Dr Sarajit Basu - Fellow of Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, Fellow of Institution of Engineers India
Dr Basu, graduated in Chemical Engineering and PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay in 1968. Dr Basu, carried out Post Doctoral work as Alexander Humboldt Fellow in Germany. Member of the Faculty of Chemical Engineering & Biomedical Engineering (BME) for over 30 years at the IIT Bombay. He has guided 15 Doctoral and 45 M.Tech Dissertations.
Dr Basu has over 100 publications & Conference presentations, in the fields of Process Engineering, and Membrane based separation Technology (MBST) in industrial separation operations, Water Recycling, and BioMed Engineering. As UNO Expert/Visiting Professor/Scientist, Dr Basu carried out assignments in Southeast Asia, Africa, Germany, France, USA and Canada.
Currently Dr Basu is a visiting Professor at Calcutta University and Institute of Genetic Engineering and Chairman, The Institution of Engineers, (India), West Bengal State Centre, Calcutta, India.
Abstract: Carbon capturing system ( CCS ) for mitigation of global warming ( GW )
An attempt has been made in this overview on technology options available for mitigation of Global Warming by:
- Clean coal technology in IGCC & membrane system in post combustion electric power generation plants
- Integrated biological sequestration of CO2 in micro-algal ( MA ) culturing ponds with simultaneous production of biofuel (lipids), protein, bio-manure plus CDM benefits
- MA culturing in photo membrane bioreactor ( PMBR ) at high biomass consistency, and
- Membrane contact absorption system ( MCAS ) for scrubbing CO2 in NH4OH .
In collaboration with Sun Plant Agro Ltd., a Project initiated at the Institute of Genetic Engineering ( IGE), near Calcutta, India on biological fixation of CO2 with locally available MA ( Chlorella, Diatoms, Euglena, Anablena, and Scnedesmus sp ) have been collected, screened, and identified, and growth parameters optimized.
For large scale Open Pond (OP) experimental Work, a nine channel pond (connected to three tanks in series) has been constructed (total surface area exposed around 40 sq.m ) with raceway design. After filling the OP system with tap water, from a overheat tank, pond water inoculated with mixed culture (250cc at 500ppm), and biological CO2 fixation allowed under atmospheric natural condition (CO2 concentration- 385 ppm) for 30 days, and biomass collected (after 3 days) at the rate of 2.50 kg/d (AD), with lipid content of around 30%, and protein-25 to 30%. In PMBR studies, tubular reactor of plexi-glass (3 inch dia, 5 ft height) - six in numbers in series- have been installed and preliminary Work completed at 2.20% biomass consistency.
Work is still under progress. For MCAS, initial Work have been carried out in ceramic membrane module , capillary configuration- 3mm id x1 m height, with NaOH as the CO2 solvent, with encouraging results, as compared to Lab made pyrex glass tubes with ceramic packings. In MCAS, system, problems like flooding, channeling, and foaming (associated with conventional maintenance intensive conventional packed absorption column,) has been eliminated with enhanced interfacial surface area for gas liquid reaction. For further work, polypropylene (highly hydrophobic) MCAS has been procured (Enka from Germany) and Work is in progress with ammonium hydroxide as the CO2 solvent, giving ammonium carbonate/bicarbonate as the useable fertilizer.
For getting optimal benefits, it is proposed to distribute the flue-gas : 5- 10% in OP ( requiring large surface area ( 30-35 acres/MW ), 10 to 20% in PMBR, and the remaining 75-80% in MCAS. The presentation concludes with life style management as another option along with the technical alternatives for the mitigation of GW.OP system may be utilized in rural areas ( with large wet lands/ponds ) in the form of mini power plants ( 5-20 MW capacity ) , as decentralized power supply with locally available resources as an appropriate technology.