The Brief Story
Archroma Pakistan Ltd. collaborated with Mehran University of Engineering and Technology in 2016 for making the natural indigo dye from the indigenous indigofera tinctoria plant to be utilized particularly in Pakistan’s denim manufacturing industry. Later in 2017, the collaborative project was financially supported by HEC Pakistan under the TDF program after rounds of peer reviews and defense presentation at the HQ of HEC Pakistan. Engr. Dr. Awais Khatri was leading the project as a Principal Investigator, Engr. Dr. Shamshad Ali was co-leading as Co-Principal Investigator, Dr. Arshad Mehmood was the industry partner from Archroma, and Engr. Farah Ishaque and Engr. Noman Junejo were appointed as Research Assistants. The TDF project was successfully completed in 2020.
During the initial developmental phase of the project in 2018, the project team won the 3rd prize at All Pakistan DICE Textile Innovation Award, due to the innovative and commercially viable technology development. During the development, confidentiality disclosure agreement was signed with Archroma. After successful development of a swift technology of making natural indigo dye from the plants that is suitable for denim manufacturing industry, the technology was transferred to Archroma Pakistan Ltd. in 2019.
The team in collaboration with WWF-Pakistan mobilized local farmers, agriculturists and industry stakeholders during this project and have been successful to bringing the related stakeholders collaborate for commercialization in the country. The project has a regional impact on social well-being of the local farmers and leads to improve environmental sustainability of the dye and the denim manufacturing sectors. The project has created skilled personnel and two postgraduate theses. This project became a fine example of quadruple helix model of collaboration (Mehran University – Archroma – HEC Pakistan – WWF-Pakistan) for a highly value added products in Pakistan.
At Glance
20 JUNE 2019 – VISIT TO KEENJHAR SITE FOR INDIGO PLANTATION AND EXTRACTION WITH WWF AND ARCHROMA
1-2 August 2019 – REPLICATION OF MEHRAN UNIVERSITY NATURAL INDIGO EXTRACTION METHOD AT ARCHROMA JAMSHORO