Shell Bitumen has brought together its engineering, innovation and research and development teams at a new technology centre in Bangalore, India, with the aim of developing the bitumens of the future.
The multi-national company said locating its entire India-based Shell Bitumen team within the facility is designed to accelerate innovation in new product development and drive the continual improvement of premium bitumen products.
Professor John Read
The bitumen development facility is situated within the new Shell Technology Centre Bangalore (STCB), a 52-acre, custom built technology centre that can house up to 1,500 experts representing a broad cross section of products and services within the Shell group.
Professor John Read, general manager technology (Bitumen and Sulphur) at Shell, said: ‘We have made a major investment in new and upgraded technology, infrastructure and talent at Bangalore. The move means that Shell Bitumen’s customers will benefit from increased collaboration between the group’s technology innovators in multi-products and sectors.
‘We have bold ambitions: ultimately, we want to continue to deliver on the needs of our customers by producing high-quality bitumen regardless of our refineries strategic choice over processing conditions and crude selection. The opening of the new facility at the STCB represents a key part in our long-term strategy.’
Shell said scientists and researchers from the bitumen and lubricants operations are already working together with experts from its computer modelling, statistical modelling and advanced analytical groups on innovative molecular and rheological techniques, which will lead to greater understanding of bitumen at the atomic level.
Its Bitumen team has also selected the new facility to develop the next generations of Shell Mexphalte C and Shell Tixophalte products, which form part of the company’s on-going research and development programme focused on the continual improvement of products.
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