Student engineers unleash creativity at NITK expo

Various interesting projects by engineering students and faculty from various colleges were exhibited at an industrial exhibition and students project competition, organised by the Department of Chemical Engineering at NITK, Surathkal, on Monday.

A number of industries also displayed their products. There were 18 interesting poster presentations from BTech students and 30 from PhD students, teaching staff and others. Poster presentations on production of Amorphous Silica from rice husk, nanotechnology-structural stability, conversion of waste paper into useful bioproducts, extraction of oil pigment from eggplant peel and its application as food colourants, biosorption of methylene blue employing low cost adsorbents from pineapple were among those displayed in the exhibition.

The byproducts of crude oil, such as Sulphur, Pet Coke, Naphtha, Fuel Oil, Bitumen, Aviation Turbine Fuel and others were displayed at a stall put up by the MRPL. The company representative said the Euro-V standard fuel, which is the upgraded version of Euro IV, would be introduced in 2016 in all parts of the country. The Euro-V standard fuel is already being used in metropolitan and major cities. The Sulphur content is reduced to 50 PPM  (parts-per-million) as against 350 PPM, compared to the earlier version of Euro IV fuel, which makes the latest version, environment friendly. MRPL is the first company in the country to produce Euro III and Euro IV fuel, he added.

Industrial safety equipment, such as breathing apparatus set, canisters, half face mask, fire fighting nozzle, retractable fall arrester were also on display at a stall put up by MCF. 

Nuclear Power Corporation of India, Kaiga, had put up a stall to display the generation of nuclear power and its uses. MRPL Managing Director H Kumar inaugurated the exhibition. Prof M G Subba Rau was present on the occasion.