From the labs. An app for clean irrigation

A sensor-based irrigation system using riverbank filtration technology and controlled via a web or mobile app has halted water wastage at Sal River near Navelim and Nauta lake at Cortalim, Goa, and made it easier for farmers to monitor the irrigation remotely.

The moisture values are provided by the sensors and the water pump is turned on and off accordingly. This prevents water erosion and maintains soil quality throughout the field. The system saves on time, especially for daily wage farmers, giving them the freedom and flexibility to sell their harvest in the market. It has reduced their labour work and helped financially as well.

The irrigation system was implemented by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), in collaboration with the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Goa, and supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, under the umbrella of the Demand Driven Mission: Water Technology Initiative.

Riverbank filtration (RBF) technology operates by extracting water from wells located near rivers or lakes. As the river water passes through the riverbed sediments, contaminants like bacteria and toxic metals are removed by overlapping biological, physical, and chemical processes. Affordable RBF wells were installed for the treatment of polluted water from the Sal River near Navelim and Nauta lake at Cortalim, Goa, using solar-powered pumps, to provide clean water to farmers in off-grid areas. Water with improved parameters such as reduced turbidity and bacterial load, supplied through a pipeline, helped farmers improve their output.

The project presents a model of sustainability for educating the farming communities with small landholdings that are unique to Goa. RBF is an inexpensive means to remove large amounts of contaminants, including suspended particles and microbes.

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After Leh, Chamba becomes second district to focus on green hydrogen mobility solutions

Clean hydrogen from methane

Scientists at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, have computationally designed a hybrid material that can absorb greenhouse gas methane and convert it to clean hydrogen. They also simulated a process of capturing carbon dioxide in-situ from non-fuel-grade bioethanol and converting it to high-purity hydrogen using a mechanism called optimised intensified chemical looping reforming.

They have designed a facility that can test such materials and aid carbon capture research at the institute. The facility, a dual operational fixed-cum-fluidised bed reactor system (FBR) can carry out ‘sorption enhanced steam methane reforming’ (SESMR) for high-purity hydrogen production based on the modelling and preliminary experimental studies.

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 a dual role of absorption as well as conversion are the new challenge area for scientist.

The IICT scientists’ work has been published in the Elsevier journal Chemical Engineering and Processing.

GE’s g-cubed green alternative

GE, the US-headquartered multinational, has come up with a green alternative to SF6 (sulphur hexafluoride), which is a potent greenhouse gas commonly used in high-voltage equipment in the power industry.

The alternative, christened ‘g3’ insulating and switching gas, is the culmination of a decade of research and development by its teams in France, Germany and Switzerland in collaboration with 3M Company.

The power industry is among the most polluting sectors. SF6 has a global warming potential that’s over 23,500 times that of carbon dioxide and remains in the atmosphere for over 3,000 years. SF6 has traditionally been used as an insulating material for high-voltage grids owing to its electronegativity and high dielectric strength. Nonetheless, the negative climate fallout by SF6 has demanded an alternative. With g3 technology, GE offers the same technical performance as SF6, with a global warming potential reduced by more than 99 per cent. This is revolutionary for the power sector and can play a driving role in India’s energy transition journey, says a statement from GE.