India's largest oil refining and marketing company Indian Oil Corporation [Get Quote] plans to develop alumina jointly with Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

The state-run oil company's Research and Development Centre singed an agreement with the National Centre for Catalysis Research of IIT Madras for the joint program on Monday.

They jointly plan to develop the process for preparation of alumina with special characteristics. Alumina is a key constituent of various refining catalyst.

Depending on its applications, the phycico-chemical properties of alumina are tuned by various preparation and modification approaches. The alumina required for each application is tailor-made, as it is not commercially available.

The alumina prepared by this collaboration will be used for making cost effective and state-of-the-art hydroprocessing catalysts, said an IOC press release.

IndianOil has recently formed a joint venture company, Indocat with Intercat, USA for manufacturing of FCC catalysts and additives.

The NCCR at IIT Madras, setup under the aegis of Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India in 2006, is a premier research centre working in the frontier areas of catalysis.