The Phi Factory’s innovations for society
The Phi Factory made a fermenter that will come in handy to the beer and beverage, API making, bioplastics, and other segments. It will reduce the time taken for fermentation and therefore the corresponding working capital
Hyderabad: Getting admission into a government medical college needs a lot of hard work. Dr Meghana Reddy Jale, who originally hails from Aswapuram of Kothagudem Bhadradri district, just did that. And after her graduation, she set her eyes on working on technologies that will impact a large section of people. The gold medalist from Gandhi Medical College has now taken to entrepreneurship to give new technologies to SMEs.
Among others, she contributed to the making of the world’s low-cost mechanical Braille Typewriter, which was developed in collaboration with Paul Polman (Unilever former CEO), Infosys, city-based chemist Praveen Gorakavi and Kilimanjaro Blind Trust. She also developed one of the world’s first non-invasive internal fixation devices’, an orthopaedic surgical instrument that is expected to be in the market a few years from now for spinal restorations.
“We developed a liquid that can be injected into the body. On exposure to a laser beam, it will convert into a polymer that hardens and becomes part of the bone. The unused material degrades in the body. We have given the technology to a big company. The product needs extensive clinical trials. Orthopeadics is like carpentry- now requiring to open the injured body part to restore it with plates or rods. Our technology will find major use in spinal restoration and in dealing with bone injuries. But it will take some time,” said Meghana, the co-founder of Hyderabad-based The Phi Factory.
The company now has also made a fermenter that will reduce the time taken for fermentation from 72 hours to just four minutes. It will come in handy for the beer, winery and beverage industries. “Vintage in the beverage industry is significant- the older the better. However, companies will have to keep the beverage in the barrels for that much time. With our fermenter, they can achieve the same vintage and taste in a fraction of time. There is no new catalyst. The performance is the same as the traditional fermentation and will even taste the same,” she said.
This also will be a key step in making biofuels. It also finds use in the food industry to make fish sauce, which normally requires fermentation up to one year, among others. The new fermenter will also cut the fermentation time here by a large margin, she said.
“We will not outsource this technology in India. We will offer it as a service to smaller companies. Those into API making can take advantage of the production linked incentives offered by the Government of India making products locally,” she said adding that the fermenter needs tweaking to suit various sectors.
The company will also be in a position to make a biodegradable plastic that is based on polylactic acid (PLA). PLA is used in plastic films, bottles, and medical devices like screws, pins, rods, and plates that are expected to biodegrade within 6-12 months.
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