The Hyderabad based CSIR-IICT scientist Dr B L A Prabhavathi Devi, principal scientist at Centre for Lipid Research, has bagged American Oil Chemists’ Society’s ACI/NBB Glycerine Innovation Award for her outstanding research for the development of glycerol-based carbon catalysts for green processes.

The annual innovation award is sponsored by the American Cleaning Institute (ACI) and the National Biodiesel Board (NBB). This award recognises outstanding achievement for research into new applications for glycerine, with particular emphasis on commercial viability. The award includes a plaque and a US$ 5,000 honorarium. Dr Prabhavathi received this award for the year 2013 during the 104th American Oil Chemists’ Society’s (AOCS) Annual Meeting & Expo in Montreal, Canada on April 30, 2013.

After completion of her MSc and PhD in Organic Chemistry from University of Hyderabad, Dr Prabhavathi Devi joined in CSIR-IICT as scientist in the year 1997. Her recent research on glycerol utilization for the development of novel carbon-based solid acid and base catalysts has won several National awards namely Dr Husain Zaheer award, Dr S D Tirumala Rao Memorial award and Dr RBGV Swaika Memorial Award of Oil Technologists’ Association of India (OTAI). This year, American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS) recognized this outstanding work and presented her the ACI/NBB Glycerine Innovation award.

Her patented research demonstrated how crude glycerol obtained as by-product of biodiesel process and glycerol pitch, which is a waste from fat splitting industry, can be converted to acid and base heterogeneous carbon catalysts for green processes. The catalysts developed from biodiesel by-product i.e. glycerol were in turn employed for the production of biodiesel by replacing traditionally used homogeneous sulphuric acid and alkali catalysts, thus making the biodiesel process green and economically more profitable.