Getting pids from ps -ef |grep keyword

You can use pgrep as long as you include the -f options. That makes pgrep match keywords in the whole command (including arguments) instead of just the process name.

pgrep -f keyword

From the man page:

-f       The pattern is normally only matched against the process name. When -f is set, the full command line is used.

If you really want to avoid pgrep, try:

ps -ef | awk '/[k]eyword/{print $2}'

Note the [] around the first letter of the keyword. That’s a useful trick to avoid matching the awk command itself.