Research Projects

We, at CSIR-NCL, Pune have developed hydrodynamic cavitation technology and new cavitation reactors for water treatment/industrial wastewater treatment and established a cavitation pilot plant facility at CSIR-NCL (4 Nos. of pilot plants; 1 m3/h capacity each) (See OTD for details). The proposed project aims at advanced studies for water treatment-real life implementations and/or prototype development (See OTD for details) and for removal of various pollutants, especially emerging organic pollutants. The main focus is to propagate the indigenous technologies for industrial wastewater treatment for real life applications by forming industrial collaborations or dissemination of knowledge through industrial consultancy and also evaluate newer developments of cavitation and reactors for different applications (See OTD for details). Process integration of cavitation technology with other processes such as biological treatment process, oxidation, adsorption, or coagulation will also be evaluated for enhanced techno-economic feasibility.The work elements are as below (All through 1-5 years, sequential order not needed and all the activities to be carried out without any specific timeline chart): 1. Advanced research on development of hydrodynamic cavitation technology, new cavitation reactors and applications: a. Synthetic wastewater treatment – evaluation of techno-economic feasibility b. Industrial wastewater treatment – evaluation of techno-economic feasibility c. Evaluating enhanced efficacy of the newly developed Surface Coated Cavitation reactors 2. Developing newer applications of hydrodynamic cavitation such as chemical reactions, treatment of fruit juice/ natural juice preservation etc. 3. Interactions with Industry for providing assistance in solving industrial wastewater treatment problems 4. Pilot plant trials for industrial effluents and possible industrial trials 5. Implementation of our technologies, vortex diode and hydrodynamic cavitation technology in different industry sectors. 6. Interaction and participation in various committees for suggesting improvements in different sectors. Participation in different planforms such as National/ International conferences, invited talks in different institutes. 7. Training of students It may please be noted that while our vortex diode based hydrodynamic cavitation technology is commercialized, the newer forms of advanced surface coated cavitation reactors, developed in 2022-2023, have not been yet fully explored for real life applications and hold huge potential in terms of commercialization compared to conventional devices! The developed strategy can provide enhanced and effective removal of harmful organic pollutants through destructive pathway leading to mineralization by using new hydrodynamic cavitation reactors with simple operation, largely without any addition of harmful chemicals, thereby, having positive implications for commercial applications in industrial wastewater treatment.