TIRUPATI: The Department of Science and Technology - Promotion of University Research and Scientific Excellence (PURSE) in Sri Venkateswara University (SVU) has received a patent for a process to manufacture conditioned graded and packed (CGP) sand from the Government of India on May 31, 2023.
The project is aimed to minimise the wastage of sand, prevent sand adulteration and increase the quality of construction. The process is developed by Chenna Kesava Reddy Sangati, assistant professor at Indian Institute of Plantation Management, Bangalore, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. Prof S Vijaya Bhaskara Rao, coordinator, DST PURSE, SVU, had sanctioned financial assistance for the project. SVU has been ranked 22nd in the country based on the research publications and H-index in biological and physical sciences.
The Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, had sanctioned the Promotion of University Research and Scientific Excellence programme with an incentive grant of `17 crore for SVU on September 25, 2017. The project implementation group consists of nine members appointed under DST-PURSE. According to Chenna Kesava Reddy, the objective of the project is to develop a novel process for manufacturing the CGP sand.
The project is to develop purification and grading technology for sand and also to manufacture high quality ready to use sand for construction and other industrial (glass, paint and water filter manufacturing industries) needs.
Now, sand is adulterated with mud, water and other impurities, which have an adverse effect on the construction quality. A huge quantity of sand is wasted due to improper handling, transportation and lack of proper packaging. “The new technology is useful to minimise the wastage of sand, prevent sand adulteration and increase quality of construction, said Chenna Kesava Reddy.
The process involves selection of sand, primary cleaning by means of aspirators to remove light weight impurities, secondary cleaning by means of vibrating sieves to remove heavy impurities, desilting by flushing water for a predetermined time in a thick lined big iron vessel fitted with stirrer to remove silt, drying to remove excess moisture, grading with vibrating sieves of predetermined dimensions and finally packing in a container to form conditioned graded and packed (CGP) sand, he explained.