Professor develops ethanol from termites

At a time when the medical care turns more expensive, there is a glimmer of hope of a drop in clinical laboratory costs to some extent. Ramesh Malothu, assistant professor and head of the department of biotechnology at the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada, has developed ethanol by isolating cellulosic bacteria from termites by using bioprocess technologies. He has been successful in securing patent rights from the Chennai Patent Office for his work.

“Ethanol from termites can be used only for clinical purposes but the cost can be lowered by 75 per cent,” Dr. Ramesh told The Hindu . “The ethanol is currently being extracted from molasses, which is a costly affair. As there is no dearth of termites, I thought of extracting ethanol from these insects. It took nine months of laboratory research to come out with the results,” he explained.

“Congo red is used as the media to extract cellulosic ethanol. Not just the materials, but the laboratory process too is very economical,” said the 36-year-old scientist, who has been associated with JNTUK for nine years and has three patents so far. His obtained his first patent for devising a mechanism to check if a particular banana variety can give a better yield in specific soils, and his second for inventing nano bio-fertilizer. “In the university lab, we conducted tests on banana tissues for 73 farmers so far, which is a free service. The farmers can approach us with soil and tissue samples and get results within 24 hours. Similarly, a couple of chemical industrialists approached me to use the formula for nano bio-fertilizer,” said Dr. Ramesh, who was born and brought up in a farm labourer family at Chilukodu village of Dornakal mandal in Warangal district.

As there is no dearth of termites, I thought of extracting ethanol from these insects.

Ramesh Malothu

Assistant professor, JNTUK