India’s largest oil and gas company, ONGC, has used cotton-based absorbent mats for absorbing oil spills.
The Covid-19 situation has revealed that cotton influences the stability of viruses, which is important in developing countermeasure products like masks from cellulosic materials. Research efforts have highlighted that cotton destabilises the virus relatively quicker than plastics.
Cotton is an established fibre in the fibre to fashion supply chain and genuine interest is emerging to explore new applications for cotton in the health and environmental sectors.
Slowly, cotton products are penetrating into crisis management situations in these sectors. For 21 years, the Nonwovens and Advanced Materials Laboratory at Texas Tech University managed by Dr Seshadri Ramkumar has been researching advanced applications of cotton. Recently, the research activities have received commercial acceptance.
One recent recognition has been international, with the acceptance of a cotton-based mat as an oil absorbent by India’s leading oil exploration public sector entity, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC). Recently, between 10-12 July, cotton-based absorbent pads were effectively used by ONGC at its Godavari river delta oil well sites in Rajahmundry.
ONGC is India’s largest crude and natural gas company and is ranked 18th among the global players in oil and gas operations with over 30,000 employees. Penetration of cotton-based absorbent technology into this premier Indian company is a milestone with regards to the acceptance of cotton as a high-performance fibre. Cotton-based nonwoven mats have moved from the testing phase to commercial use phase, according to Nambi Srinivasan, vice president of Chennai, India-based WellGro United.
Ramkumar has been collaborating with WellGro United and its partners to translate ideas to marketplace. Speaking about the acceptance of the product by ONGC, Srinivasan states: “It was a much awaited and prestigious order for us. With the recent positive field results of cotton-based pads, at an ONGC site, we are confident that ONGC’s order opens up new opportunities globally.”
In a similar vein, cotton-based nonwoven mats are finding applications as filters in face covers. Lubbock-based Scarborough Specialties has released face covers with cotton nonwoven filters, which evolved out of research in the Nonwovens Laboratory.
