'Alternative tech needed to check carbon emissions'

Climate change is a reality. It would go on forever. The adverse effects can be reduced by reducing carbon emissions. Green cover has increased marginally but it is not enough. Other ways must be found out, said Chief Secretary GC Pati at a seminar on ‘Carbon Equestrian’ here on Tuesday. After being recognised as the first State in India to implement the Climate Change Action Plan, Odisha has now added another feather to its cap as the first State to pilot carbon sequestration through microalgae technology successfully with encouraging results, he said.

The microalgae biotechnology helps in capturing the carbon from flue gas of power plants very substantially and generates algae biomass which can be put to further industrial use. He advised to develop a network approach among the national and international laboratories to carry on further studies about various use of algae biomass. He also advised the State Forest and Environment Department to draft a policy for upscaling use of the technology in power plants and utilisation of algae biomass under climate change action plan.

Development Commissioner UN Behera said that the technology is highly beneficial to curtail the present rate of carbon emission to a large extent and the Government will support such initiatives in all possible manner. Presenting the details of the pilot project, Principal Conservator of Forests Sidhant Das who spearheaded the project as the then Member, Odisha Pollution Control Board, said that the project has been piloted and demonstrated in the captive thermal power plant of Nalco at Angul and Prof Ranjan Pardhan has carried on the project successfully. Das further added that algae biomass generated through the technology has the potential to be used as bio-gas, bio-diesel, bio-oil, alcohol, fertilizer and protein for animal feed. It can also be used as additional fuel for power plants along with coal. Nalco CMD Ansuman Das said that Nalco is committed to take up all initiatives for reduction of carbon emission from power plants since the company has one captive power plant for its steel producing plant at Angul. The project has been conceptualised, commissioned and completed within a record time of 2.4 years with an investment of Rs 94 lakh under the joint aegis of the State Pollution Control Board, Nalco and Indocan Technology Solutions.

Prof Ranjan Pradhan presented technical details and the methodologies involved in the process of the application of microalgae technology for capturing the carbon. Dr Richard Sayre, Senior Scientist at los Alamos National laboratory USA and Prof Toivo Kallas of Wisconsin University, USA along with other 13 experts and scholars working on microalgae technology   produced their research papers.