Murugappa Polytechnic College on Thursday opened a Centre for Sustainability and Energy Transition at its campus at Avadi, Chennai. The Centre was inaugurated by V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras.

The Centre hosts a ‘cold room’, which maintains cold temperature in an enclosed space using innovative ‘phase change materials’. The ‘cold rooms’ do not need grid-connected electricity and are being built at farms to store agricultural produce; reduce spoilage; improve farm output and incomes.

The centre also hosts a ‘dryer’ using w the ‘phase change materials’ to maintain a constant, continuous temperature for drying, without electricity. The agricultural produce such as pineapple, copra, okra, moringa etc, are dried using this technolgy fetching a higher price in the market, says a statement.

The Centre for Sustainability and Energy Transition at Murugappa Polytechnic has been set up by AMM Foundation and Pluss Advanced Technologies to promote technical skills among students and working professionals to address issues related to access to energy in key sectors like agriculture, cold chain logistics and healthcare, where grid-connectivity is not always feasible.

Thermal batteries

For storing agricultural produce, the solar-powered cold rooms temperature are maintained at 2 to 8 degree Celsius or minus 20 to minus 15 degree Celsius in an enclosed space, and using ‘phase change materials’ as ‘thermal batteries’ for 24x7 temperature control. Unlike batteries like Lead Acid and Lithium Ion, ‘thermal batteries are affordable, reliable, and are easy to use in places where there is no grid electricity.

The Centre will create entrepreneurship templates to promote setting up small business units. This would include tie-ups with banks and investors for unlocking capital, building market linkages, and matching business mentors to the students, the release said.

K Sudhagar, Principal, Murugappa Polytechnic College said that the Centre for Sustainability and Energy Transition takes it a step further by offering students hands-on learning on technologies for energy recycling and reuse, that offer economic benefits to farming and business communities. It also offers opportunities for entrepreneurship through applications of these technologies in their communities.

Samit Jain, Managing Director, Pluss Advanced Technologies said, “We are delighted to partner with Murugappa Polytechnic to set up the Centre for Sustainability and Energy Transition. These technologies are being adopted across the world, especially in Europe, to maintain a constant temperature without electricity. The Centre will give the students an opportunity to be at the forefront of deployment of these technologies in India.”

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