VOL. 2 | ISSUE No. 17-18 | 2021 Compiled by Scientific Information Resource Division Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai Write to us for feedback E-mail: [email protected] (For internal circulation only) 19th APRIL- 02nd, MAY, 2021 RRCAT, Tata Motors to develop refrigeration tech for vehicles 18 April, 2021 | by Laveena Francis | TNN On Saturday, RRCAT and Tata Motors Limited (TML) signed an incubation agreement to jointly develop Shivay for vehicular applications. “This is a significant step towards percolation of department of atomic energy (DAE) technologies in the country under the ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’ mission,” RRCAT director Debashis Das told TOI. He was confident that Shivay will find wider use in cold-chain transportation through this initiative of TML. The incubation agreement was signed by Das and vice-president and head engineering commercial vehicles TML, Aniruddha Kulkarni during a virtual meeting. INDORE: Sheetal Vahak Yantra (Shivay) – a new technology of liquid At present the diesel-powered and chlorofluorocarbons based nitrogenbased refrigerated system developed by Raja Ramanna refrigerated trucks (reefers) are dominantly used in cold chain for Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) will now be incubated transportation. with Tata Motors Limited at incubation centre to transport fruits, These reefers are relatively expensive and not quite eco-friendly. vegetables, pharmaceuticals and other similar products. Moreover, as the source of Shivay will be incubated in three variants — small commercial refrigeration used in vehicle, intermediate light commercial vehicle and medium and Shivay is a by-product of heavy commercial vehicle. oxygen generation plants. Incubation centre at RRCAT has been set up recently at Indore as Large excess capacity part of the initiative by DAE under “Atma Nirbhar Bharat”. exists in the country for generation of liquid On the other hand, Kulkarni said, “Incubation for Shivay would nitrogen. catalyse development of future technologies in vehicular level refrigeration system and cold chain transportation which will be deployed across multiple platforms of Tata Motors Commercial Vehicle.” Source website links: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/indore/madhya-pradesh-rrcat-tata-motors-to-develop-refrigeration-tech-for- vehicles/articleshow/82127897.cms?from=mdr S Korea to invest $38M in illegal drone response tech by 2025 19 April, 2021 | by The Shillong Times South Korea said on Sunday it will spend 42 billion won ($37.6 The ministry said current response systems against illegal drones million) by 2025 to develop a response system against illegal drones are ground-based technologies and that the consortium will develop amid growing security threats from the fast-developing technology. an aerial system by developing patrol drones that can detect illegal counterparts and neutralise them by either physical means, such as A consortium of 23 companies and research institutes — which firing a net, or by hijacking its control system, reports Yonhap news includes the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, the Korea agency. Aerospace Research Institute and aerospace and defence firm LIG Nex1 Co. — will develop a response system that spots and The ministry said it will work with the Ministry of Trade, Industry neutralises the illegal unmanned aircraft, according to the Ministry and Energy and the National Police Agency for the project, with 6.6 of Science and ICT. billion won set aside for this year. The ministry said such drones pose security threats to major public Fears about potential unmanned attacks have lingered for years in infrastructure and facilities, such as airports and nuclear power South Korea since South Korean military authorities discovered plants, given recent advances in technologies, such as artificial crashed North Korean drones in border areas, including the front- intelligence and swarm robotics. line island of Baengnyeong in 2014. (IANS) Source website links: https://theshillongtimes.com/2021/04/19/s-korea-to-invest-38m-in-illegal-drone-response-tech-by-2025/ Given the supply constraints of battery materials, hydrogen could play a key role in energy transition 19 April, 2021 | by Anumita Roychowdhury, Snigdha Das, Moushumi Mohanty, Shubham Srivastava it was used as a fuel in Apollo I that landed on the moon in July 1969. Yet, the availability of cheap fossil fuel meant hydrogen energy never really picked up. The fact that hydrogen does not occur naturally as a gas on the Earth — it is always combined with other elements such as water (H2O) — added to the problem. This is because an external energy source is required to isolate hydrogen. At present coal or fossil fuels is used to isolate hydrogen almost every- where. This is called grey hydrogen and it is as polluting as fossil fuel. Countries are now waking up to the idea of replacing fossil fuels with renewable sources to isolate green hydrogen. This shift is happening because of two reasons. Firstly, there are clear Illustrations by RitikaBohra signs that fossil fuels can no longer be used to meet the world’s Hydrogen is the ultimate green fuel. It is the most abundant element energy needs. in the universe. It provides three times more energy than fossil fuels “Given the limited supply of rare metals to make EV batteries, and releases pure water as the only by product. It is also one of the hydrogen will soon play an indispensable role in delivering zero leading options for storing energy from renewables and looks emission transport,” wrote Michael Zhan and Michael Bunker of promising to be the lowest-cost option for storing electricity over KPMG in an article on March 21.Secondly, “natural abundance of days, weeks or even months. The element is also neither new nor hydrogen means it has the potential to level competition in the novel. The first experiments took place way back in the 1800s and automotive sector, whereas the supply of raw materials for EV hydrogen production to 25GW by 2026.Several countries have also batteries is controlled by a few large players”. The International published national hydrogen strategies, including Australia, Chile, Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) suggests the share of hydrogen Germany, EU, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain and South Korea. in the 2050s energy mix should reach to 12 per cent from almost EU in June 2020 laid out plans to install 40 gigawatts of renewable zero right now. It says 66 per cent of the hydrogen to be used in hydrogen electrolysers and produce as much as 10 million tonnes 2050 needs to be green — produced from water as compared to of renewable hydrogen by 2030.Saudi Arabia is setting up a $5 natural gas. Today, around 120 tonnes of hydrogen are produced billion solar and wind energy plant to produce green hydrogen. annually and less than one per cent is green hydrogen, says IRENA’s When the plant is completed in the planned megacity of Neom in World Energy Transitions Outlook report. To meet the 2050 levels, 2025, it will be one of largest producers of green hydrogen in the manufacturing and deployment of electrolysers, which are used to world. isolate the element, need to be scaled up at an unprecedented rate Late to the party — from the current capacity of 0.3 GW to almost 5,000 GW by 2050.The other challenge is that the current cost of green hydrogen India reiterated its commitment to green hydrogen this February, production is $5-6/kg, which is almost thrice the cost of grey when the Union finance minister announced the plan to launch the hydrogen, says Renjith G, research associate at Delhi-based research Hydrogen Energy Mission in her budget speech. It has earmarked Rs institute TERI. The investments, though, are underway. In December 1,500 crore for the mission and the Indian Renewable Energy 2020, a consortium of seven biggest global green hydrogen project Development Agency though details are awaited. Like the rest of the developers launched the Green Hydrogen Catapult Initiative to world, the country has been dabbling with grey hydrogen for a while increase the production of green hydrogen 50-fold in the next six now. Its experience with green hydrogen, though, is limited. The years. The initiative aims to cut the cost of green hydrogen to less focus so far has been in transportation and power generation than $2/kg, which is a potential tipping point that will make it sectors, says DMR Panda, general manager, hydrogen and renewable competitive in multiple sectors including steel and fertiliser, power energy, NTPC, which is part of the team giving shape to green generation and shipping. The project will ramp up the annual green hydrogen economy in the country. The public sector undertaking is working on pilot hydrogen buses between Delhi and Jaipur and in two inferior qualities that cannot store highly pressurised hydrogen Leh. It is also planning to set up a 100 MW floating solar plant at its and have safety concerns. “The other two types are entirely made of power plant in Ramagundam, Telangana to produce green hydrogen. composite alloys and have to be imported,” says Panda. The public The country is also exploring the possibility of adding hydrogen to sector undertaking is experimenting with metal hydrides for existing piped natural gas connections to reduce the carbon compressing hydrogen. “All I can say right now is that the hydrides footprint. The challenge, though, would be to scale up the pilot require 10 times less energy to compress hydrogen than any current projects. “There are only a handful of Indian companies that technology,” says Shaswattam. The company is also trying to tap produce electrolysers on a small scale. So, we are currently seawater for producing hydrogen. “We have set up a 0.12 million- importing electrolysers making the cost prohibitive,” says Panda. litres capacity flue gas-based desalination plant at its Simhadri plant Shaswattam, general manager of NTPC Energy Technology Research in Andhra Pradesh.