Tata Steel, the world’s sixth largest steel maker, has won the DSIR Award 2007 (Department of Scientific & Industrial Research) for R&D Effort in implementing an indigenous technology for removing hexavalent chromium from chrome ore concentrates. Dr. Debashish Bhattacharjee, Chief – R&D and Scientific Services, Tata Steel received the award at a function held in New Delhi today.

Apart from environmental benefits, this technology will save 250 litres of water per tonne of concentrate (i.e., saving about 125 million litres of water per annum) in our mines.  

Dr. Debashish Bhattacharjee, Chief R&D and Scientific Services said, “With innovative research and tenacious implementation, the hexavalent Cr level has been brought down from 0.4ppm to 0.001ppm in our Cr ore concentrate. The cut-off set by WHO is 0.05ppm. This is indeed a huge achievement for us and we are very proud to have received this prestigious award.” The cut-off for Cr VI set by WHO is 0.05ppm. Through this research Tata Steel has managed to bring down the hexavalent Cr levels from 0.4ppm to 0.001ppm in Cr ore concentrate.  The team required for this project was highly cross-functional with contributions needed from CLRI, Sukinda operations, Chemical Labs for measuring low levels of hex Cr, Environment Dept, and of course R&D. The team was led by Mr. Gajanan Kapure, a researcher in R&D.

Chromium in nature exists in the valencies of two to six. Trivalent compounds (Cr III) do not cause any serious damage to body tissue; in fact, it is an important component of a balanced human and animal diet. The toxic action of chromium is confined to the hexavalent compound (Cr VI). It is this hexavalent molecule that is the ‘rogue’ molecule which is a highly toxic carcinogen and may cause death to humans and animals if ingested in large doses. The metallurgical industry commonly uses chromium for the production of stainless steels, alloy cast iron and nonferrous alloys as well as for plating steel.

About Tata Steel

Established in 1907 as Asia’s first integrated private sector steel company, Tata Steel today is the world’s sixth largest steel producer with geographic footprints in India, South East Asia, UK and Europe. With the recent acquisition of Corus Limited, the combined enterprise has a pro forma crude steel capacity of 25.6 million tonnes with over 84,000 employees across the four continents.

The establishment of a Research Department in Tata Steel is the first of its kind in India which was established way back in 1935. It stands as a testimony to the spirits of the early pioneers and the vision of the founder of Tata Steel. The Company’s strength in research and development has consistently helped to meet the challenges of growth and change.

*The Company is proposing, subject to market conditions and other considerations, an offer on a rights basis of its equity shares and cumulative convertible preference shares and has filed a Draft Letter of Offer with SEBI and the stock exchanges. The Draft Letter of Offer is available on the website of SEBI at www.sebi.gov.in and the respective websites of the BRLMs at www.jmfinancial.in, www.citibank.co.in and www.dspml.com”