Bamu professor develops affordable, non-hazardous ink from sugarcane waste

Aurangabad, Dec 22: With the increase in inflation and pollution, there is a need to innovate a product which has low production cost, eco-friendly and durable.

A professor from Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University has developed formula of making ink from sugarcane bagasse (waste).

Talking to this newspaper, Dr Babasaheb Nivrutti Dole, a professor in the Physics Department of the university has developed to make ink from sugarcane waste.

In the just Rs 25, one can make more than 300 ml ink. The cost of per ml ink is eight to 10 paisa.

He said that he started the research from February 2019 and carried out different experiments to make ink from sugarcane waste.

“Sugarcane waste is mostly burned, which causes damage to nature.

I brought sugarcane waste and started experiments with chemicals. It was difficult to dissolve the waste with many chemicals, while some of them were hazardous. The waste will float or will not dissolve properly after mixing it a chemical. Finally, I got that chemical (name cannot be disclosed here) which can dissolve the waste easily so that users can write smoothly with it,” Dr Babasaheb Dole said.

He did many experiments from February 2019 to October 2020. “I have succeeded in making ink that is very cheaper than the products available in the market. In just Rs 25, I can produce 300 ML ink by using nature-nano technology. One pen needs two ML generally. One can write words for 700 meters with the two ml ink. The flow meter testing was also done,” he said.

Commenting on the research objective, Dr Dole who completed M Sc and Ph D from Bamu said that he decided to prepare a useful and financially affordable product from waste to fulfil society and nation without damaging the environment.

He joined the Physics Department of the university as an assistant professor in 2006 after working at the postgraduate department of Physics of JES College of Jalna and PES College of Engineering for six years. He received five research projects of Rs 41.93 lakh in the department.

“I owe to society, so, I will do research which is useful to society. Farmers who are the backbone of society and country will be benefitted from the use of bagasse as they will get some money from its sale,” he said.

The Physics professor said that he is preparing to apply for a patent. “Once the patent is approved, affordable ink production will commence,” he added. Jyoti Dole, Dnyaneshwar Dake, Nita Raskar, Vijay Mane, Ram P Sonpir have assisted him in the research.

*Experiment being done on printer’s cartridge*

He said he had started using the ink in the cartridge of printer. The researcher hopes that he would get a good result in the new experiment. “Use of this ink for a printer will bring a big change in terms of cost and disposal,” he said.