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Friday / April 18. 2025

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HomePosts Tagged "waste management"
India, Organic

Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) focuses on Campaign 2.0 on Swachhta and reducing pendency in Government

Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in the country have adopted 900 villages in October this year as part of the government’s campaign to demonstrate and promote microbial-based agricultural waste management and Vermicomposting. Technologies related to the microbial decomposition of agricultural residues and conversion of farm residues and other organic wastes into vermicompost was demonstrated to 22,678 farmers.  Apart from farmers, awareness of vermicomposting was created among 3,000 schoolchildren.

Crop residues are valuable organic inputs to improve soil health and crop productivity when utilised after proper decomposition.  Due to the long duration of the natural composting process of most of the crop residues, farmers resort to burning, resulting in environmental pollution apart from the wastage of a valuable asset.  

Composting technologies using efficient microbial decomposers like ‘PUSA Decomposer’ accelerates the decomposition process resulting in high-quality organic manure in a shorter period.  Application of composted residues rather than burnt ash to soil adds organic carbon and other essential plant nutrients to the soil and promotes microbial activity in the soil.

Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE)

Agrotech

The technology uses organic materials such as wastewater as input and offers a dual benefit of bioelectricity generation and waste management

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati  has recently developed a bio-electrochemical device, Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) that can generate green energy by treating wastewater.

The use of organic material such as wastewater in MFC makes it an eco-friendly device that offers a dual benefit of bioelectricity generation and waste management. This research was supported by a grant from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.

The research was led by Prof Mihir Kumar Purkait along with his PhD student Mukesh Sharma, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati. They developed a bio-electrochemical device that converts chemical energy contained in organic substrates into electrical energy through microbes.

Commending the work of the research team. Prof T G Sitharam, Director IIT Guwahati, said, “This development has provided an excellent sustainable energy source along with treating several wastewaters. After scaling the process, it can be used as a source of clean energy using municipal wastewater and other such areas economically.”

Explaining the long-term impact of the research Prof Mihir Kumar Purkait, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati, said, “Further implementation of this process may provide an excellent alternative to several costlier renewable energy extraction processes. The conducted study reveals that the prepared CEMs are cheaper and perform better as compared to the several reported membranes, assisting in the separation of charges and potential development.”

The present research of IIT Guwahati is dedicated to synthesising several novel high-performance Cation Exchange Membranes (CEMs) comprising a polymeric blend of several high-end polymers doped with Cellulose Acetate (CA) and other modifiers like Graphene Oxide (GO) to obtain membranes with high Ion Exchange Capacity (IEC) and proton conductivity.

The technology uses organic materials such as