11-Apr-2022: New materials & processes for carbon capture and utilization could show new light for global warming challenge
A group of scientists have computationally designed a hybrid material which can absorb greenhouse gas methane, converting it to clean Hydrogen and also simulated a process of capturing carbon dioxide in-situ and converting it to high purity hydrogen from non-fuel grade bioethanol. They have also designed a facility that can test such materials and help further carbon capture research at the institute.
Given the global warming potential of greenhouse gases, scientists are trying to explore innovative methods of absorbing these gases and converting them to useful substances. New materials that can play dual role of absorption as well as conversion is the new challenge area for scientist in carbon capture innovation.
Responding to the challenge, in a series of researches on carbon capture and utilization scientists from Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad have not only computationally designed a hybrid material that can capture methane and also act as catalyst to convert it to high purity hydrogen, but also simulated and designed a process for in situ capture of carbon dioxide and its conversion to high purity hydrogen from non-fuel grade bioethanol through a mechanism called the optimized intensified chemical looping reforming. The later research has been published in the Elsevier journal Chemical Engineering and Processing.
They researchers have also fabricated a facility that can further carbon capture and conversion research at the institute. The facility, a dual operational fixed cum fluidized bed reactor system (FBR) can carry out sorption enhanced steam methane reforming (SESMR) for high purity H2 production based on the modelling and preliminary experimental studies.
The FBR facility has been successfully commissioned recently in Jan 2022 at CSIR-IICT, Hyderabad, under a Mission Innovation Project supported by Department of Science and Technology to IICT Hyderabad. It is unique and available for the first time in the country to test the performance of dual functional materials for SESMR in fluidized bed reactor system. SESMR offers specific advantages of in-situ CO2 removal through sorbents and thereby overcomes the equilibrium limitations of steam reforming and leads to high purity H2 production.
Potential dual functional materials identified from theoretical predictions are now being synthesized and simultaneously FBR operating conditions are being optimized for existing sorbent/catalyst materials for meeting increasing challenges of carbon capture and utilization and associated research.
30-Mar-2022: National Workshop on Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage
It is critical for a developing nation like India to address the rising greenhouse gas emissions resulting from a rapidly expanding industrial sector, while not compromising its economic growth. The Indian power/ steel/ cement/ refinery and other heavy industrial sectors rely heavily, at present, on coal and petroleum products. However, in the long-term, deep decarbonisation scenarios through Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS), could play an important role to achieve net-zero emissions in energy systems.
In view of the above, the NITI Aayog organised a National Workshop on CCUS on 30th March 2022, in the hybrid mode. The workshop brought together government officials, industry leaders and the academia to discuss the role of CCUS in enabling a circular economy for India.
In the inaugural session, Shri Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer, NITI Aayog, mentioned about India’s commitment, in the CoP 26, to become a NET ZERO Carbon Nation by 2070, and the consequent need to make the CCUS projects both technically, as well as economically viable.
The Secretary, Ministry of Coal -- Shri Anil Kr Jain -- emphasised on the launching of a National Mission on CCUS and added that the CCUS projects would become viable once CO2 capture was done at the pithead.
Dr. K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, said that a carbon market, with a suitable pricing mechanism, was important to create a pull amongst the stakeholders to ensure the right level of investment in CCUS technologies in India
Shri Atanu Mukherjee, President and Chief Executive Officer, M N Dastur Co. Ltd., presented the methodology of capturing and utilizing CO2 economically and effectively, at an industrial scale. He emphasised on the need for a policy support for enabling the CCUS value chain and the related carbon markets.
The Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog – Dr Rajiv Kumar -- in his inaugural address, mentioned that India was, probably, the only country in the world that was required to continue growing, but in an environmentally benign manner. Such an imposing challenge, he added, could be met only through the implementation of CCUS projects. He further surmised that one sector – that continued to remain largely unnoticed from the carbon point-of-view – was Agriculture. In order to restore the carbon content in the soil to about 2.5% from the existing approximately 0.4%, natural farming needed to be promoted in a big way across the country. He concluded his address by saying that the NITI Aayog would come out, through a consultative process in the form of a task force, with a policy document for promoting the deployment of CCUS projects, in potential sites across India, in a time bound manner.
The 3 technical sessions deliberated on the work needed to overcome the current lack of experience while developing and integrating the capture and utilization of CO2, coupled with an optimum storage infrastructure.
In order to introduce and promote CCUS in India, a stewardship role needed to be played by the Government of India for the development of a robust and effective CCUS policy framework.
7-Apr-2022: Bio-Decomposer Technology for Stubble Burning
The bio-decomposer namely Pusa Decomposer developed by The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has been used by the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi to total of 978,713 acres (3,91,485 ha) equivalent to about 2.4 million tonnes of straw management in this year.
Also, to support the efforts of the Governments of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi to address air pollution and to subsidize machinery required for management of crop residue (Cropping System Model-CSM), a Central Sector Scheme on ‘Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi’ is implemented from 2018-19. Under this scheme financial assistance @ 50% of the cost of machinery is provided to the farmers for purchase of identified crop residue management machinery and financial assistance @ 80% of the project cost is provided to the Cooperative Societies of Farmers, Farmers Producers Organization (FPOs), Registered Farmers Societies and Panchayats for establishment of Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) of identified crop residue management machinery.
The satellite-based monitoring indicated that a total 82533 paddy residue burning events were detected in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in 2021 season which are 7.71% less than in 2020.As per the monitoring report, paddy residue events in Haryana increased from 4,202 in 2020 to 6,987 in 2021, while in Punjab events decreased from 83,002 in 2020 to 71,304 in 2021. Similarly, the satellite estimated paddy burnt area in Haryana increased from 216,000 ha in 2020 to 354,000 ha in 2021, while in Punjab the paddy burnt area decreased from 1.66 Million ha in 2020 to 1.59 Million ha in 2021.
During the period from 2018-19 to 2021-22, a total of more than 2.13 lakh crop residue management machines have been supplied to these established CHCs and to the individual farmers in these 4 States (Punjab- 85386 Nos., Haryana- 72237 Nos., Uttar Pradesh – 55711 Nos. and NCT of Delhi – 202 Nos) which also include more than 1889 balers (Punjab -264 Nos., Haryana -973 Nos. and Uttar Pradesh – 652 Nos.).
24-Sep-2020: ‘Bio-decomposer technique will curb stubble burning pollution’
The bio-decomposer technique of converting crop stubble into compost is deemed as a cost-effective way to deal with air pollution caused due to crop stubble burning.
The technology, called ‘Pusa Decomposer’, involves making a liquid formulation using decomposer capsules and readily available inputs, fermenting it over 8-10 days and then spraying the mixture on fields with crop stubble to ensure speedy bio-decomposition of the stubble.
This technique will decrease the use of fertilisers and increase the productivity of the farm soil.
Scientists from Pusa Agricultural Institute have developed a new and innovative technique, under which they give four capsules, with the help of which the farmers can prepare 25 litre of liquid mixture with jaggery and chickpea flour, which is sufficient to cover 1 hectare of land.
When the farmer sprays the liquid mix on the stubble, the stubble softens and melts down in 20 days. The farmer can then begin sowing again and he does not need to burn the crop stubble. The soil loses its richness due to stubble burning and it also destroys the useful bacteria and fungi in the soil, apart from causing harm to the environment. This improves the fertility and productivity of the soil as the stubble works as manure and compost for the crops and lesser fertiliser consumption is required in the future.
10-Mar-2022: Novel strategy to synthesize solid adsorbents for CO2 capture and utilization discovered
Indian Scientists have discovered a strategy to synthesize novel solid adsorbents for CO2 capture and utilization.
Carbon capture and utilization are growing fields of research focusing on reducing CO2 emissions. Although several industrial advancements have already been demonstrated, none of the technologies can provide an economically viable and complete CO2 capture and utilization solution. Therefore, fundamental research on novel solid adsorbents might offer a critical material for CO2 capture and CO2 utilization.
Professor Rahul Banerjee’s group at IISER-Kolkata, with support from Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India under Mission Innovation program, has demonstrated a strategy to synthesize novel solid adsorbents, especially for CO2 capture and CO2 utilization. Prof. Banerjee’s group has discovered special types of nanoparticles or microparticles which can capture CO2 in their micro and mesoporous voids.
The novel materials with distinct physical properties on its surfaces that have been synthesized include porous Covalent organic frameworks like COF-graphene Janus thin films published in ‘Journal of American Chemical Society’ porous covalent bonded organic nanotubes published in Nature Chemistry, and COF coated zeolite published in ‘Journal of American Chemical Society’.
The judicious choice of 2D graphene sheets as a grafter helped the researchers to design and create COF-graphene Janus thin films through the interactions (non-covalent) between the COF and graphene, rendering flexible porous Janus films at the DCM-water interface. The newly designed COF-coated zeolites could be an excellent candidate for CO2 storage in the industry due to their high surface area and increased chemical stability.
The high CO2 uptake for the COF coated zeolites, even after treatment with weak acids makes it appropriate for industrial purposes. The COFs coating prevented the degradation of zeolite structure from moisture, weak acids, and water. The CO2 uptake data for COF coated zeolite at 1 bar, 293K is 132 cc/g, supersedes the CO2 uptake data of zeolite under the same condition.
Rahul Banerjee’s group has recently discovered purely covalent bonded organic nanotubes (CONTs) with a hitherto unavailable structure via a novel bottom-up approach. Although zero-dimensional covalent organic cages and two- and three-dimensional covalent organic frameworks were previously reported, the synthesis of one-dimensional organic nanotubes was hitherto unheard of. The synthesized CONTs have the edge over the analogous carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in functionalization, synthetic conditions, and porosity which exhibits a BET surface area of 321 m2 g-1. They are also promising candidates for the efficient CO2 adsorption with a CO2 uptake capacity of 60-80 cc g-1 at 1 bar and 293 K. These CONTs have also showcased photosensitizing ability, which can convert the adsorbed CO2 into CO (130-200 µmol g-1 h-1) upon irradiation of visible light (400-700 nm).