Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Wastewater treatment using radiation treatment

I received today a DO Letter bearing number 12074/3(6) dated 7.5.12 from Mr Ranjan Chatterjee, Consultant, Planning Commission, Delhi  indicating that the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre has developed a radiation treatment of sewage sludge which offers an "efficient, simple and reliable method to produce pathogen-free sludge which can be further upgraded to nproduce bio-fertiliser".

I'd met Mr Chatterjee during last year's Plan discussions at Yojana Bhavan, at Delhi. We are making many Sewage Treatment Plants under National Ganga River Basin Plan (Kalyani, Bhatpara, Gayeshpur etc), JNNURM (by KMDA/ KMWSA/ UD) and at New Town Kolkata (by PHED/Hidco). I am also concerned about the state of affairs of Salt Lake STP where a team from World Bank had recently visited at my request. Indeed, sewage disposal is a huge problem and even if there are STPs, fecal coliform and other microbes are difficult to destroy. As such, nuclear radiation treatment would be a great possibility. (It will also allow me to connect with my Post MSc days in Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics !!).

I plan to contact Mr Chatterjee as soon as I can.
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Here is a clipping from today's Times of India.

5 comments:

  1. http://ksparth.blogspot.in/2008/07/agricultural-and-research-application.html

    BARC successfully demonstrated that radiation treatment of sewage removes 99.99 per cent disease causing bacteria. Drying the irradiated sludge on sand beds yields pathogen free dried sludge. BARC operates the Sludge Hygienization Research Irradiator (SHRI) at Baroda in collaboration with the Gujarat Government and Baroda Municipality. BARC supplied 600 tons of irradiated sludge as enriched manure for field applications.

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    http://www.indianexpress.com/news/radiation-technology-for-sludge-treatment-gets-bhabha-nod/560707/0

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    IAEA Report (also mentions about work-plan on India at Section 3.7):
    http://www-naweb.iaea.org/napc/iachem/working_materials/RC-1188-1_report_complete.pdf

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  2. Thought of sharing this. The way things are done in UK.

    http://www.water.org.uk/home/news/press-releases/wastewater-pamphlet/wastewater-web--2-.pdf

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  3. This is what I got from Mr Chatterjee today:
    We are proposing a presentation in the Planning Commission in the last week of June, 2012. My colleagues will inform you of the exact date. Thereafter, we can request the project proponents to visit the States who are genuinely interested. I am sure they woould then go and make presentation in Kolkata.

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  4. This is fabulous.Great post!Thank you for sharing.Keep it up!!!

    - nutrients in wastewater

    ReplyDelete