India’s first Nano-cellulose plant developed by ICAR – CIRCOT Mumbai is related to

Correct — option (1), Cotton.

ICAR-CIRCOT, the Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology in Mumbai, set up a nanocellulose pilot plant that uses cotton linters and cotton wastes as its raw material.

CIRCOT describes the plant as a first of its kind in India and unique in the world in being able to use cotton linters. Its capacity is 10 kg of nanocellulose per shift of 8 hours.

ICAR funded the plant through the National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) with a budget of Rs 400 lakh. The institute's energy-efficient chemo-mechanical process earned three process patents.

The institute's name points the same way: since 1966 CIRCOT's mandate has covered post-harvest technology of cotton and value addition to cotton by-products and processing of wastes.

The idea to remember: CIRCOT's nanocellulose comes from cotton linters, the short fibres left on cotton seed after ginning.

Why the others are wrong

• (2)
  Jute — Jute is a plant stem fibre that contains cellulose, so it could in principle be processed into nanocellulose. But the CIRCOT pilot plant in the stem runs on cotton linters and cotton wastes.

  ICAR's crop research institute for jute is the Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres, Barrackpore, in West Bengal.

• (3)
  Bamboo — Bamboo is woody biomass, and CIRCOT lists woody biomass among the general raw materials for nanocellulose. The pilot plant in the stem, however, was built to use cotton linters.

  Botanically, bamboo is a giant grass of the family Poaceae, the same family as rice and wheat.

• (4)
  Rice — Rice straw and husk are crop residues that contain cellulose, and CIRCOT lists agro-biomass among the general raw materials for nanocellulose. The pilot plant in the stem runs on cotton linters and cotton wastes.

  ICAR's rice research institutes include the National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, and the Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad.

Cellulose is the main structural material of plant cell walls: long chains of glucose units held together by hydrogen bonds. Cotton fibre is among the purest natural sources of it.

Nanocellulose is cellulose broken down to the nanometre scale (1 nm = 10⁻⁹ m). CIRCOT lists its attractions as high mechanical strength, a large surface area for its volume, biodegradability, and novel flow (shear-thinning) and optical properties.

By dimensions, CIRCOT classes it as nano crystalline cellulose, with an aspect ratio below 100, or nano fibrillated cellulose, with an aspect ratio above 100.

Key facts

• ICAR-CIRCOT's nanocellulose pilot plant in Mumbai uses cotton linters and cotton wastes as its raw material.
• The pilot plant can produce 10 kg of nanocellulose per shift of 8 hours.
• ICAR funded the plant through the National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) with a budget of Rs 400 lakh.
• CIRCOT began in 1924 as the Technological Laboratory and was renamed Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology from 1 April 1991.
• CIRCOT classes nanocellulose as nano crystalline cellulose (aspect ratio below 100) or nano fibrillated cellulose (above 100).

Common traps

• Jute, bamboo and rice residues all contain cellulose, so each could yield nanocellulose in principle. The stem names one specific plant at a cotton technology institute, and that plant uses cotton linters.
• Read the institute's full name. CIRCOT is the Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology, so its name already points to the crop.
• A nanometre is 10⁻⁹ m. Nanomaterials are commonly defined by at least one dimension in the range of about 1–100 nm; keep the unit and the size range apart.

UnlockIAS will link similar questions from RAS Pre 2018 here once that paper is published on this site.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The headquarters of ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology (CIRCOT) is located in

  • (a)Nagpur
  • (b)Mumbai
  • (c)Coimbatore
  • (d)Sirsa
  Answer(2) — CIRCOT is headquartered in Mumbai. Option (1), Nagpur, hosts CIRCOT's Ginning Training Centre and ICAR's Central Institute for Cotton Research; options (3) and (4), Coimbatore and Sirsa, host CIRCOT regional quality evaluation units, not its headquarters.
• practice — not a real PYQ

  Nano crystalline cellulose and nano fibrillated cellulose are distinguished from each other on the basis of their

  • (a)aspect ratio
  • (b)colour
  • (c)plant source
  • (d)melting point
  Answer(1) — CIRCOT classes nanocellulose by dimensions: aspect ratio below 100 for nano crystalline and above 100 for nano fibrillated cellulose. Options (2), (3) and (4) are not the basis of this classification, which rests on dimensions alone.