Search for renewable energy resources with reduced carbon emissions is one of the most urgent challenges due to the increasing threat of global warming and the energy crisis. Among other things, mere vibrations are being harnessed to produce electricity. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) are new energy devices that generate electricity from vibrations.

They work on the principle of the creation of electrostatic charges via instantaneous physical contact of two dissimilar materials followed by generation of potential difference when a mismatch is introduced between the two contacted surfaces through a mechanical force. This mechanism drives the electrons to move back and forth between the conducting films coated on the back of the tribo-layers.

The methods that are presently employed to design the nanogenerators use expensive fabrication methods like photolithography or reactive ion etching, and additional processes like electrode preparation.

In the new study, researchers have designed one using thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) and Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as tribo layers. The easy availability of the active material and the simplicity of the fabrication process make it cost-effective over currently available fabrication techniques. The resulting device has also been found to be highly efficient, robust, and gives reproducible output over long hours of operation.

The study showed that the device could light up eleven LEDs by gentle hand tapping and could be a potential candidate for use in optoelectronics, self-powered devices, and other biomedical applications.

The study was conducted by researchers from the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences, a Bengaluru-based autonomous institute of Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology; Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen China. The team consisted of Dr. Shankar Rao, S.R.Srither, N.R.Dhineshbabu, S.Krishna Prasad, Oscar Dahlsten and Suryasarathi Bose. They have published a report on their work in ‘Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology’.

——————————————————————————————————————————————-

Keywords: cost-effective, bio-compatible, optoelectronics, self-powered devices, biomedical applications, renewable energy, global warming, triboelectric nanogenerators, electrostatic charge, electron, photolithography, reactive ion etching, thermoplastic polyurethanes, Polyethylene terephthalate, Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences, Indian Institute of Science.

The customized demand driven convergent water solution through FO will supply two litres of good quality drinking water per person per day for 10,000 people in the village, successfully overcoming a major drinking water shortage in the village. The FO system facilitates high recovery, low energy consumption, potential for resource recovery, especially in solutions of high osmotic pressure, less fouling of the membrane because of low pressure operation, easier and more effective cleaning of the membrane, longer membrane life and lower operating costs.

Tamil Nadu IIT Madras in collaboration with Empereal – KGDS Renewable Energy have successfully established and demonstrated this system to address prevalent and emerging water challenges in Mission Mode in the village.

Ramanathapuram District, situated in the South-East corner of Tamil Nadu, is severely affected by scarcity of potable water due to salinity, brackishness and also poor sources of ground water. The district of 423000 hectares has a long coastal line measuring about 265 kilometres accounting for nearly 1/4th of the total length of the coastal line of the state.

The Water Technology Initiative, Department of Science & Technology (DST) has supported this field based effort in the district through the consortium members led by Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), KGiSL Institute of Technology (KITE), Empereal– KGDS Renewable Energy (P) and ICT Mumbai.

LFR based Solar Thermal System     Solar hot water system installed at Narippaiyur Village, Ramanathapuram District, Tamil Nadu

The sea water FO technology operates at near 2 bar pressure unlike sea water RO that operates at 50 bar pressure. It is versatile, has high energy efficiency and low operation and maintenance costs compared to other technologies.

The produced water will be supplied to the local people with the support of villagers and panchayat. This initiative of DST can pave way for scaling up the emerging technology in various coastal rural areas of the country to address drinking water shortage.

To tackle this, researchers at the Engines and Unconventional Fuels Laboratory, IIT Delhi developed a new technology and built“Hydrogen fuelled Spark-Ignition Engine Generator”in collaboration with Kirloskar Oil Engines Limited (KOEL), and the Indian Oil R&D Centre for the utilization of hydrogen in internal combustion engines for zero-emission with higher thermal efficiency. A dedicated lubricating oil for the engine was also developed by theIOCL.

The project was mainly funded by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India,and supplementary funded by KOEL and IOCL R&D Centre. IIT Delhi and KOEL havejointly filed a patent application for the technology.

“As Hydrogen does not contain carbon, the hydrogen-fuelled engine does not emit any carbonaceous emissions. The emission ‘oxides of nitrogen’ can be controlled to ultra-low level using the appropriate technologies”, said Dr. K.A.Subramanian, Principal Investigator of the project and professor at the Centre for Energy Studies, IIT Delhi.

Hydrogen is available as a tangible product from industries including chloro-Alkali, ammonia, and refineries.Hydrogen can also be produced from the splitting of water using electrolyzers coupled with renewable energy sources (solar, wind, biomass, etc.). The surplus electricity can be converted into hydrogen using the electrolyzer and then, the electricity can be produced using this engine whenever needed such as meeting peak load demand, no short-term grid power available, emergency, etc.

The hydrogen fuel at up to 4 bar from the gaseous cylinder (150 bar / 350 bar / 700 bar) or the pipeline stored at low pressure (10 bar and above) in the industries will be injected into the intake manifold of the engine.

The technology will be useful to the industries (chloro-Alkali, Ammonia, etc.), those are producing hydrogen as tangible or main products, to generate electrical power to meet their inhouse-power requirement in the industry”.

The developed hydrogen engine can also be used in decentralized power generation for industries, buildings, etc. Thus, the green power with hydrogen can be generated using the multi-cylinderspark-ignition engine generator with the developed technology for strengthening the sustainable energy and environment.”

Dr.Subramanian added,“Ifhydrogen infrastructure can be developed and made available in the future,diesel generators can be replaced withhydrogen generators for electrical power generation.It will help to control air pollution, especially in urban areas.”

———————————————————————————————————————————–

Keywords: Diesel Engines, fuel,Combustion engine, Electrical Power,Carbon monoxide (CO), Hydrocarbon (HC), Smoke, Particulate Matter (PM), Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx), Carbon dioxide (CO₂), Emissions,Pollution, Unconventional Fuels, IIT Delhi,Hydrogen fuel, Spark-Ignition Engine,KOEL, IOCL, MNRE

This recipient of the INSPIRE Faculty fellowship instituted by the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India is using chemical reactions to modify the surface of these nanoscale crystals called quantum dots (QDs) for fabricating optical materials that can have sustainable applications in optical sensors, light-emitting usages, composites and fluorescent biological labels.

Chemically modifying the surface of QDs can be an innovative pathway to alter their optical features and making newer optical materials, which are useful for fabricating white light-emitting (WLE) materials, ratiometric sensors for detecting disease responsive molecules or environmental pollutants, photocatalysts (for H₂ production) and imaging of cancerous cells.

Dr Bhandari’s chemically modified QDs could be used for ratiometric tracing of in vitro pH, detection of amino acid and vitamin B12, developing advanced WLE materials that can emit day-bright light, capability to image cancerous cells and packaging of enzymes to enhance their activity.

The research was published in journals Chemical Communications, Advanced Optical Materials, Chemistry: an Asian Journal, and Nanoscale Advances. Dr Bhandari has worked on construction of advanced, sustainable and environment-friendly optoelectronic materials and sensors, setting a new paradigm in the area.

In collaboration with IIT Guwahati, he established a dual emitting nanoprobe which can serve as a sensor for the detection of Hg²⁺ and Cu²⁺ ions. The work has been published in the journal ‘Journal of Material Chemistry C’ recently.

With the inspire faculty fellowship, he is working on the fabrication of QD-based optical materials for advanced energy and sensing applications that can be used for household lighting, alternative fuel production, better human health monitoring and for clean and sustainable environment.

At present, the ERS systems are imported. There are very few manufacturers across the world and the cost is relatively high. This technological development will enable the manufacturing in India for the first time, which will be an import substitute and will cost about 40% of imported systems. ERS has huge market requirement in India as well as in SAARC and African countries. Hence, this technological development is a big leap forward towards Atma Nirbhar Bharat and Make in India.

ERS is a lightweight modular system that is used as temporary support structure to restore power immediately after the collapse of transmission line towers during natural calamities such as cyclone/earthquake, or manmade disruptions. ERS can be assembled quickly at the disaster site for restoration of power in 2-3 days, whereas the permanent restoration may take several weeks. This development is very significant as failure of transmission lines severely impact lives of common people and causes huge monetary loss to the power companies. As the total losses/damages are directly proportional to the outage duration, time is a crucial factor in reinstating or remediating the damaged/fallen structures.

Made of structurally highly stable box sections, ERS is lightweight, modular and reusable. It provides complete solution from member connections up to the foundation for different type of soil conditions. The system is verified through rigorous structural tests. Basic knowledge and tools are enough to assemble and install ERS at the disaster site. Suitable configurations for different voltage-class of transmission line systems are possible. The system is compact and yet provides full functionality on erection. It is designed as a scalable system for 33 to 800 kV class of power lines and can help in building a disaster resilient society.

The agreement was signed in the presence of Prof. Santosh Kapuria, Director, CSIR-SERC, Chennai and Shri S.K. Ray Mohapatra, Chief Engineer (PSE & TD), Central Electricity Authority, New Delhi.

The CoE has high-end modern labs designed keeping in mind the future technology, which will further strengthen India and France’s relationship in energy sector. Union Minister of State for Power (I/C), New & Renewable Energy (I/C) and Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Shri Raj Kumar Singh inaugurated the Centre of Excellence virtually today, in presence of guest of honour, Mr. Daniel Maitre, Minister-Counsellor for Economic and Financial Affairs, Head of the Regional Economic Department for India and South Asia.

The establishment of CoE is a result of the MoU signed earlier between MSDE, Ministry of Education-France and Schneider Electric. Further, an operational MoU was signed between National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Schneider Electric India Foundation (SEIF), Power Sector Skill Council (PSSC) and National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) for establishment of the centre, and to undertake high level training and skill development in the field of power and solar.

Inaugurating theCoE, Shri. Raj Kumar Singh, Union Minister of State for Power (I/C), New & Renewable Energy (I/C) and Minister of State for Skill Development said, “India is taking rapid strides to move towards renewable energy to accelerate economic development, improve energy security and energy access while mitigating climate change challenges too. Our success in achieving all of these demands for a rich pool of workforce in the energy sector to propel India to become one of the top leaders in the world’s renewable energy market. Sustained efforts towards boosting the growth of renewable energy sector will play a significant role in helping us inch closer to fulfill Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’. Our partnership with Government of France for instituting the Centre of Excellence is another shining example of cooperation between the countries to achieve their long-terms energy goals.”

The CoE will focus on creating a pool of highly skilled trainers and assessors for further training to increase employability of candidates in the field of Electricity, Automation and Solar Energy Sectors.  The centre will design and deliver Training for Trainers, Instructors, Training of Assessors and other high-end program in the power and solar sector.

Established in an area of 4,000 sq.ft., the project received contribution of land from NISE to host the CoE at their campus. The CoE will be equipped with two labs, which have been set up by Schneider Electric as a part of its CSR initiative. The Advance Electrician Lab is equipped with specially designed instruments for training in home and building, and industry installation and automation. The Solar Lab will provide hands on practical training on latest technology in solar area. With the launch of CoE, online training of assessors will commence which will include trainers from all over the country. In addition, training of youth is also being considered in the center. Power Sector Skill Council, which will be managing the operations of the centre, has also developed necessary learning contents for various job roles in generation, transmission, distribution and downstream sub sectors to facilitate learning.  The Department of Education, France- deputed an expert to India for three years to conceptualise, design and head the proposed CoE. He has contributed by proposing the layout, guidelines, and best practices in electrical domain.  National Skill Development Corporationhas been a facilitator to all the stakeholders and is providing professional guidance for the project.