Research Projects

Anthropogenic activities introduce gaseous and particulate pollutants into the lower atmosphere which can have large impacts on human health and climate equilibrium. The sources of these pollutants can be from agriculture, industrialization, urbanization and transport. A few gaseous pollutants of relevance have been chosen for studying the near infrared (NIR) absorption cross sections and developing an efficient tunable laser-diodes based open path (OP) optical remote sensor (ORS) for monitoring and quantifying the pollutants close to the sources. Industry support for commercialization of the IP generated into viable commercial products is presented. The project proposal can be summarized as below: a) Research objectives: (i) To experimentally determine the NIR absorption cross-sections of anthropogenic air pollutants of importance in climate and health and determine their sources and distribution in the atmosphere. The specific compounds selected for the study are methane (high greenhouse potential), and carcinogenic pollutants such as 1,4-Dioxane, 1,3 Butadiene and glyoxal at atmospherically relevant spectral resolution (0.25 cm-1). (ii) To use this knowledge for obtaining spatial and temporal distribution of methane and 1,3 butadiene in a polluted atmosphere with high specificity. The facility thus developed will be utilized for other atmospheric pollutants having absorption in the NIR region as well. (iii) commercialization of the IP through the industry partner of the project. b) Methodology to be adopted: Laboratory determination of NIR overtone bands and absorption cross-sections of the pollutants using high-sensitive Fourier transform incoherent broadband cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (FT-IBBCEAS) and perform computational methods for specificity. A prototype field instrument will be developed using appropriate tunable lasers available in the market to obtain spatial and temporal distribution of the pollutant(s) near its emission sources. Using meteorological measurements, environmental forensic study will be conducted to identify emission sources and apportionment. c) Expected outcome and deliverables of the project: The outcomes are (1) high-resolution measurements of the NIR absorption cross-sections of the selected pollutants (2) first of its kind spectrometer for atmospheric measurements of these pollutants (3) training of one doctoral student, 2 M.Sc. students and 4+ B.Tech students. The deliverables are (1) NIR absorption cross-section spectral data of the selected anthropogenic air pollutants of climate and health impact (2) a TDL-based instrument for spatial and temporal mapping of the atmospheric pollutants (3) One patent five research publications and five international conference presentations. (4) translation of the IP to the industry partner for productization d) Brief budget: A total of Rs. 96,14,880 of which the breakup is: salary of PhD student 16,70,400; travel 1,90,000; consumables totaling to 8,00,000; contingency totalling 1,50,000, equipment 50,65,000; and overhead 17,39,480. Out of the total budget 11,15,500 will be contributed by the industry, Astrodynamic Technologies private limited, Hyderabad (endorsement attached).