Inauguration Pilot Plant Test Facility

Inauguration Pilot Plant Test Facility 

Jointly by NIT Tiruchirappalli and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) on 26th November 2018 facility at 5.15 pm

The project detail on “Pilot Plant Test facility for studying Exothermic Gas-Solid Reaction in Tubular/Downer Reactor”, heralding the technological development towards reactive systems.

National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli (NITT) had paid great attention to scientific and technological innovation and had been persisting in pushing technological advancement through technological development and upgrading, focusing on self-development. For many years, NITT has completed successfully major R&D programs. At present, in hands with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), a distinctive characteristic exothermic gas-solid reactor termed as tubular/downer reactor has been developed.

 

Due to the near plug−flow reactor performance, downer reactor units are recognized as being ideal reactors for chemical processes. The hydrodynamic behaviour of the downer is a distinctive characteristic  
which makes it unique among others when compared with particularly the gas-solid systems. Downer provides a relatively homogeneous dilute flow structure, nearly plug flow performance, low solid hold-ups, short residence time and relatively large solid/gas mass ratio. With respect to these distinctive properties, downers attracted the  
research community to a greater extent in fundamental and applied technology aspects. These have fast reaction systems with intermediates as desired products, such as high-temperature catalytic reaction systems, which can be employed in various industrial  processes such as pyrolysis of coal and biomass, plasma reactor, etc.

This pilot-scale test facility - Downer/ Tubular Reactor possesses unique characteristics than other reactors thus enabling high efficiency developed can sustain temperatures of about 800oC with maximum solids flow rate of 100 kg/hr (gas & solids) with all necessary instrumentation for controlling flow rates, temperature  
etc., interfaced with SCADA. The direct contact cooling system is employed to bring down the temperatures of hot gases to ambient  conditions while achieving simultaneous gas cleaning.

Some Industrial applications of downer reactor units:

Due to the plug−flow reactor performance, downer reactor units are recognized as being ideal reactors for chemical processes. These have fast reaction systems with intermediates as desired products, such as  
high-temperature catalytic reaction systems, pyrolysis of coal and biomass, plasma reactor, etc.

•Applications of Downers in FCC

•Applications of Downers in Pyrolysis of Biomass and Coal.
•Downer Reactors - Jinan Refinery, SINOPEC

Inauguration of Biogas plant Jointly by NITT and BARC

Inauguration of Biogas plant Jointly by NITT and BARC,Mumbai establish DTDDF centre at NIT-T

The National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli (NITT) had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) last year with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Government of India, Mumbai for promoting various technologies for societal/rural benefits such as NISARGRUNA (Biogas Plant), Soil Organic Carbon Detection Kit, omestic Water Purifier, Foldable Solar Dryer and Fluoride Detection Kit. Based on this MoU, NITT and BARC jointly established the DAE Technologies Display and Dissemination Facility (DTDDF) centre at NIT  Tiruchirappalli.

The  DTDDF centre selected the location of NISARGRUNA (Biogas Plant)  of capacity 1 MT/ day behind the  Mega mess II and completed the construction for the generation of biogas using mess kitchen waste  (vegetable waste, food waste and wastewater from the kitchen)  generated from hostel premises. Dr. V.P. Venugopalan, Associate  Director, Bio-science group (A), BARC officially inaugurated this  Biogas Plant the on 05.10.2018 in the presence of Dr. Mini Shaji  Thomas, Director, NIT Tiruchirappalli and accompanied by the  Registrar, Deans, faculty, staff and students of NITT along with BARC  members. The BARC experts briefed about the operation principle and  feature of NISARGRUNA Biogas Plant.


Conventional Gobar gas plants have a single digester and produce biogas containing 55-65 per cent of methane and 45-35 per cent of carbon dioxide. But the Nisargruna plants are biphasic (aerobic followed by anaerobic phase) and produce biogas containing 70-80 per cent of methane and only 30-20 per cent of carbon dioxide. 1 MT/day biodegradable waste resource processing through Nisargruna creates an opportunity for an employment and it will produce 25 - 30 kg Methane gas and 50 - 90 kg manure per day. The gas generated will be used as a fuel in the messes for cooking. Weed-free manure has high nitrogen contents and acts as an excellent soil conditioner.

It offers “Zero garbage and Zero effluent”, and this technology will be more helpful for the kitchen and solid waste management at NITT.

Apart from Biogas plant construction, the DTDDF centre had organised workshops, meetings, exhibitions, seminars and demonstrations at NITT and in surrounding villages/areas to spread the awareness about DTDDF products, and encouraged the youths to enrol in the entrepreneurship development workshops. NITT had identified five villages for pursuing UNNAT BHARAT MISSION, and the DTDDF centre will implement the BARC technologies in those villages.

Inauguration of NISARGRUNA (Biogas Plant) and functioning of BARC, Dept. of Atomic Energy, Technology Display and Dissemination Facility at NIT-T.






https://www.nitt.edu/home/students/events/press/Bio-Gas.pdf
https://www.nitt.edu/home/students/events/press/Bio-Gas-Tamil.pdf

HRD Minister inaugurates Siemens Centre of Excellence at NITT

The Union Minister for HRD, Shri. Prakash Javadekar inaugurated the 190 Crore Centre of  Dynamic Excellence in Manufacturing, in partnership with Siemens Industry Software, one of first of its kind  in Centrally funded technical Institutes. The grand ceremony also saw  the release of the Institute’s Five Year Strategic Plan (2019-2024)  along with the launch of the official website of Sangam, the Hardware  Hackathon of Pragyan 2019 - the flagship techno-managerial fest of NIT  Tiruchirappalli.

In his address, the HRD Minister underlined Centres such as these are  the need of the hour for promoting experiential learning that can  provide solutions to real-life problems. Congratulating the Director  on the inauguration of the first “Centre of Dynamic Excellence in  Manufacturing” of the country, he wished that the NIT  
Tiruchirappalli-Siemens venture would become a model for  Industry-Institute interactions that his Ministry is focusing through  Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan. The event was crowned by the  BHEL, Tiruchirappalli handing over a Consultancy Project to the Centre  to the tune of 1.2 Crore to develop an Electric bus.

The Hon’ble HRD Minister urged the young minds of New India to work on  Industry and Society-centric issues. He added that there is a new  generation of school children working with 2500 Atal Tinkering Labs in  the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, 3D printing and IoT.   Launching the Hardware Hackathon in NIT Trichy, he also highlighted  the prototyping and product development as a positive outcome of the  Smart India  Hackathon, which has fostered innovation among young  minds and resulted in real solutions to societal problems. He also  mentioned that the Government is revisiting policy to facilitate the  services of foreign faculty in Indian institutions, and that we need  to move from an application oriented-culture to an innovation-culture.  Shri Prakash Javadekar also emphasized the importance of ideas getting  translated into projects.  He told the gathering about a meeting he  had with Steve Jobs before the launch of iPhone and how the Apple  innovator was explaining the idea as if the product is already in  existence.  The Minister advised the students to make use of all the  facilities and come up with innovative solutions to real-life problems for sustainable development.

Dr Mini Shaji Thomas, Director, NIT, Tiruchirappalli in her Welcome address, enumerated the NIT-T’s dreams that have been achieved in the recent past and also enunciated the achievement of future dreams  through the implementation of five-year strategic plan of NIT-T  (2019-24). She asserted that the strategic plan’s emphasis is on five  aspects such as A. Teaching and Learning, B. Research, C.  Collaboration, D. Sustainability &
 E. Infrastructure, and insisted  that NIT-T aspires to transform itself into a multidisciplinary  university, where research-driven teaching will happen leading to the  transformation from Regional to Global campus along with international accreditation. She ensured that NIT-T will be among the top 8-10 Technical Institutions in India and among the top 500 universities in  the world in 5 years and postulated that these changes will be achieved through the establishment of SIEMENS centre of excellence in Manufacturing.

Shri. Matthew Thomas, Country Sales Leader of Siemens Software, addressed the gathering regarding the importance of bridging the gap between industries and academic institutions. He spoke on the future –  Industry 4.0, with emphasis on ideation and digitalisation. He announced his pleasure in offering Rupees 12 Lakhs for designing and  evaluating Robotics for the CoE.