DUT’s Chemistry Professor; Prof Nirmala Deenadayalu, has secured funding to the tune of over R1 million for research; beating the likes of various other universities around South Africa.
Prof Deenadayalu; a Professor in the University’s Chemistry Department, said the National Research Council (NRF) put in a call for Higher Education India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) funding, which was only for South African researchers. Coupled with this is funding received for the Competitive Programme for Rated Researchers from NRF for a period of two years. Both funding relate to research on biomass processing of sugarcane bagasse.
The IBSA grant funding serves as an important catalyst for collaboration and co-operation in the areas of engineering, computer science and mathematical sciences; bio-technology, agriculture and livestock; sustainable development; social transformation and empowerment; climate change and its effect on rural livelihoods, health and food security; and higher education studies. Research-work is also based on the research and development (R&D) of methods and systems for the advancement of human knowledge.
A part of the work investigated by the students is being done in collaboration with CSIR’s (Pretoria), Prof Suprakas Sinha Ray; Director of the National Centre for Nano Structured Materials. This is the flagship Centre for Nano Research in South Africa. Prof Deenadayalu, her collaborator and her students also went up to Pretoria to check-out the facilities that are currently producing biocomposites.
The CSIR unit team has agreed to grant access to the state of the art world class facilities to a student to work with experts in this area of research. Dr Prashant Reddy from the Sugar Milling Research Institute is also collaborating with the Prof’s team on these projects. The DUT research team has already started research work on sugarcane bagasse.
“Essentially, we are located where the sugar industry is big locally. We have the largest sugarcane farming area. We wanted to find a project that is relevant to this area. The sugar industry has been facing a financial decline because of the cheap sugar imports. The sugar industry has to now reposition itself so that they can make themselves economically sustainable. If one is looking at sugarcane as your viable resource, then one is looking at employment opportunities for labourers at grassroot level and the production of the sugar cane. The aim is to see what value-added chemicals one can make out of sugar cane because the government is going to introduce blending of petroleum in 2015 due to high petroleum prices, so one needs to look at resources to produce bioethanol. Besides that, there are other chemicals you can produce, so we looking at different projects in terms of the sugar industry,” she said.
The exciting collaboration, both locally and internationally, will allow three of the post grad students (MTech) the opportunity to travel overseas to do research work. Prof Deenadayalu also said the IBSA-project-students will go to India and Brazil and spend one month or so and work with researchers who are using sugarcane bagasse for production of value-added chemicals.
The Brazilian partners are also doing work on sugar cane bagasse. Thandeka Mkhize will be working on the separation of lignin, another; Lethiwe Mthembu on the production of levulinic acid from sugar cane bagasse – an abundant agricultural residue, and the other postgrad student; Ditiro Mashego, is currently working on researching the extraction of cellulose nanocrystals-to make biocomposites like plastics.
“The project is very interesting. I know there will be challenges but I am really looking forward to travelling, I’m still reeling it in. It’s very exciting knowing you played a part in the sugar cane industry and it’s going to be an achievement for me,” said Mkhize.
“My research is on isolating cellulose nanoparticles from bagasse. I am currently separating nano particles from sugar cane bagasse, and it’s going well. This funding we are about to receive will help a lot in driving the research forward, and now I’m given the opportunity to travel abroad to Brazil and work with other professionals in the field, so it’s going to be very exciting,” said Mashego ecstatically.
Prof Deenadayalu said that securing research funding is very good for the University and for students as they will now be getting international exposure. They will also learn and pick up skills from the research-work they are undertaking, making their qualification more relevant and most of all, making them more employable. She also stressed that once research-work is completed, it will be published. Students will also be going to conferences nationally and internationally, and there will also be students from India coming to work on some projects at DUT soon.
“These are very competitive grants and you had UCT, WITS, Rhodes, Pretoria, Stellenbosch all applying for the same funding and they are normally the universities that get it but for DUT to get it, it’s an achievement on its own. I will continue applying for research grants as researchers always need funding. We currently have a lot of collaborations internationally and now we have the opportunity to strengthen these collaborations,” she said.
– Waheeda Peters
Pictured left to right: Chemist post grad students are ecstatic to be receiving funding. They are: Thandeka Mkhize, Ditiro Mashego, Zamaswazi Dlamini, Thobeka Mphambo, Zikhona Tywabi,
Siyanda Chule, Mbail Nduli, Lethiwe Mthembu, Prof Nirmala Deenadayalu and Tshepang Mohale.
