Research Papers

Emerging perspectives on environmental burden minimisation initiatives from anaerobic digestion technologies for community scale biomass valorisation

Tiwary A, Williams I D, Pant Dinesh Chander, Kishore V V N
| 2015

This paper provides an extensive review of anaerobic digestion(AD) systems,witha specific focus on community scale digesters for urban applications, processing either municipal organic waste exclusively or as mix feed. Emphasisis placed on reducing the systems scale environmentalimpact of AD technologies, including pre-and post-treatment stages, alongside biogas production. Developments to-date in AD system research in Europeand in the Asia region have been compared, providing a comprehensive evaluation of current practice, elucidating the areas of further potentials.

Effects of Passive Hydration on Surface Water and Groundwater Storages in Drained Ranchland Wetlands in the Everglades Basin in Florida

Goswami D, Shukla S
| 2015

Pre-(1 year) and post-(2 years) passive hydration data were used to evaluate the effects on spatiotemporal storages at two pastoral wetlands in the Lake Okeechobee (LO) watershed within the Everglades basin, Florida, United States. To partially restore the predrainage wetland storage and hydroperiod, passive hydration was implemented by raising the discharge elevation using a culvert structure with removable boards at the end of the drainage ditch that drained the wetland/upland system.

Effect of internal woven roller shade and glazing on the energy and daylighting performances of an office building in the cold climate of Shillong

Singh Ramkishore, Lazarus I J, Kishore V.V.N.
| 2015

The energy and visual performances of the façades are defined by many parameters including façade size, properties of glazings and shadings, and their arrangements as well as control strategies. In this study, a number of combinations of internal woven roller shades and four double glazings have been proposed and assessed in integrated manner in order to improve the energy efficiency and visual comfort in new or existing office buildings.

Disentangling the ranges: climate policy scenarios for China and India

Hof Andries F., Kumar Atul , Deetman Sebastiaan, Ghosh Sambita, van Vuuren Detlef P.
| 2015

Greenhouse gas emissions in China and India have been increasing rapidly over the last decade. Scenario studies can provide insight into expected future trends and the emission reduction potential in these regions. The scenarios show that growing population, gross domestic product, and energy demand are likely to lead to a further increase in emissions. At the same time, a decreasing emission intensity would still allow to create decarbonization scenarios in line with the requirements for reaching a maximal warming of 2 °C.

Development of Novel Microsatellite Markers in Jatropha curcas and Evaluation of Their Cross-Species Transferability

Sinha Pratima, Islam Md Aminul, Negi Madan Singh, Tripathi Shashi Bhushan
| 2015

Jatropha curcas has been a species of interest all over the world due to its potential as a renewable biodiesel crop. In the present paper, a set of 40 novel genomic microsatellites from Jatropha developed through cloning and sequencing are reported. The microsatellite markers were evaluated at intra-specific, inter-specific and intergeneric levels. All forty markers successfully amplified fragments from J. curcas and J. integerrima showing their potential in linkage mapping using inter-specific breeding populations involving these species.

Development of a microbial process for methane generation from bituminous coal at thermophilic conditions

Rathi Rohit, Priya Anchal, Vohra Mustafa, Lavania Meeta, Lal Banwari, Sarma Priyangshu M
| 2015

There has been a growing interest in coal bed methane (CBM) both for energy production and reduction of greenhouse gases. CBM has been used as an alternative fossil resource and methane generation from coal reservoirs and is contributing in meeting clean energy demand. India has CBM generating potential but lacks in technology for in situ biogenic methane generation from its coal reservoirs.

Demand Side management in Indian Power Utilities

Sundararaghavan Sandhya, Ramanathan K
| 2015

Electric utilities in India are today looking at demand side manage men I as an important and integral strategy for addressing the challenges of chronic peak and energy shortages, improving access and affordability of power. At the governmental level, a number of policy and regulatory initiatives have been taken in this regard in recent years. The utilities are being mandated to draw up cost-effective demand side management action plans and programs and prioritize them as per their specific needs. In this context, the utilities are looking for accelerated deployment, of energy efficien t.

Degradation of chlorpyrifos in tropical rice soils

Das Subhasis, Adhya Tapan K
| 2015

Chlorpyrifos [O,O-diethyl O-(3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol) phosphorothioate] is used worldwide as an agricultural insecticide against a broad spectrum of insect pests of economically important crops including rice, and soil application to control termites. The insecticide mostly undergoes hydrolysis to diethyl thiophosphoric acid (DETP) and 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCP), and negligible amounts of other intermediate products.

Covalently Immobilized Laccase for Decolourization of Glucose-Glycine Maillard Products as Colourant of Distillery Wastewater

Singh Nimisha, Basu Subhankar, Vankelecom Ivo F J, Balakrishnan Malini
| 2015

Maillard reaction products like melanoidins are recalcitrant, high-molecular-weight compounds responsible for colour in sugarcane molasses distillery wastewater. Conventional biological treatment is unable to break down melanoidins, but extracellular laccase and manganese peroxidase of microbial origin can degrade these complex molecules. In this work, laccase was covalently immobilized on alumina pellets activated with aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). The immobilization yield was 50–60 %, and the enzyme activity (886 U/L) was 5-fold higher compared to the soluble enzyme (176 U/L).

Corporate Social Responsibility in India: Revisiting Carroll’s Pyramid and The Road Ahead

Mahajan Ritika
| 2015

Section 135 of the recently implemented Indian Companies Act, 2013 made Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) mandatory for a certain category of companies in India but a debate on pros and cons of mandatory CSR is still going on. Significant issues in this debate are definition, scope and legitimacy of CSR. The existing definitions of CSR in the literature are congruent to a large extent but there is no universally acceptable definition.