IIT Madras Establishes Chair to Explore Urban Mining for Sustainable, Circular Economy; Check Details Here

New Delhi: R. Ratheesh, Director of the Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has been given the visiting chair at IIT Madras that bears the names of former vice chairman of Tata Steel B. Muthuraman and his wife Sumathi.

B.Muthuraman, a former vice chairman of Tata Steel, said at the opening of the Muthuraman and Sumathi Visiting Chair in Urban Mining at IIT Madras on September 5, 2023, "Materials are necessary for the growth of any civilisation, so any efforts to alter the way we mine for materials would be a significant step in the right direction."

"The past 200 years of human behaviour have set the world on an unsustainable trajectory. The methods we have used for mining, producing electricity, moving ourselves around, and engaging in conspicuous consumption. We must make changes and adjust our course," said Mr. Muthuraman.

R.Ratheesh, head of the Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (CMET), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, received the Muthuraman and Sumathi Visiting Chair.

Prof. Ratheesh noted that India produced almost 3.2 million tonnes of e-waste in 2019, but that only 17% of this was recycled, and that there were many opportunities to improve e-waste management in a sustainable way.

Notably, novel energy materials including lithium, nickel, cobalt, and high-grade manganese oxide are all reportedly imported. These minerals are typically employed in primary and secondary (rechargeable) batteries. He asserted that recycling lithium-ion batteries is the most significant component of the circular economy.

"Black mass is widely produced around the country and exported. Now that an ecosystem has been established, it is possible to recycle the entire lithium-ion black mass and recover 99% pure lithium, cobalt, manganese, and nickel for use in future battery production," he pointed out.

Prof. Ratheesh will concentrate on a framework for recovering important metals like indium and germanium as well as on metal purification at IIT Madras.

Experts predict that urban mining as a whole, which has the ability to lessen our carbon footprint, will become more and more significant over time. By 2050, it is anticipated that urban mining would account for close to 50% of all raw material extraction, with natural mining accounting for the remaining 50%.

IIT Madras director V. Kamakoti stated that no garbage will be allowed to leave the campus in the upcoming few years, not even a single gramme.

T.Ramasami, a former secretary of the Department of Science and Technology, Mahesh Panchagnula, the dean of alumni corporate relations at IIT Madras, and Sumathi Muthuraman, Mr Muthuraman's wife, also took part. T. V. Narendran, the global managing director and managing director of Tata Steel, also attended.

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