Shock and Awesome Business
Some IISc scientists are trying to build a billion
dollar business
by using a destructive natural phenomenon
The
laboratory of KPJ Reddy and G Jagadeesh contains very expensive
equipment, some of which were built at the
Indian Institute of Science
(IISc)
in Bengaluru and the rest imported. One of their most prized
imports
in recent times happens to be a 250-kg rock, obtained free in a
jiffy from Kenya but brought into the country
after considerable paperwork.
Reddy
and Jagadeesh, professors of aerospace engineering at IISc,
have
spent a lot of time at the lab inside the IISc campus sending shock
waves
into the rock and studying the cracks that open up as a result.
Over
the years, they have learned to make these cracks at will and with
precision.
While they try to open up fissures in the rock in their lab, the
scientist
duo may be opening up an extraordinary business opportunity
for
their startup company, Super Wave Technologies around the world.
At
least one big industry would be deeply interested in the duo's work,
as its
fortunes are tied to going deep underground and opening up precise
channels
underground. The natural gas industry uses the term hydraulic
fracturing
-fracking for short -to describe this process, but fracking is far
from
controlled or benign.The technique consists of pumping water and
chemicals
at high pressure into rocks about two kilometers deep, and the
water
flows into the rock randomly opening up fissures for the gas to
flow
out. It uses up too much water, causes at least mild earthquakes,
and
pollutes ground water.Reddy and Jagadeesh think that they have a
superior
technique, refined by testing on several kinds of rocks, including
the
one from Kenya, and based on shock wave technology, to extract
gas
from deep under the earth.
They
are now investigating the possibilities of shock wave technology
for
extracting gas, through an agreement signed with the state-run explorer
Oil
and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) last year. Field trials will take
time,
as the procedure is complicated and expensive, but Reddy is confident.
“Fracking
is an uncontrolled process,“ he says, “while shock waves can
open
up channels in a controlled manner.“
While
they wait for the results of this experiment, the two scientists and
their
colleagues have figured out several uses for their technology, resulting
in a
startup company from IISc and several subsidiaries, each exploring a
different
business domain. “Such work is rare in the country, let alone in
the
institute,“ says Jayant Modak, deputy director of IISc. “It has opened
up
completely new avenues for commercialisation.“
Multiple
Uses
Reddy
and Jagadeesh have laboratory evidence that shock waves can be
useful
in transferring genes to a cell, in drying tea leaves quickly, artificially
inseminating
farm animals, delivering drugs without using needles, and for
many
other tasks.They are exploring each of these business opportunity
through
a different subsidiary of Super Wave Technologies, now incubated
by the
IISc commercial arm Society for Innovation and Development (SID).
“They have set up subsidiaries because each
business is very different,“
says
CS Murali, chairman of the entrepreneurship cell at SID.
The
investment needed for them also differs significantly.
A
shock wave is a small area of high pressure and temperature in a gas
or
liquid that travels at supersonic speeds. The thickness of the area of
high
pressure and temperature is small, as small as one-millionth of a
meter,
but it is enough to cause many physical effects when it hits something.
Shock
waves are produced whenever energy is released in sudden bursts.
In
nature, they are produced during lightning, earthquakes, explosions and
by
supersonic aircraft. Crackers produce weak shock waves. Master whip
crackers
can produce shock waves at the tip of the whip.
Billion-Dollar
Opportunity
Reddy
and Jagadeesh have been researching shock waves for nearly three
decades.Their
laboratory has been built over time with several hundreds of
crores
of rupees, funded mainly by customers like the Defence Research
and
Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Space Research
Organisation
(ISRO).While working on strategic projects, they found
enough
time to develop low-cost equipment to study shock waves.
They
formed the first products of the company.
Shock
waves are important for engineering, but engineering students in the
country
are not exposed to the subject because a tube that can generate
shock
waves costs as much as `60-70 lakh. Reddy made a small and
inexpensive
tube costing `3 lakh and a larger tunnel costing `6 lakh,
called
the Reddy Tube and Reddy Tunnel respectively. Now Super Wave
is
selling these tubes to colleges, thereby exposing Indian students for the
first
time to this strategic science. “I believe,“ says Super Wave project
manager
Chintoo Kumar, “that this is the only instrument in the world
capable
of producing shock waves consistently with just human force.“
Among
the first sales that Kumar made was to his own alma mater, the
College
of Engineering in Thiruvananthapuram. He has sold a few to
engineering
colleges in Karnataka, Delhi and Tamil Nadu.Kumar thinks
that
every engineering college in the country is a potential customer,
which
translates to a potential cumulative business of at least `100 crore.
Meanwhile,
Super Wave is preparing to launch SuperBull, an artificial
insemination
product for the dairy industry. It will be followed by a
technique
to dry tea leaves quickly.
Artificial
insemination is practised widely by the dairy industry, but
Reddy
believes he has a superior technique with higher success rates
using shock
waves.Field trials are going on now, and the initial results
are
supposedly very good.Reddy believes that the product will be ready
later
this year. By next year, a Super Wave subsidiary could launch a
method
to dry tea leaves quickly. For field trials, the company has teamed
up
with Parry Agro. The drying of tea leaves is a long process, often
taking
as much as 16-18 hours. When jolted with a shock wave, the tea
leaves
dry up supposedly in 10 hours.It also enhances, according to Reddy,
the
polyphenol content of tea by about 30%.
The
next product, on which field trials are already going on, is to deliver
drugs using shock waves and without
needles.A fourth product would
be a
method to reduce fungal infections in cotton seed. In between all these,
the
shale gas extraction method is also being investigated. It could take
some
time, but many in the institute believe including Reddy that S
uper
Wave is a potential billion-dollar company.
Judgment
time is several years away.
|
Thursday, April 21, 2016
TECH SPECIAL....... Shock and Awesome Business
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment