Tag: industrialization

IIT Kharagpur Signs MoU with Uneverse Mobilty, a Kolkata based Startup, for the Development & Commercialization of Sodium Ion Batteries in India

These Cost-Effective Batteries Will Boost the Rapid Growth Envisaged For E-Vehicles

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Uneverse Mobility Pvt Ltd, a Kolkata based startup focusing on next generation battery technology and e-mobility segments for commercialization and further development of the Sodium Ion technology.

A team headed by Prof Amreesh Chandra from the Department of Physics at IIT Kharagpur have been working extensively on the development of Sodium-ion based energy solutions. They were amongst the first group of researchers in India who were funded by the Department of Science and Technology under their flagship scheme “Materials for Energy Storage”. The team has the capabilities to develop energy storage solutions starting from materials development, device level integration, recycling to determination of carbon footprint of the complete process.

Advantages of using this technology:

  • The Sodium-ion batteries will be 30 to 40% less expensive compared to lithium-ion technology
  • There will be a 100% indigenous supply chain where import of raw materials will not be required
  • There will be low carbon footprint
  • These products will not be dependent on mining of raw materials for electrodes
  • There will be near zero risk of accidental fires, unlike Lithium. The technology developed already has a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 7 thereby paving the way for industrialization.

“In comparison to Lithium-ion batteries, the sodium-ion batteries will be upto 40% cheaper, much safer and have lower carbon footprint. Sodium-ion batteries address the concerns of geopolitical and supply-chain issues, which are associated with Lithium-ion batteries. The materials, which will be used in such Sodium-ion batteries, have been fabricated inhouse. Hence, the batteries would be a live example of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Make for India’. Many of the Ministries of the Government of India have already started discussions and feasibility studies on the possibility of Sodium-ion based energy storage landscape and the future thus looks promising and exciting”, said Prof. Amreesh Chandra, Department of Physics, IIT Kharagpur.

Uneverse Mobility will be initially setting up MW scale facilities that would lead to commercialization using the home-grown technology, which already has a technology readiness level (TRL) of 7. Uneverse eventually plans set up GWh scale facilities to cater to both domestic and export markets. India is expected to need 220 Gwh of ACC battery by 2030. Current Indigenous ACC production planning & deployment is nowhere close to this requirement and therefore presents huge market opportunity for companies like Uneverse. This joint activity is a perfect example of the changing times in India, where the academia-industry collaboration is becoming the focus of research activities in most of the institutes of national importance.

“India’s current EV sector is characterized by dependency on subsidies, import dependent supply chain & lack of a core indigenous battery technology. For electric mobility to be truly a champion of sustainability, we need the building blocks to be also sustainable. Uneverse is a passionate attempt to create such indigenous building blocks for a sustainable future of e-mobility and clean energy. Uneverse, thus starts its journey by addressing the core of clean energy and e-mobility, that is, Battery Technology. To achieve this grand purpose, we have entered an exclusive MoU with IIT Kharagpur where indigenously developed sodium ion technology, which will have a portfolio of multiple form factors of cells, will be made available for Indian market. The developed technology will find application in not only electric vehicles but also in Drones, Consumer Electronics and Energy Storage. Globally, only a handful of companies have made progress in this technology. Therefore, we are quite upbeat about putting India at the forefront of this game changing battery technology”, said Mr Manohar Bethapudi, Founder & CEO, Uneverse Mobility Pvt. Ltd.

“We would be launching the first set of products manufactured out of West Bengal in the next quarter of the current fiscal. We are looking at a pan India market for our product range and are currently in talks with various channel partners for marketing and product distribution”, said Ms Kamalika Guha, Co – Founder and CMO, Uneverse Mobility Pvt Ltd.

Media coverage :

Telegraph

Statesman

ETV Bharat

Aaj Kal

Ei Samay

E-Vehicle

Times of India

 

     

         Statesman                                               Ei Samay                                                       Aaj Kal 

Inputs by: Prof. Amreesh Chandra, Department of Physics, IIT Kharagpur
Email : amreesh.chandra@gmail.com

By : Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

Follow us on: Facebook – IIT Kharagpur; Twitter – @IITKgp;  Instagram – @iit.kgp; LinkedIn – Indian Institute of Technology
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Effective Control Technologies to Reduce Sulphur Dioxide Pollution In India

FLUE GAS DESULPHURIZATION REDUCES SO2 POLLUTION IN INDIA

A study by a team of researchers from IIT Kharagpur led by Prof. Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath from Centre for Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Sciences (CORAL) found a significant decline in SO2 trends in India in the last decade, as compared to those in the previous three decades. The decrease in trend and concentration of SO2 is due to the environmental regulation and adaptation of effective control technologies such as scrubber and Flue Gas Desulphurization that shows the positive impact of technological advance and policy decisions to improve the air quality in India. The study represents temporal changes in SO2 concentrations over India in the past four decades (1980–2020). Thermal power plants (51%), and manufacturing and construction industries (29%) are the main sources of anthropogenic SO2 in India. The temporal analyses reveal that SO2 concentrations in India increased between 1980 and 2010 due to high coal burning and lack of novel technology to contain the emissions during that period. Both economic growth and air pollution control can be performed hand-in-hand by adopting new technology to reduce SO2 and GHG emission.

Prof. Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath
Centre for Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Sciences (CORAL)
IIT Kharagpur

“SO2 is an atmospheric pollutant and can be converted to sulfate aerosols in high humid conditions. These aerosols can affect cloud reflectively, rainfall and regional climate by modifying the radiative forcing.  At high concentrations, SO2 affects adversely on human health and ecosystem as well. Therefore, continuous monitoring of its abundance in the atmosphere is highly warranted, as these kind of analyses would help making the policy decisions related to emissions. This particular study is serving that purpose,” remarked Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath, Centre for Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Sciences (CORAL), IIT Kharagpur and the lead author of the study.

Sulphur dioxide (SO2) is one of the criteria pollutants that mainly released from the coal-based thermal power plants. At higher concentrations, it has hazardous affects on public health and environs. In this study, we find a significant decline in SO2 trends in India in the last decade, as compared to those in the previous three decades. The decrease in trend and concentration of SO2 is due to the environmental regulation and adaptation of effective control technologies such as Scrubber and Flue Gas Desulphurization showing the positive impact of technological advance and policy decisions to improve the air quality in India.

“Our analysis shows Indo-Gangetic Plain and Central and Eastern India regions as the SO2 hotspots in India. Although there is a relative reduction in SO2 in the last decade, the concentration of SO2 is still very high in these regions. Therefore, we need to continue our efforts to reduce SO2 emission in India, whether it is with innovative technology or environmental regulations,” said Vikas Kumar Patel, another author of the paper.

Fig 1: The SO2 trends in the last four decades in India. A rapid economic development in the 2001-2010 periods shows the largest trends among the decades. However, the recent decades with technological advance and environment policies help to reduce atmospheric SO2 concentrations and its trends.

An improved air quality monitoring network is needed to understand the spatial and temporal changes of pollutants, which would help to make policies relevant to improve air quality and to meet targeted reduction in emissions. The measurements and emissions in this study have uncertainities and are not computed in absolute figures. However, the trends computed are statistically significant across all Indian regions. Therefore, the findings have important implications for future environmental policies on India’s SO2 emissions and for understanding the impact of SO2 on regional climate, air quality, ecosystem dynamics, and public health. This study also provides a baseline for future studies that would critically examine changes in SO2 pollution as a result of the country’s socio-economic development.

“What we have found from our analysis is that, SO2 has been increasing in India for the past few decades, consistent with our economic development, but a declining trend in SO2 is found in the last decade (2010-2020). This is a good sign. The implementation of Bharat Stage norms on vehicular emissions, regulations for power plants to employ scrubber and FGD technologies, and policies encouraging the production of renewable energy may have contributed to this reduction in SO2 emissions,” added Prof. Kuttippurath.

Fig 2: Ground-based measurements also show reduction or stabilization of SO2 emissions; as shown for different cities here.

Due to rapid industrialization and urbanization in the past decades, India’s energy demand has been increased substantially with coal consumptions. The expansion of coal-based electricity generation in India is the primary cause of the country’s high emission. Although these help economic development of the country, the air pollution also increases along with it, which poses a health concern. Currently, India is one of the world largest emitters of SO2, accounting for more than 15% of global anthropogenic emissions. The situation warrants reduction SO2 emission in our country. However, majority of coal plants in India lack the Flue-Gas Desulfurization (FGD) technology necessary to adequately remove SO2 emissions. On the other hand, India’s power sector has seen an increase in renewable energy capacity, which would help to curb the pollution in India.

Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur stated, “India relies heavily on coal-based thermal power plants to meet its energy demands. Analysis of spatial and temporal changes in SO2 using accurate and continuous observations is required to formulate mitigation strategies to curb the increasing air pollution in India. Since 2010, India’s renewable energy production has also increased substantially when India adopted a sustainable development policy. The shift in energy production from conventional coal to renewable sources, solid environmental regulation, better inventory, and effective technology would help to curb SO2 pollution in India. India’s nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement includes achieving about 40% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030. This commitment would help to reduce the dependency on the coal-based energy, and also help to curb the SO2 pollution in the future.”

Publication Links:

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21319-2

Media Coverage:

Economic Times The Hindu Business Standard
Deccan Herald Financial Express Telegraph
Jagran The Print Siasat
Khabar Dunya The Hans India Gulf Today
Mongabay    

Contact Person: Prof. Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath, Centre for Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Sciences (CORAL)
Email: jayan@coral.iitkgp.ac.in

Edited by : Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

Follow us: Facebook – IIT Kharagpur; Twitter – @IITKgp;  Instagram – @iit.kgp; LinkedIn – Indian Institute of Technology
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What’s Next for MSME

Adopting Industry 4.0 in MSMEs – The Way Forward in Post Pandemic World

On May 12, the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, in his COVID lockdown address asked the nation to be self-reliant. PM Modi was heard saying ‘be vocal for the local’ to emphasise the need for using indigenous products which would not only reduce our massive import bill but sustain our industrial sector especially Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). He announced a ₹20 lakh crore economic package which included a major stimulus to the post pandemic industrial world. Soon after, the Ministry of Finance announced details of the economic package in which out of the 15 relief measures, six were aimed to rejuvenate the lockdown-hit India’s enormous MSME sector.

MSME has stayed far from being the focal point of Indian industries, except for the textile brands and cottage industry, but it is the backbone of Indian economy. Going by statistics MSME units across the country employ more than 100 million people in the country and contribute close to 30% of India’s GDP and 50% of export revenue. It is not very difficult to forecast that India’s goal of a multi-trillion dollar economy cannot be achieved without further strengthening this sector. But amid the current COVID lockdown, MSMEs have been the worst hit. Even with the end of lockdown, staggered attendance policy to ensure social distancing would restrict MSME to start production in full strength. Availability of capital is another challenge. While the economic package announced by the Finance Minister would be addressing the capital issue but a technical perspective needs to be explored to address production issues. 

Sustaining MSMEs in Post Pandemic World

Prof. Surjya K Pal who is heading the Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology at IIT Kharagpur points out at Industry 4.0 as a pertinent solution for MSMEs under the current situation and the way ahead.

“We can observe a clear change in demand and supply dynamics due to the pandemic situation. It has driven people towards panic buying of pharma and personal care products while demand for most other industrial products have witnessed a dramatic drop. This has been coupled with migration of the workforce to their respective home locations which would have a long-term effect. There are speculations regarding their return due to the uncertainty of their employment, travel and stay at the cities of work. Even when they return, deployment of the full workforce on the shop floor would not be a possibility because of social distancing as being suggested by experts,” he remarked.

To overcome the situation, new concepts befitting the post COVID world would be necessary. But despite the economic package, MSMEs would face constraints to avail skilled manpower, undertake R&D to develop new technologies to adopt new product lines and business models. 

“This continued dependence on legacy machines would fall short in meeting the new market demands. They would need upgrades through Industry 4.0 solutions along with a skilled manpower,” opined Prof. Pal.

What is Industry 4.0?

Industry 4.0 is an umbrella of several digital tools such as cloud computing, big data, augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, deep learning, robotics, additive manufacturing etc. These have high potential for use in different industrial sectors and various phases of manufacturing to make headway into the process of automation, reduce production time and accelerate the return to normal business operations. Further this process transformation would also create more resilient business operations. 

Prof. Pal terms Industry 4.0 as the new mandate for the entire industrial world and not only MSMEs.

“With social distancing and limited workforce, automation is the obvious avenue to meet production targets. Industries need to come up with strategies for such advanced manufacturing and how to apply them across various product lines to avoid facing COVID-like challenges in future. Such strategies are a global reality and in India we need to move ahead of concept mode and adopt them in practicality. However, we need to also consider the economic viability of the strategies for our industries, particularly the MSME sector,” he added.

But who is going to help the MSMEs to take this giant leap especially under the current socio-economic situation? 

The Ministry of Finance has announced a  ₹50,000 crore as equity funding into MSME sector aimed towards capacity expansion and for the purpose of market-listing. However, while MSMEs can bid on this opportunity, there would still remain the need for upskilling the workforce and developing technical solutions. To achieve the goals of self-reliance and import substitution as set by the Prime Minister of India, strategic infrastructure and policy development is required for enhancing human capability and R&D.

Role of Technical Institutions:

In a recent interview, Prof. Virendra Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur emphasised on the role of technical institutions in rejuvenating MSMEs through capitalizing on the R&D infrastructure and expertise and provision of training. [Read Full Interview]

Explaining this further Prof. Pal said, “academic institutes like IITs have to provide specific low-cost solutions for automation to the MSME sector to sustain their business as we pass through various phases of COVID pandemic. This could be retrofitting existing machineries to meet requirements of upgraded production and precision of process, quality of products and potential of the manufacturing setup to be used for dynamic production facilities. In addition, training of the workforce would help MSMEs adapt to digital tools of Industry 4.0.”

He further pointed out the spillover effect of such upgradation towards reduction in cost of production and making products more affordable for end users, impact demand supply dynamics and also creating avenues for new product development.

Centre of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing Technologies – taking the lead

IIT Kharagpur took a lead in achieving the aforesaid goals by setting up the Centre of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing Technologies supported by Dept. of Heavy Industries, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Govt. of India and an industrial consortium comprising six large scale capital goods manufacturers and a startup. The Centre has been designed to provide technological solutions, R&D facility in digital tools, new materials, additive manufacturing, automation, training of human resources engaged in production. The  interdisciplinary Centre has been conducting training programmes on Computer Numerical Control and has also developed a training module for industrial robotics and other short-term courses and training programmes. 

Talking about the activities at the Centre, Prof. Pal said, “The reliance on robotic industrial solutions in the post pandemic world will only increase. So will increase the need for new products and processes. For example, there would be the need for real-time and cost-effective assessment of product quality. We have developed an affordable solution to carry out this function by amalgamating basic products with deep learning and creating industry 4.0 solutions. We will also work towards ensuring accuracy of such products and processes.” 

Automation induced directional change in employment

Reassuring the smooth continuation of industrial manufacturing through automation, Prof. Pal also dispelled the speculations of a distressed employment situation. MSMEs employ more than 75% of the workforce in the manufacturing sector. While automation would lead to downsizing the manpower requirement, through upskilling and re-skilling the workforce can be deployed in the new industrial environment. 

His optimism echoed in his statement, “automation would lead to human resource requirements for maintenance of machineries with knowledge of digital functions of the machines. Further ancillary industries would evolve which would need skilled workforce.”

Director’s talk on rejuvenating MSME post-COVID

From the desk of Director, IIT KGP:

The post-COVID industrial world would wake up to a new dawn towards the involvement of MSMEs in re-energizing the industrial sector. This sector has a huge contribution in our manufacturing industry. However, as the pandemic situation leads to a new normal, availability of capital would become a challenge for MSMEs thus creating bottlenecks for jumpstarting industrial production and employment of labourers. Social distancing would also restrict employment of existing workforce in full strength. Further the low capital situation would delay new product development or sustenance of production at current costs thus disrupting the dynamic demands of industries and consumers. 

This crucial situation can be addressed by the state funded technical institutions like IITs, NITs, central universities and research labs which can play a key role towards rejuvenating MSMEs. We have the expertise to start exploring the market demands and product requirements, based on the economic condition of industries, especially MSMEs. We can help them bridge the gap by innovating product designs for affordable items with large scale use. These could be PPEs, medical kits, sanitation items etc. which would obviously find a ready market. Also the capital goods sector is evolving. We have seen automobile sector is branching out into medical equipment. Hence the opportunity is enormous.

Other areas wherein technical institutions can intervene are capacity building and upgradation of shop floor technologies keeping in view limited budgets. We can develop applications for MSMEs to help them connect with demand and supply points, provide information updates regarding finances available, government and banking notices, market situation, latest technologies, thus creating an economic model. 

Also we have to ensure that R&D of centrally funded institutes is channelised to the MSMEs or manufacturing companies engaging with the sector. This would require the focus of R&D to be outcome based, encompassing all technological domains, achieving significant levels of import substitution, benefiting the public at large and strengthening our economy. 

Further, the MSMEs can be trained on high-end technologies to conduct experiments and design new products. Such units can also deliver trained personnel who can launch startups or help the manufacturing sector to upgrade their product and process design and production.

At IIT Kharagpur, we have set up one such training unit – the Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology, with support from the Department of Heavy Industry of Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Government of India, along with a consortium of top six industry members in the country.

However, all of these have a steep timescale and the initiatives need to be launched with a sense of urgency to help sustain the MSMEs in the coming months.

Urbanizing the Brownfields of India

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur is geared up to bolster Professional Partnerships, expand Study Abroad Programs and initiate Research Collaborations with select Global universities.  In line with this, the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning has come up with its second collaborative research programme with the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA. The topic of research is “Integrating Brownfield Sites of India into the Urban Fabric”.

Brownfield redevelopment is relatively new within the Indian context. Given that remediation projects wherever applicable are long-term commitments; careful ex-ante planning is required to ensure the resulting projects are economic and effective. As yet, no standard definition or guideline for brownfield redevelopment is available in India. There is a scarcity of planning instruments, which are needed to manage complex spatial information and to provide planners with actionable results. US being one of the pioneer countries to have adopted a successful Urban Brown Development (UBD) Policy, this study would compare urban brownfield sites in different contexts in the US and document planning options for the range of stakeholders involved in redevelopment procedures.

As part of this project a team of students led by Prof. Subrata Chattopadhyay and Prof. Haimanti Banerji along with Prof. Brent D. Ryan from MIT visited many brownfield sites in the US in June 2019 and has done exhaustive documentation of the successful models and planning policies. UBD in the United States is handled by various acts, legislations and development protocols at the federal, state and local levels. To have a holistic understanding of the process, the team visited 8 towns in three states viz: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Various models of brownfield development were observed.

The town of Flint had adopted a community participation approach and has developed public green space popularly known as Chevy Commons on the site where the Chevrolet factory was earlier located. Detroit has a well-established Brownfield Redevelopment Authority which approves and manages re-development of all brownfield sites in the town and encourages the involvement of private developers in the process within some established development protocols and zoning regulations. Bethlehem, a steel manufacturing town, north of Philadelphia, once known for supplying steel to Golden Gate Bridge was taken over by Leigh Valley Planning Commission who has developed revenue-generating facilities like hotels, warehouse for Walmart, visitors’ centre and a Cassino by integrating the massive original machinery and the structures. This can be considered as an ideal example of Industrial Heritage. Philadelphia, on the other hand, has developed the unused piers on the river Delaware into vibrant public places and has integrated the same into the city master plan. The towns of Lawrence and Lowell in northern parts of Massachusetts have ventured into developing affordable housing in place of closed down mills. The interiors have been meticulously worked out so that the residential spaces can be best fitted into the huge factory bays.

This exposure will help the IIT team to further develop planning instruments in India that would combine environmental, economic and social concerns.

The team from MIT led by Prof. Brent D. Ryan will visit India in January 2019 for an assessment of urban brownfields in the country. The objective would be to generate and analyze pragmatic urban brownfield development scenarios within the contexts of environmental contamination, community preferences, regulatory constraints and economic viabilities for the study area, proposing the best fit solution. These preliminary findings could be translated to state-level policies or guidelines which would act as a road-map for other Indian cities for prioritizing, planning, redeveloping, and financing Brownfield sites integrating the same to the urban fabric.

This collaboration will facilitate interaction between a bi-national team of scholars, practitioners, policy-makers, faculty and graduate students from both MIT and IIT. Ideas generated during proposed workshops and seminars will suggest road maps for Indian planners and policymakers. US faculty and students will learn about emerging challenges in socio-economic, policy, and urban design that confront the study areas in particular and India in general and can transfer lessons back to the US context.