Tag: rivers

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

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In the quest for the hidden past

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Indian researchers have for the first time connected the decline of Harappan city Dholavira to the disappearance of a Himalayan snow-fed river which once flowed in the Rann of Kutch. They have connected the dots between the growth and decline of the Dholavira, the most spectacular and largest excavated Harappan city in India located in the Rann with this river which resembles the mythical Himalayan River Saraswati. The study has just been published online in prestigious Wiley Journal of Quaternary Science.

Studies so far made were indirect attempts to find out the river courses, its connection to climate and civilization in areas far away from these ancient cities. But this research team from IIT Kharagpur, Archaeological Survey of India, Deccan College PGRI Pune, Physical research laboratory, and Department of Culture, Gujarat, dated archaeological remains from all the stages and also inferred climate shifts through time which led to the rise and fall of the Harappan city.

“Our data suggest that prolific mangroves grew around the Rann and distributaries of Indus or other palaeochannels dumped water in the Rann near southern margin of Thar Desert. This is the first direct evidence of glacial fed rivers quite like the supposedly mythological Saraswati, in the vicinity of Rann” said IIT Kharagpur’s Prof. Anindya Sarkar who led the research.

Dr. Ravi Bhushan and Navin Juyal from PRL, Ahmedabad dated the carbonates from human bangles, fish otolith and molluscan shells by accelerator mass spectrometer and found that the site was occupied from ~5500 years back i.e. Pre-Harappan period to ~3800 years before present i.e. Late Harappan period. The Dholavirans were probably the original inhabitants in the region, had a fairly advanced level of culture even at its earliest stage. They built spectacular city and survived for nearly 1700 years by adopting water conservation suggested the researchers. The study indicates that the city expanded till 4400 years followed by an abrupt decline nearly ~4000 years back, onset of the newly proposed Meghalayan geological stage.

Researchers Dr. R.S. Bisht and Y.S. Rawat from the Archaeological Survey of India who originally excavated the site concluded this based on degeneration of architecture, craftsmanship, and material culture.

Dr. Arati Deshpande Mukherjee of Deccan College pointed out at the climate evidence coming from high resolution oxygen isotopes in snail shells Terebralia palustris which typically grow in mangroves and was a source of food for the Dholavirans.

The lead author of the paper and a PhD student at IIT Kharagpur Torsa Sengupta said, “the early to Mature Harappan snail isotopes suggested that the mangrove was fed by Glacier River debouching in the Rann of Kutch. However, during late Harappan period the meltwater contribution and seasonality reduced coinciding with the fall of Dholavira.”

“Though the Dholavirans adopted excellent water conservation strategy by building dams, reservoirs and pipelines, but were pushed to the limit by a catastrophic Meghalayan mega-drought collapsing the city. Indeed Dholavira presents a classic case for understanding how climate change can increase future drought risk as predicted by the IPCC working group” added Prof. Anindya Sarkar.

The research indicates that the collapse of Harappan Dholavira was near-synchronous to the decline at all the Harappan sites in India as well as societal collapse of Mesopotamia, Greece, China and the Old Kingdom of Egypt.

Paving through the Waterways

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Ministry of Shipping (MoS) under its flagship Sagarmala Programme is setting up the Centre for Inland and Coastal Maritime Technology (CICMT) at IIT Kharagpur. CMICT will provide applied research and development for the inland and coastal waterways sector. This will provide real-world solutions for inland and coastal waterways transportation and provide tools and technological inputs to double the share in intermodal transport for domestic waterways freight carrying capacity.

The project is of strategic long-term interests for the port and maritime sector of the country and is being fully funded under unique and innovative projects under Sagarmala. The cost of the project is Rs. 69.20 cr.The funding for CICMT is for 5 years after which revenues generated from the end users will make it sustainable.

The Govt. of India has provided a tremendous impetus to Inland water transportation and Hon’ble Prime Minister received the first inland cargo vessel in November 2018 at Varanasi. However, a need was felt for indigenous applied research, development and technological support to Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), shipbuilding industry, ports and all other related institutions.

Currently, there is no testing and experimentation facility available in the country for inland and coastal vessels for which the shipbuilders have to approach various European countries. In order to address this long felt need, a state-of-the-art Centre for Inland and Coastal Maritime Technology (CICMT) is being set up at IIT, Kharagpur. CICMT at IIT Kharagpur will provide technological support, research, testing and experimentation facility to agencies involved in inland water transport, shipbuilding, ports. etc.

“The Centre will focus on Ship Design for Coastal/Inland waterways, Shipbuilding Technology and Structural Design, Transport Systems & Logistics, Cryogenic Cargo Handling, Green/Renewable Energy harvesting from Coastal and Inland waters and Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Maritime Operations,” said Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Government of India.

The government is encouraging the use of biofuel and clean energy to reduce pollution and fuel import costs. “In the coming years, this would prove to be critical for the country’s economic growth. Developing biofuel and world-class technologies for the shipping industry would be a significant economic and environmental contribution. IIT Kharagpur is expected to bring in the best practices of technology development and design and act as a catalyst through sponsored research with the focus towards commercialization of technologies developed” remarked the Minister.

CICMT setup signifies a major leap in indigenous innovation and cutting edge technology support to the Port and Maritime sector directly contributing to the Sagarmala programme and support ‘Make in India’ and is based on close collaboration amongst government, academic institutions and industry to make applied research relevant to day to day groundwork in the port and maritime sector.

CICMT is envisioned as a world-class state-of-the-art centre; the centre will also be a hub for the latest technology tools for the maritime sector and reduce India’s dependence on foreign institutions. It will also reduce the cost of research drastically and result in cost and time savings for work in the Port and Maritime sector.

“IIT Kharagpur is extremely delighted to be able to set up the Centre for Inland and Coastal Maritime Technology. This builds on the unique strength of IIT Kharagpur’s Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture department supported by all the other engineering and science departments. We hope to be able to work on deep areas of technology development and indigenous technologies development as well as in areas related to energy efficiency and use of automation and AI in these areas,” said Prof. P P Chakrabarti, Director, IIT Kharagpur.

 

Photo Credit: Suman Sutradhar