Researchers at IIT-Guwahati have developed a novel low-cost ‘improved natural draft charcoal retort’ (INDCR) to address the technological and capital investment challenges of Indian charcoal makers. 

National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Limited’s new initiative wing for waste-to-energy projects, organised an open competition, ‘Green Charcoal Hackathon 2020’, where IIT-Guwahati innovators presented the INDCR. With the evaluation and mentorship of NTPC officials, the reactor has been chosen for a demonstration at the township of NTPC Ramagundam Thermal Power Station, in Telangana, to produce charcoal from municipal solid waste (5 tonnes per day). 

Charcoal is widely used as a fuel for domestic and industrial heating. While developed countries produce industrial charcoal mainly through the retort system, it was not available to Indian producers because of technological barriers and the need for higher capital investment. 

Arunkumar Chandrasekaran and Senthilmurugan Subbiah, professors in the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT-Guwahati, who were the lead innovators of the INDCR system, have filed an Indian patent for the reactor.

Subbiah says the reactor is proven to produce high-quality charcoal from a variety of feedstock. Further, the reactor is portable and can be taken, for instance, to agricultural fields. The reactor is enabled to control the process at any point during the operation. It is user-friendly in terms of loading biomass or feedstock and unloading charcoal. At 270 degrees Celsius, the volatile gases produced in the wood chamber, which are mainly low molecular weight organic volatile compounds, are redirected back into the combustion chamber for complete burnout and liberated as complete combustion products. 

Value from spider venom 

Researchers at the German Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology are examining the action of individual toxins on pain receptors in nerve cells. The venom cocktail from the Australian funnel-web spider is particularly promising. It is believed that it can be used to treat neuronal damage after strokes and to make hearts longer-lasting for organ transplants. Other components are promising for use as antibiotics or as pain relievers. “This is a very recent field of research. Although the substances have been identified and described, they have not yet reached the preclinical stage,” says Tim Lüddecke of the institute, who is involved in the work. 

Further, spider venom can be a good pesticide. Spiders use their venom to overpower their insect prey. As the toxins are very effective against insects, they feature excellent templates for biopesticides. 

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