Even as we grapple with the growing problem of waste management, a city girl’s homecoming is marked with an innovative patented technology that uses rubber and plastic to make steel.
Even as we grapple with the growing problem of waste management, a city girl’s homecoming is marked with an innovative patented technology that uses rubber and plastic to make steel. Meet Dr Veena Sahajwalla, director of Sustainable Materials Research and Technology at the University of New South Wales, whose enthusiasm about science is simply infectious.
“I love engineering, and I have always been this problem-solving person,” she says as she reminisces her childhood days in Mumbai. At a time when girls studying science mostly opted for medicine, Dr Sahajwalla opted for engineering to become the only woman engineer in her IIT-Kanpur batch in 1980s. Her focus on sustainable materials has its roots in her childhood interest in little glass medicine bottles. “Women would collect these bottles to exchange them at the scrap guy, as there is a value attached to them. And I realised then that if I wanted to pick up rubbish and figure out a way to do something with it, I was different,” she says.
While she saw the problems of waste in her growing years in the city, she also spotted an opportunity to set her life-goal. “The world has long been working towards managing waste, but we have a long way to go. And if you grow up in Mumbai, it is obvious that we need a solution fast,” she says, while explaining her method of utilising plastic and rubber waste in steel-making.
“In making steel, one needs two main ingredients — carbon and iron ore. While iron is extracted from the ore, for carbon one must rely on coal or coke. Plastic and rubber too contain carbon, similar to the one obtained from coal, which is used as additive alloy. So, I thought ‘why can’t we use that for making carbon steel?’.”
Translating the question into a feasible solution for managing industrial waste, she says, “What does waste glass contain? Silicon. How can I use it? Once you figure that out, you can use science to process the ‘waste’ element for an alternative use.”
Dr Sahajwalla has found a feasible solution that an Australian company successfully uses. On a tour of campuses in India to propagate her use of waste, she says, “We want to get Indian companies to adopt this technology. After meeting a few of them today, I see that there is some interest.”
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}