- Vineet Kumar Goyal
Counsellor

All the views expressed in the article are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organization the author represents.

• Indian gov. launches ambitious plan to solve drinking water problem
  
  http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=811262

  New Delhi, Feb 4 (KUNA) -- The Indian government has embarked on an ambitious plan to tackle the country's drinking water shortage by deciding to set up a one million litre desalination plant in Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu to convert sea water into potable water and a 10 million litre plant along the coastline is also on the anvil.

  One desalination plant had recently been set up in Kaverati in Lakshwadeep Islands off the coast of India, while the one million litre plant was expected to be commissioned in Tamil Nadu, according to Indian Minister for Science and Technology and Ocean Development Kapil Sibal.

  The Minister, however, did not elaborate on the exact location or time-frame for setting up the plants, but said the tsunami warning system was expected to be in place by the end of 2007.

  The Indian Science and Technology Department was also considering the use of satellite imagery to monitor illegal constructions, which have led to demolition drives in places like Delhi, traffic and crowd management, pollution levels and garbage collection.

  Sibal said the pilot project - will receive assistance from the National Academy of Sciences, Russia. Sibal added an "earthquake precursor" would be set up in Delhi in collaboration with an Iceland-based institute and Norwegian participation was also expected in the project. In Iceland, the system was currently giving a warning of as much as 30 minutes in advance, he said.

  The Minister suggested that India, being the second largest producer of the bamboos, should popularise the use of the forest product as it had a tensile strength equivalent to that of steel. Given natural calamities like earthquakes and floods bamboo houses appeared to be an eco-friendly and economically viable solution, he said.

• Professor Discovers Better Way To Desalinate Water
  
  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/02/060211134405.htm

  Chemical engineer Kamalesh Sirkar, PhD, a distinguished professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and an expert in membrane separation technology, is leading a team of researchers to develop a breakthrough method to desalinate water. Sirkar, who holds more than 20 patents in the field of membrane separation, said that using his technology, engineers will be able to recover water from brines with the highest salt concentrations. The Bureau of Reclamation in the Department of Interior is funding the project.

  Kamalesh K. Sirkar, PhD, is a distinguished professor of chemical engineering and the sponsored chair for membrane separations and the director for the Center for Membrane Technologies at New Jersey Institute of Technology. (Image courtesy of New Jersey Institute of Technology)"Our process will work especially well with brines holding salt concentrations above 5.5 percent," Sirkar said. Currently, 5.5 percent is the highest percentage of salt in brine that can be treated using reverse osmosis.

  "We especially like our new process because we can fuel it with low grade, inexpensive waste heat," Sirkar said. "Cheap heat costs less, but can heat brine efficiently."

  The science behind Sirkar's membrane distillation process is simple. The inexpensive fuel heats the water forcing it to evaporate from the salt solution. The cleansed vapor then travels through nano-sized pore in the membrane to wind up condensed in the cold water on the membrane's other side.