Waste to health bioconversion

The theory propounded by Dr. Uday Bhawalkar that excess nitrates affect abiotic and biotic phenomena which was a Phd Thesis in IIT Mumbai, has since been patented and is awaiting commercial exploitation.

 Pollution reduction through a natural enzyme based bio catalyst, "Biosanitiser", which Dr Bhawalkar developed as a proprietary technology, has been patented in India nad America.
Treatment of waste generated at household, farms and other biological waste generating sources must include segregation, methanation and stabilisation along with the use of Biosanitiser to treat waste in a holistic manner.

Source: http://www.wastetohealth.com/

Clean cellulose from biomass wastes

Khaitan brothers have developed a clean technology, which enables clean cellulose from biomass wastes like rice, wheat straws and bagasse. Modified Kraft Chemical Recovery (MKCR) technology was developed in a straw pulping mill making paper. The black liquor coming out as an effluent from pulping of above wastes contains caustic soda, lignin and silica besides lime. MKCR enables:
· recovery of caustic soda,
· silica as a dry precipitate,
· energy from the lignin, which gets burnt as an unique Wet Mix Fuel in a cogeneration biomass boiler, raising steam and electricity which meet process needs and also a surplus which can be wheeled to the electricity supply grid.
· Lime is also recovered.
It uses biomass wastes like rice husk or straw to enable this recovery process of chemicals and energy. Hence all process needs will be met by biomass wastes and products are clean cellulose, caustic soda which gets recycled, silica as a dry precipitate, lime and energy from the lignin. The whole process would be net zero in GHG emission and energy positive in terms of energy balance and material balance.

Clean cellulose can be converted into many value added products as a basic carbohydrate. Up to 90% of the clean cellulose short fibres can be used in blends to make photocopier grade paper (Map Litho), substituting wood fibres from trees.

Clean cellulose can be hydrolysed into simple sugars. In fact a technology patent has been applied in India, which has already established in lab scale, conversion of alpha cellulose and hemi cellulose into C6 and C5 simple sugars. fermenting the sugars into ethanol is a simple step. Hence this process is unique in enabling clean cellulose production as a first step and then conversion into ethanol with higher process efficiencies in hydrolysis and fermentation stages. While Khaitan brothers have established the basics of the technology, it needs a pilot plant study before engineering and building a full scale commercial plant.

Present stage of development of the technology: They require funds as equity and / soft loan and invite an entrepreneurial partnership.

Contact: Mr Dinesh Khaitan: dkk@kroftaengineering.com at New Delhi

Using flyash

Fly ash is a by-product of coal combustion in thermal plants. Presently majority of the coal ash generated is being handled in wet form and disposed off in ash ponds which is harmful for the environment and moreover ash remains unutilized for gainful applications. India has sufficient coal reserves. In India almost 65-70% of electricity production isdependent on coal which produces a huge quantity of Fly Ash as residue which is allegedly a waste product in Thermal Power Stations.

Fly Ash has a vast potential for use in High Volume fly ash concrete especially due to its physic-chemical properties.  Using fly ash in construction activity is environment friendly, reduce energy demand and restrict carbon emissions.  
Transco Delhi and DMRC have been using flyash in construction activities.

When mixed with lime and water the flyash forms a cementitious compound with properties very similar to that ofPortland cement. Because of this similarity, fly ash can be used to replace aportion of cement in the concrete, providing some distinct quality advantages.The concrete is denser resulting in a tighter, smoother surface with lessbleeding.

A good amount of research has already been done inIndia and abroad on its strength and other requisite parameters.

Computer chips for Solar Cells

Computer maker IBM has found a way to save money, reduce waste, and contribute to the development of the solar power industry with just one smart innovation—recycling defective semiconductor chips and sending the recovered refined silicon to manufacturers of photovoltaic solar cells.

A worldwide shortage of refined silicon, the key ingredient in both semiconductors and solar cells, has kept prices for solar power artificially high in recent years, and photovoltaic producers welcome the news of IBM’s breakthrough in processing its wasted chips for them.

 Read the full story at

http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3963

One tonne of scrap from discarded computers contains more gold than can be produced from 17 tonne of gold ore.  Mumbai alone throws away 19,00 tonne of electronic waste a year, excluding the large e-waste imports from developed nations through its port. 

The projected growth for the e-waste generation for India is about 34% year on year. 

India already has a few small scale regional recycling programs-’Eparisara’ and’Trishyiraya’ are two such outfits. 

 
Source:Times of India, 8June, 2007

Water Hyacinth- economic potential

Water hyacinth is considered a scourge on water bodies. Yet, we only have to look at our neighbours to see the economic potential of this weed.

In Bangladesh, water hyacinth fibre is dried and mixed with jute to create paper and pressed into fibre boards used for partitions.

Yarn made from the fibre is used to make furniture in Bangladesh and baskets in Philippines.

Water hyacinth is used for water purification as it is capable of absorbing heavy metals, organic compounds and pathogens from water. 

In Srilanka, water hyacinth is mixed with organic municipal waste, ash and soil, composted and sold to local farmers.