters, thereby introducing new livelihood and entrepreneurship opportunities.

The franchisee model was creatively used to encourage consumers to get legal connections, improve collections, motivate residents to take advantage of the socioeconomic improvement offers from TPDDL, and in acting as a bridge between the company and consumers for improved services and complaint redress.

In the first year itself about 1,200 community members took advantage of the vocational training courses for electricians, plumbers, beauticians, tailors and computer literacy. About 750 children, all students in government-run schools, benefited from scholarships and special tutorial classes, while about 540 women attended classes to improve their functional literacy. Arrangements were made for mobile dispensaries and special health

Tata Power Delhi Distribution used

community development initiatives

in slum clusters to enhance its

revenues, cut distribution losses

and build bridges with consumers




camps. About 30 drug de-addiction camps were organised through 2010-11, benefiting more than 4,600 individuals.

Once interactions with community members had been established, the TPDDL team initiated discussions on safe, secure and affordable electricity connections. The company offered to waive outstanding dues and provide metered connections at vastly discounted rates, with simplified document requirements. New connections were provided within 24 hours of application. Endorsement letters from members of the legislative assembly were accepted as proof of identity and residence for each of the households in the slum clusters. Bill payment dates were synchronised with the residents’ paydays to make payments easier.

Alongside, through technical improvements that reduced options for ‘hooking’ onto power cables, TPDDL made the network safer.

The payoffThe business model, based on social innovation, has created a win-win scenario. For TPDDL it has helped curtail losses, increase revenue and create a strong relationship with an important and large category of customers. For the community it has provided security of residence, access to an important service and opened up entrepreneurship opportunities.

While new connections in the slum clusters went up by 100,000 within three years, the collection rate is today more than 90 percent. Customer satisfaction levels have increased and the metering of power has led to energy conservation through more careful consumption. Doorstep services and spot billing have reduced the carbon footprint created by paper billing.

The ethos of mutual respect engendered by this innovative approach has reaped benefits for everyone involved. ¨

Category: Support process CompaNy: tata power Delhi DistributionINNovatIoN: Last mile at&C loss reduction through corporate sustainability initiativeteam: Sumit Sachdev, B Bhushan Sachdeva, Sudarshan Kumar Saini, ramkrishna Singh, Sushil Kumar Srivastava



Technology tweakers

The backgroundWith nearly half its revenue coming from agricultural products, the voice of the farmer is an important one for Tata Chemicals. A critical finding from farmer customer surveys in India showed that farmers were unhappy with the scarcity of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser, one of Tata Chemicals’ products. The reason for this was that the DAP plant had low uptime, caused by a variety of factors.

DAP is produced by having phosphoric acid react with ammonia and crystallising the resulting slurry in a granulation process. The granulator itself is a rotary drum designed with a slope to help transport the material through the drum. Ammonium phosphate slurry is sprayed into the rolling bed of the granulator. The granulator also contains four ploughshares that enable the further ammoniation required for the final product.

The issue with the standard equipment was that material would build up and accumulate over the ploughshares inside the granulator. This meant that the entire production line would have to be stopped and the build-up manually broken up. Apart from the downtime of the

plant, this was also a safety concern due to confined vessel entry.

This build-up may also lead to other process problems such as recycle duct choking, fines hopper choking, ammonia scrubber choking, reactor overflow, etc, all of which often led to several hours of plant stoppage and, consequently, loss in production.

What the Tata Chemicals team did was completely rethink the way the granulator worked. By changing the original design, the team solved the problem of build-up and thereby increased productivity, reduced material loss, increased output and revenues, and also improved plant safety. Remarkably, the total cost of implementing the new design was only `10,000. The impact — and the payoff — in terms of higher revenue, is more than `50 million per year.

The innovaTionTraditionally, granulators contain four ploughshares. The Tata Chemicals team redesigned the DAP granulator to work with only three ploughshares. They also changed the position and angles of the nozzle sprays inside the drum to optimise for maximum efficiency.

The innovation was not as easy as it sounds. When the team changed the internal arrangement of ploughshares, a new problem arose: there was a slight over-agglomeration of DAP granules at the granulator outlet, leading to oversized granules being produced. The team then concentrated its attention on

By rejigging the inside elements

of a crucial piece of equipment,

a team from Tata Chemicals has

improved productivity, reduced

emissions and increased revenues




changing the spray distribution pattern inside the granulator.

Another problem that occurred was the loss of ammonia from the granulator. By the cutting down on one ploughshare, the ammonia spray zone inside the granulator bed got reduced and excess ammonia gas escaped from the granulator. This caused a decrease in ammonia scrubber efficiency. To overcome this hurdle the team analysed where the ammonia loss was occurring inside the granulator and adjusted the ammonia flow distribution to minimise the loss.

The payoffThis is the first time in the DAP manufacturing process that a granulator has been run with three ploughshares. The innovation hugely reduces the build-up formation over the ploughshares. As a result,

plant uptime and revenues have increased, and that too, without any capital expenditure. The plant production has stabilised because frequent start-stops are now being avoided. In addition, the plant has achieved better technical efficiency of raw materials (phosphate and ammonia), which contribute nearly `20 million to savings. The process can be replicated in other plants, for instance, the NPK fertiliser manufacturing plant.

There is also a strong environmental impact as the solid particulate matter level (SPM) in the stack has gone down from 150ppm (parts per million) to less than 120ppm without any additional investment. This has a big safety impact on the surrounding community, as well as in helping to reduce the carbon footprint. But the biggest benefit is to the Indian farmer, who is assured of better supply of a vital fertiliser. ¨

Category: Core process CompaNy: tata ChemicalsINNovatIoN: Innovative Dap granulationteam: Santanu Bose, Chandan Chakrabarti, Dibyendu ghosh, Jitendra ghosh, man mohan Shrotriya



Galvanised to deliver

The backgroundWith green concerns reigning supreme, car manufacturers are looking for steel that gives their vehicles better performance, not to mention a smaller carbon footprint. In other words, they need steels that are lighter but stronger.

Steels alloyed with manganese, silicon and aluminium are called advanced high-strength steel (AHSS). These steels are used to make cars and other vehicles lightweight and, hence, more fuel efficient, yet safer thanks to better crash-resistance performance.

The Zodiac unit of Tata Steel’s Europe operations is a hot-dip strip steel galvanising plant at Llanwern, UK, that processes 420,000 tonnes of AHSS every year. Galvanisation is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron in order to prevent rusting and corrosion.

What Zodiac does is heat treat the steel in a gas-fired furnace to produce a surface that is not oxidised, and then apply a galvanised coating by way of a molten zinc bath to protect the steel against corrosion.

The problem with conventional galvanisation techniques is that the steel

produced is inconsistently or inadequately coated. There are always bare spots that are prone to rusting. In spite of talking to other galvanisers around the world, the Zodiac team could not find an easy solution. To change the existing techniques would have cost the unit at least £500,000 and possibly led to patent issues.

The Zodiac team put on its thinking cap to work out a new processing technique. In a completely in-house initiative, it has conceived, designed and implemented an innovative pre-oxidation technique that provides ‘wettability’ for successfully galvanising AHSS.

This solution is not just a much better process, it is also cheaper. The new technique and installed equipment provide cost-effective and improved galvanised coating quality and consistency, and no little bit of satisfaction.

This allows Zodiac to charge a price premium for its higher-quality product. It has already successfully commercialised one of its product lines and is working to develop other AHSS grades. And its customers — BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan — are already buying the new steel.

The innovaTionPre-oxidation is the best technique for galvanising AHSS. However, the standard practice is to achieve pre-oxidation by adjusting the combustion ratio control of direct fired burners.

What the Zodiac team did was to look

Tata Steel’s plant at Llanwern,

UK, has invented a new low-cost

technique that produces smooth,

perfectly-coated galvanised steel




at novel ways to “wet the surface” with zinc. Zodiac developed a new technique that involves applying a jet of gas at a specific oxygen concentration directly onto the strip surface within the annealing furnace.

New equipment has been designed to apply the gas mixture evenly across the strip surface. Additionally, a gas-mixing system was conceived to provide an accurate and consistent supply of oxygen.

The biggest concern during implementation was designing a system that was intrinsically safe and did not affect the integrity of the annealing furnace. A detailed hazard study was done and the technology was adapted for full safety.

In order to minimise downtime during the changeover, a full management-of-change study was done. All trials and modifications were conducted within the normal and scheduled maintenance periods.

The payoffThere are several benefits of Zodiac’s innovative technique. There is a cost saving in that the in-house developed solution was less expensive and cost only £150,000. Then there is the fact that Tata Europe can gain increases on the enhanced product over average hot dip galvanised sales values.

Zodiac is now the only known galvanising line in the world to use this solution. A patent has been filed and is in the process of being granted. Moreover, the team has developed a high degree of expertise in pre-oxidation technology, better than any other galvaniser in the world.

Then there is the very satisfying insight that solutions to problems can come from within. All that is needed is a sound understanding of the key principles of the problem and a thirst for developing a better solution. ¨

Category: Support process CompaNy: tata Steel’s europe operations INNovatIoN: advanced high-strength steel coatingteam: Iwan Davies and Craig phillips



The Leading Edge

Hope and more in HOPS

The background Direct methanol fuel cells and polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells are highly efficient energy delivery systems and an alternative to conventional energy. However, the biggest stumbling block to adoption of fuel cells is their high cost.

Fuel cells use expensive proton-conducting membranes that are used as electrolytes in both methanol and PEM fuel cells. These membranes account for half the cost of the membrane electrolyte assembly.

Until the cost of production of PEM fuel cells is reduced by at least 30 percent, it will be difficult to create a significant commercial market for them in India.

The innovaTion Based on a detailed, component-wise analysis of the costing of the various parts of PEM fuel cells, a team from Tata Chemicals decided to develop a new type of membrane. They came up with the idea of replacing the costly Nafion membrane with a novel transparent sulphonic acid containing hybrid oxide polymer (HOP).

The HOP membrane is 50 times cheaper than the Nafion membrane (at just `4,974

per kg as compared to `248,700 per kg). Besides the cost, HOP has several advantages over commercial Nafion. The acid site in HOP is four times higher than Nafion. This acid group (SO3H) is responsible for proton conduction in the membrane.

At low relative humidity (of less than 20 percent), the proton conductivity of HOP is 10 times higher than that of Nafion. Even at very high relative humidity (more than 90 percent), the proton conductivity of HOP is nine times higher than Nafion’s.

Additionally, HOP has negligible methanol crossover because it is a nonporous material. Nafion’s porosity allows free methanol crossover, which reduces the efficiency of methanol utilisation and poisons the cathode catalyst.

Unlike Nafion, which can be operated at temperatures of up to 80°C only, HOP can be operated even at 160°C. Anode catalysts get poisoned in the presence of carbon monoxide, if operated below 150°C. Even at 80°C, HOP is expected to perform better than Nafion because of higher proton conductivity.

Moreover, unlike Nafion, HOP swells relatively less in water or methanol. HOP would significantly enhance the scope of green fuel cells for large (up to 100MW), medium and small scale (1-5KW) power generation units.

HOP will also have a substantial impact on metrics relating to economic (more cost-effective), social (can enable better lighting in villages) and environmental (100 percent

The work of a team from Tata

Chemicals points the way to a

breakthrough reduction in the cost

of generating alternative energy



green with zero pollution) dimensions. Its low cost will make it affordable in more sectors, among them construction, automobiles and telecom services.

Apart from fuel cells, there’s another market for HOP. In India 85-90 percent of caustic soda plants are chloro-alkali plants, which use the Nafion membrane. Replacing Nafion with HOP will provide the plants with considerable benefits, including cost reduction.

The payoff At present no company produces HOP. In other words, there is no alternative to the Nafion membrane — owned by DuPont — in Indian and worldwide markets. If developed, HOP would be the first alternative to Nafion.

Let’s look at some numbers to put this in perspective. The size of the membrane industry for fuel cells in the United States alone is a whopping $3.4 billion; this is

expected to grow by a further 8 percent by the year 2014.

The global membrane industry for chloro- caustic plants is an estimated $4.73 billion. Thus, the size of the membrane industry for just these two segments is $8.13 billion. In India, the membrane market for chloro-caustic plants and cheap fuel cells that can replace diesel generator sets is estimated at `120 billion.

If successfully developed and presented as an alternative to existing options, HOP could deliver plenty in revenue for Tata Chemicals. For instance, replacing Nafion membrane in 10 percent of the chloro-caustic plants worldwide would translate into `21.7 billion. A 50 percent market share to replace diesel generator sets by fuel cells in India would translate into `11.5 billion.

But the bigger story will be the impact of making fuel cell technology cheaper. That would be one way to ensure the world gets another step closer generating greener energy. ¨

Category: Unproven ideas Company: tata ChemicalsInnovatIon: Development of novel membranes for fuel cellsteam: alkesh ahire and Dr nawal mal



The Leading Edge

Silica boost for nutrition

The backgroundIt is one of the great ironies of our time: a shocking 60 percent of children under five years of age die due to malnutrition in developing countries even as a staggering 1.2 billion suffer from obesity. Worse, a significant section of the society has begun its journey away from fresh food towards unhealthy and processed junk food, adding another layer of woefulness to the issue of nutrition.

Poor nutrition, owing to financial reasons or to a general lack of awareness, can be blamed for a large number of ailments, especially among the urban population. The overexploitation of existing agricultural resources has resulted in nutrient-deficient crops.

A complex combination of factors are involved in the widespread lack of nutrition, which has become such a hugely worrying social phenomenon. The solution lies in providing the right nutrition at the right cost.

The innovaTionThe trigger for the innovation was provided by Tata Chemicals’ patented low-cost process for the synthesis of high surface area silica nanoparticles that are bio-compatible. Apart from bulk applications of silica (as with rubber, paint and

in the construction industry), the team started exploring niche applications for silica.

Since silica nanoparticles are highly porous and have a high surface area (~500 m2/g), the team began looking at the possibility of using these particles as delivery vehicles for pharmaceutical, agricultural and other products, by encapsulating certain plant micronutrients and drugs. The results were impressive: these particles displayed great versatility at loading water soluble as well as insoluble compounds.

Silica is essential in the development of the human skeleton and calcium deposition. It helps to prevent baldness, stimulates healthier hair growth and is believed to be useful in preventing veins and arteries from getting hard and stiff. As we age, scientific measurements have shown, the ability of the human body to absorb silica reduces. Moreover, silica is not present in sufficient amounts in a wide variety of foodstuffs today due to food processing; this makes silica supplementation essential.

Armed with these insights, the Tata Chemicals team developed the idea of combining the inherent nutrition of silica with its ability to load water soluble and insoluble compounds to find a solution to the nutrition problem: to add essential nutrients such as zinc, iron, copper, magnesium, etc, vitamins (soluble and insoluble), omega 3 and 6 fatty acids into the silica nanoparticles for delivering of nutrition to humans.

Nutrient-loaded silica nanoparticles serve a dual purpose: they are inherently nutritious

Tata Chemicals is working on a

health drink that delivers nutrition

through silica nanoparticles



and they work well as an carrier of other nutrients. This, along with a cost-effective process, seemed like an ideal combination to target an entire range of stakeholders. The Tata Chemicals team proposed the use of nutrient-loaded silica nanoparticles as ingredients for food, health drinks and food additives to benefit all sections of society.

The payoff To put the potential of the innovation in perspective, the vitamins and minerals market was estimated at $11.7 billion in 2006, whereas the sports nutrition product market was estimated at $6.6 million in 2004.

Silica particles, by themselves or fortified with different value-added molecules and elements, have been sold by a number of small companies in the West. The Tata Chemicals team proposes developing a silica-based health drink with all the added minerals, vitamins and essential fatty acids, customised

for all ages. This is in alignment with the nutraceuticals business that Tata Chemicals has set its mind on pursuing.

There’s potential also in the food additives market as silica is a well-known anti-caking agent. The plan is to fortify the silica particles with different additives and then add to salt or other foodstuffs, providing a value addition to the existing product.

Tata Chemicals has an existing consumer products business and an upcoming nutraceuticals business, where the new product would fit in perfectly. The existing distribution channels in these businesses can be used for the new product as well.

Although there are couple of US-based multinationals selling similar products in the market, Tata Chemicals would have the advantage of being cost competitive and innovative, which will give it wider reach across various socioeconomic segments of consumers. ¨

Category: Unproven ideas Company: tata ChemicalsInnovatIon: nutritious silica nanoparticles for healthteam: Dr anand gole and Dr Debabrata rautaray



The Leading Edge

A solution that lasts

The background Ever wondered what happens as that tram passes through your city centre, taking people to their workplaces, homes or wherever it is they want to go? The tramway often shares its route with road vehicles and its rails are, therefore, embedded in the road surface. As it winds its way through the city, the wear and tear is acute, especially where there are steep gradients and tight curves.

Replacing the embedded track poses a complex challenge to light-rail infrastructure managers: besides the high cost of excavation, there is also disruption to road traffic sharing the route. The solution — as envisaged by Tata Steel’s Europe operations — lies in a premium grade grooved rail that is designed to extend the track’s serviceable life, provide increased resistance to wear-and-contact fatigue, and also be restorable by welding.

The innovaTion The team at Tata Steel’s Europe operations set out with the idea of creating a harder rail steel that could be repaired through welding and, thereby, have a longer usage period. The result

was the 330V, which has a wear resistance above that of anything available in the market and is compatible with Tata Steel’s patented high-integrity weld-repair process.

The 330V, which the company has patented, addresses the customer requirement for a premium product to be used on the tight radius corners that are required for trams in an urban environment.

Modern rail steels, typically, have a fully pearlitic microstructure, comprising layers of a ‘hard’ cementite phase and a ‘soft’ ferrite phase. Traditionally, the properties of the rail are modified by alloy additions, giving added solution strengthening to the ferrite, or by additional heat treatment processing to refine the pearlite layer thickness.

The first novel step in the 330V development is the precipitation hardening of the ferrite layers. Precise levels of vanadium are added; these precipitate as vanadium carbides in the ferrite matrix, resulting in higher wear and rolling contact fatigue resistance than is possible through solid solution strengthening alone.

The 330V is a premium-grade steel which, unlike heat-treated premium grades, is weld-restorable in service. Levels of carbon and other alloying additions are carefully chosen and controlled, such that the martensite start-and-finish temperatures allow a robust weld deposit to be applied to the gauge corner, in line with Tata Steel’s patented weld-restoration procedure.

By enhancing the durability of the

embedded rail lines used in urban

centres, Tata Steel in Europe has

placed itself on a profitable track

with a premium product



This composition is the only rail steel in the market that offers first-life performance that is the equivalent of the best available heat-treated product, as well as the weld-reparability of standard grade. This allows a worn rail to be restored to its original profile (rather than have it be replaced).

Compared with downstream heat-treatment processing, which requires an additional plant and incurs additional cost, the 330V achieves these premium properties in the ‘as-rolled’ condition through the intelligent design of chemical composition.

The payoff The development of 330V allows Tata Steel’s Europe operations to overcome the competitive disadvantage it faced vis-a-vis its rival Voest Alpine on wear-and-contact fatigue resistance, and to create a unique selling point of a weld-repairable premium grade rail.

Increasing the serviceable life of grooved

rail and reducing the frequency of replacement provide significant financial benefit to the network operator, since the cost of rail only makes up a fraction of the cost of replacement (less than 10 percent).

The market price for rival heat-treated rail is 10-15 percent above standard grade based on first-life benefits. Since weld restoration helps it achieve multiple lives, the 330V offers considerable additional value over competing products.

Lengths of 330V rail are now with some of the company’s light-rail customers and awaiting installation at the trial sites of Sheffield Supertram, the Brussels Metro and French tramways in Paris and Strasbourg. These are expected to be installed in 2012.

The demand for such a premium product is expected to increase Tata Steel’s market share in this segment from 25 percent to 50 percent by 2016, generating an additional £1 million in profits every year. ¨

Category: Proven technologies ComPany: tata Steel’s europe operationsInnovatIon: 330v premium grade rail for embedded trackteam: Dr Jay Jaiswal, Dr edward mcgee, mike Poulter, Pascal Secordel, Dr Howard Smith



The Leading Edge

Low is the high here

The backgroundAs oil sources become scarce, the importance of coal for energy needs has got reinforced. While that may seem like good news for India — the world’s third-largest coal producer — the poor quality of coal being mined in the country tones down much of the optimism.

High ash content makes Indian coal unfit for direct use in industrial applications like steel making, power generation and synthetic fuel generation. Add to that Indian coal’s lower calorific value and poor combustibility. For efficient and sustainable steel production, plants across the world need coal with ash content of 8-10 percent. Indian steelmakers are faced with the problem of run-of-mine (ROM) ash content as high as 30-35 percent.

Tata Steel’s washeries currently produce coal with an ash level of 15 percent at 39 percent yield, using physical beneficiation techniques. In 2006, the company set itself the target of achieving 8 percent ash content at 45 percent yield, either by altering its existing process or by developing a new technology.

Baseline studies indicated that modifying the existing process would improve yield by a mere 4-5 percent. Therefore, Tata Steel’s research

department took on the challenge of achieving 8 percent ash clean coal without diminishing the yield by developing a new technology.

The innovaTion A team comprising Dr PS Dash, RK Lingam, SK Sriramoju, A Suresh and Dr PK Banerjee came up with this solution, using leaching technology to produce low-ash coal from captive mines.

The leaching process involves addition of chemicals which react with the minerals locked inside the coal matrix, allowing them to be easily removed. The process can reduce ash content by about 60 percent, at more than 70 percent yield, without any deterioration in the coking properties.

A specific breakthrough in this innovation is the development of a unique, patented process-flow sheet for the leaching of coal. Another is the development of the regeneration process for the alkali reagent used in the process. By injecting carbon dioxide into the solution, silica present in the spent solution as sodium silicate is converted to pure silica and sodium carbonate. The precipitate is removed by filtration and the filtrate is causticised to regenerate the caustic solution. This yields efficiency of more than 95 percent regeneration (compared with the 80 percent achieved by conventional regeneration).

Since this technology can also be applied with non-coking coals, the low-ash coal thus produced can be utilised for pulverised coal injection (PCI). As 1 tonne of PCI coal can replace 1.4 tonne of coking coal for steel production, the use of this technology can ensure

Thanks to a unique process that

enables the reduction of ash content

in the coal it sources, Tata Steel is in

a position to reap multiple benefits



the longevity of India’s coking coal reserves. Moreover, the average net efficiency of coal-

based power plants in India is just 33 percent, mainly due to the low quality of Indian coal. The combustion of low-ash coal can improve the efficiency of a power plant to 53 percent and reduce CO2 emissions by 24 percent.

This chemical-leaching technology for coal is unique. Although the application of leaching technology for ores is well established, the implementation of leaching for coal on a commercial scale is still in the research phase due to the various complexities in scaling up.

The payoffTata Steel’s ‘8 percent ash coal’ project was launched as a ‘seeding strategy’ to ensure raw material security. After completing trials, it is set to become a ‘harvesting strategy’ and a part of future investment plans.

The technology can be applied to both coking

and non-coking coals, enabling maximum utilisation. Middlings and rejects from the coal washeries contain around 50 percent carbon, which can be utilised as coking coal by way of the leaching method. At present, Tata Steel’s production capacity is about 6.8mtpa. It is estimated that even a 1 percent drop in ash from the current level with same yield could benefit the company to the tune of `580 million per year. Similarly, every 1 percent increase in yield maintaining the same ash percentage could save up to `300 million annually.

The technology will also help Tata Steel achieve its target of 1.8 tonne of CO2 emission per tonne of steel by 2012 and 1.5 tonne by 2020 (against the present 2 tonne CO2 per tonne of steel produced). The leaching technology will help in achieving this goal by producing low-ash, clean coal for coke, by consuming CO2 for chemical reagent regeneration and in acid leaching. ¨

Category: Proven technologies ComPany: tata SteelInnovatIon: Clean coal for green steelteam: Dr PK Banerjee, Dr Pratik Swarup Dash, ravi Kumar Lingam, Santosh Kumar Sriramoju, a Suresh



The Leading Edge

No need to choose now

The backgroundJaguar Land Rover (JLR) produces the finest all-terrain vehicles in the world and this makes off-road capability is a core attribute of the brand. Over the years JLR has retained its leadership position in this space with innovative off-road technologies such as ‘terrain response’ (TR). But TR, introduced in 2004, has found its match is technologies introduced by the competition. The felt need, therefore, was for JLR to develop a new technology that would increase the competitive advantage of its models.

Data indicated that many JLR customers drive their vehicles off-road at least once per month on a range of terrains. Driving off-road places a significant workload on the driver, and it involves tasks such as selecting vehicle gear, obstacle recognition and avoidance, and planning the vehicle path. In JLR vehicles the tasks include selecting the appropriate TR special programme and changing the vehicle configuration by selecting the appropriate air suspension ride height (standard or off-road) and transfer box ratio (high or low range). According to available data, customers seldom use these special programmes and

configurations. Such insights provided the inspiration for the ‘automatic terrain response’ (ATR) that was developed.

The innovaTionSam Anker, Dan Dennehy, Dr Andrew Fairgrieve, Elliot Hemes and James Kelly developed the ATR system, a unique technology which significantly reduces driver workload during off-road driving by removing the need for the driver to recognise that a special programme or vehicle configuration needs to be changed.

The innovative technology uses sensor fusion and mathematical modelling techniques to determine terrain conditions. This information is used to automatically optimise the vehicle system settings for the terrain, by automatically selecting the optimum special programme for the conditions. And it aids vehicle configuration by advising the driver about which transfer box ratio and air suspension ride height to select.

The JLR team also developed a human machine interface (HMI) that allows selection of the automatic special programme, retains the manual special programme selection facility, provides the driver advice, is simple and intuitive to operate during of off-road driving, integrates with the existing TR HMI, and meets the company’s standards and technical guidelines. The solution was to develop new switchgear and driver information messages.

The automatic programme selection allows drivers to make full use of the off-road

Jaguar Land Rover has engineered

an ‘automatic’ technology that

lightens the load of off-road driving

by making it easier for those who find

it difficult to pick from many options



capability of the vehicle more easily since they don’t need to manually configure the vehicle. Such a reduction in the driver’s workload is particularly beneficial to off-road drivers who are new to the game.

The payoff ATR offers JLR a significant feature enhancement over its competition, besides increasing the appeal of its products and protecting its market leadership in the off-road capability attribute.

This patented technology provides a revenue generation opportunity with a ‘surprise and delight’ feature that improves the product appeal, creates a unique selling proposition and counters the decrease in perceived value of the existing TR feature (caused by competitor advancements).

ATR also reaffirms JLR’s existing off-road feature set, increasing both the vehicle’s capabilities and the utilisation of those capabilities, while strengthening the brand’s

market leadership position and improving customer satisfaction. Additionally, the technology has a green side to it, given that automatic and optimal configuration of the vehicle to prevailing conditions minimises the vehicle’s environmental impact.

As the technology is a patented JLR property, it has potential to generate further revenue through licensing. Being a flexible and adaptable technology, it can be used in other applications, such as the JaguarDrive Control system on Jaguar nameplates. It is also scalable and provides a low-cost route for further iterations of the TR feature set.

ATR will be introduced in forthcoming Land Rover models, beginning with the 13MY Range Rover in 2012 and the 14MY Range Rover Sport in 2013. The technology may then be rolled out on new and existing Jaguar and Land Rover products. Off-road driving with JLR, in the circumstances, is set to get smoother. ¨

Category: Proven technologies ComPany: Jaguar Land roverInnovatIon: terrain response 2: automatic terrain response systemteam: Sam anker, Dan Dennehy, Dr andrew Fairgrieve, elliot Hemes, James Kelly



A pest of a problem

The background Rallis India is a well-known and reputed player in the business of providing solutions to farmers. These solutions include agrochemicals, plant-growth nutrients, seeds and fertilisers.

Product P, a leading herbicide in Rallis’s portfolio, proved its position as a critical seller for the company, earning a turnover of about `67 million last year. This chemical has been highly successful in the European market and it has been registered as a safe product, primarily because it has no or very low levels of nitroso compound impurity.

For Rallis, there was an urgent need to make Product P completely safe in the interests of large-scale handling of the product, as the nitroso compound is known to impart mutagenicity. Another aspect of this product was its colour and the sedimentation of black particulates when dissolved in solvents. Customers in European countries had wanted the colour to be pale yellowish instead of dark brown and that the product be free from suspended black particulate matter (these create spray problems on the field).

In view of the growing demand for Product P in overseas markets, any improvements in

quality would have a positive environmental impact, ensuring customer satisfaction and enhanced volume growth.

The innovaTionIt was necessary to improve the quality of the herbicide by removing the impurity through a safe and optimised process. A cross-functional team, which included Sebastian Almeida, Suhas Kodgule, Tapas Kumar Nandi, Anna Bobade and Chandrashekhar Gharat, was formed to make Product P free from impurity.

The team conducted trials in the laboratory using conventional processes. These proved to be ineffective and failed to satisfy quality requirements. When conventional methods failed, the team realised the need for unconventional solutions. They decided to go in for higher-temperature treatment to distil the nitroso compound from the product. A careful study was conducted by internal and external experts (because higher temperatures with nitroso compounds are a known explosion hazard). The operational safety with which the team conducted the tests was validated by accredited labs such as Intertek and Chilworth.

Initially, the team members studied the trends at higher temperatures before selecting the parameters to operate. At this point, they considered incorporating a catalyst which would react during the distillation process and decompose the impurities at a lower temperature, causing them to be released in a gaseous form. This innovative idea had never

Rallis India’s attempts to make an

important herbicide compliant on

safety and environmental norms

were a failure, but far from futile

Dare to Try



been attempted before at the operational level. The team conducted 52 trials in all, using the

learnings from each trial to improve the process. The trials were conducted in association with Technoforce at Nashik in Maharashtra, India.

Sixteen trials were conducted in an ‘agitated thin-film evaporator’. The very first trial at the desired high temperature saw a fire break out in the residue tank on account of pressurisation, followed by the bursting of the safety nozzle. Trials were then resumed at a lower temperature after analysing the cause behind this failure and taking the necessary precautions. However, it did not yield the desired results; the overall recovery rate was only 82 percent. The risk was found to be greater at temperatures higher than 275°C.

As a further improvement, short-path distillation was attempted at a safe temperature and 36 trials were undertaken. These yielded recovery rates ranging from 82 to 95 percent.

The sedimentation was brought down from 5–6 percent to less than 1 percent. The colour was transformed to a brilliant orange, but the trials were only partially successful on the impurity content and mutagenicity test.

The payoffFifteen samples were checked randomly. Of these, 13 failed the test, resulting in a success rate of 14 percent. Inconsistent product recovery was another adverse consequence. Had the effort succeeded, Rallis could have potentially saved the equivalent of 262.2mt per annum in CO2 emissions. It would also have resulted in reduced safety hazards, improved process time cycles, reduced cost of manpower and consumables, ensured better housekeeping, and created an additional revenue of around `77 million. Impressed with the potential inherent in the innovation, the team is determined to tackle the problem afresh. ¨

company: Rallis IndiaInnovatIon: making product p herbicide safeteam: Sebastian almeida, anna Bobade, chandrashekhar Gharat, Suhas Kodgule, tapas Kumar nandi

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