Piracy and stealth affect world-class Lankan inventions, says top inventor
Espionage in systems and formulas plague new inventions and adversely affects their commercialisation for public good, and this often happens after patents are obtained, according to a top Sri Lankan inventor.
Two weeks back the Business Times reached the office and the laboratory of C & T Worldwide (Pvt) Ltd in a secluded area in Diyawanna Oya Road, Ethul Kotte and was greeted by Lakshman Perera, its Managing Director.
Clear, purified water from waste water
Mr. Perera is a Chemistry Honours graduate who passed out in 1978 from the Colombo University. When one goes through his career details the conclusion one would arrive is that not only is he a world-class inventor but also a national hero.
The ultimate products he markets, he believes, would be of quality and the cheapest. He became a national hero as all what he invented are import substitutes and in the era where almost all the industries are vested in the government through various corporations, he focused his inventions to substitute the imports to those government industries.
He has saved the country lot of foreign exchange as chemical imports have been substituted by locally invented products. He was a silent marcher until he was honoured with the Presidential award for Chemistry in 2011 where he then emerged into the limelight.
At his office, sharing a cup of tea with the Business Times team, he said that one of his major inventions was the removal of some chemicals from kerosene oil to make Low Aromatic White Spirits – another name for Turpentine – Mineral Turpentine. What is being done is to remove sulphur compounds, Benzene and Thiols. He said this product is used to make paints, use in polishers, metal polishing, etc.
His product is equally good as the imported one, he told the Business Times and until oil prices went up his company was exporting upto February 2011 to the tune of two to three 40 foot container loads per month, while capturing almost the entire local market
Two of the Chemistry undergraduates, Kasun Samarasiri and Eranga Muthukumara
competing against global giants like Shell, BP, etc.
Speaking about formula and systems espionage, he said that he had obtained patents for his product in 2010, but then two of his employees quit taking away his formula and started manufacturing turpentine. Overcome with grief, he said sadly “Even the person who supplied kerosene oil started manufacturing”.
He said that state machinery is very weak and slow in combating this type of piracy where it affected his industry enormously. He said “In world over there are only 75 such manufacturers but in Sri Lanka alone there are around 25.” This piracy is a major blow to new investors, he said.
After passing out from university, he had a short stint at Paranthan Chemicals Corporation and then joined the private sector. There his mentor was one of the directors of the company, Chris de Saram who had a great inclination to manufacture import substitutes. Mr. Perera said, “Fortunately I happened to work under him.”
They have also supplied some cresol and soap solutions to the Department of Health through the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation after competing with worldwide tenders.
Lakshman Perera, inventor
Mr. Perera says they have found solutions to Bird Flu – removing Bird Flu virus from chicken species. He is also doing some consultancy services to a foreign company on some products. He said that in inventing and commercialising some products they are not only competing locally but even with worldwide giants.
Mr. Perera told the Business Times that since 2010 they have invented a solution that makes rubber latex into pure white from its dark creamy colour. He said that this rubber is called crapes normally RSS and when it coagulates after sometime it becomes brown, because there is a pigment inside which is destroyed with a chemical. He said that this chemical was imported to Sri Lanka for the last 30 years but now the prices have come down drastically after using (his own developed) chemical.
He said that they are not exporting the product though they get various inquiries, because if they export it would affect (be insufficient for) the rubber industry in Sri Lanka.
He said the company was floated in 2003 and they usually train Chemistry undergraduates in their laboratories and get assistance from the Universities of Moratuwa and Colombo on major research and experiments.
He is on a major breakthrough on waste water treatment which is being tried with a very new technology which nobody has tried and is on the way to obtain patents and this will be applied to industrial waste water. Once the water is clean, they could either be reused or discharged to the environment and the method conforms to Central Environmental Standards.
Everything they do, he said is extremely cost effective and noted that the factory and plant which could have been built with Rs. 100 million, has been built with only a few millions.
He said that there are several inventions in the pipe-line and some of them are on the verge of being introduced to the market but is extremely reluctant to divulge the formula, etc as he is worried and concerned about piracy and espionage involved. He said that all their products are import substitutes and are extremely cheap but best in quality to compete with multi-nationals and on top of all that, extremely environmentally friendly.