Research

We envision to deploy a network of autonomous robots with adaptive capabilities, for use in any environment that needs to be monitored and modeled to maintain the health of an aquatic system, avoid adversities, and design an effective disaster response.

According to recent surveys and reports Indian waterbodies are heavily contaminated, and identifying heavy metals in them is essential to meet the WHO permissible level of less than 0.1 ppm for drinking water. We are in the process of developing a hand-held optical sensor prototype for Chromium (Cr) detection, and will be extending the technology to Arsenic (As) and Uranium (U) as well.

Treating sewage is essential to reuse treated water and conserve freshwater, and it involves the complex process of treating contaminants using diverse technologies. Artificial Intelligence (AI) models can optimise the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) processes, and we are currently developing and testing such models.

Many industries in India are obliged to comply with the Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) policy, as per which wastewater needs to be treated and reused within the same premises where it was generated. Current processes used to implement this involve high energy consumption, however. To combat this we are developing Forward Osmosis (FO), an upcoming membrane technology, as an alternative.