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Two-Day workshop on “Eco-friendly Products and Practices” organized by Department of Civil Engineering

28-Apr-2018
Two-Day workshop on “Eco-friendly Products and Practices” organized by Department of Civil Engineering

Department of Civil Engineering organized the Two-Day workshop on “Eco-friendly products and practices” which was inaugurated by the Chief Guest Dr. Shreepati. L. K. The function was presided by Dr. Umesh M Bhushi, Principal. Prof. Balakrishna S S, Vice-Principal and Dr. Manjappa Sarathi, R&D Director were also present during the inauguration. Dr. Shreepati. L. K while addressing the gathering said that Green is the only one which absorbs CO2. Hence we need to conserve green environment. Nowadays we need development at the cost of our own existence, but our existence itself is at stake. He alarmed that our resources are finite hence we cannot have infinite development. He also facilitated a session on the topic - “Case study of a Green Building-Vibha”. Vibha is the name of his house situated in Shimoga. It is a green building which neither has external electric supply nor municipal water connection. The resources are used and procured in the house itself. The house has its own rain water harvesting tank which supplies water to the house throughout the year and also solar electric power. The house is built in such a manner that it is cool inside throughout the year and it doesn’t have any ceiling fans. At this age, he uses cycle to go to college which is 5 kms away from his house. Discovery channel has recognised his initiatives and interviewed him.

During the afternoon session, Dr. Manjappa Sarathi gave a brief talk on “Production of bio energy and bio fertilizer in sugar industries” and also spoke about “Indian sugar industry overview”. He said - sugar is the basic commodity for every individual. The sugar consumption in the world is about 170 lakh million tons per year. Lots of waste is generated during the production of sugar. The waste generated can be used for the production of other materials like addition of alcohol in petrol for producing gasohol. Hence the waste generated in the sugar industry must be reused since sugarcane in India is grown by 6 million famers and sugar production varies between 30-32 lakh million tonnes.

The second session was by Mr. Girish M Pai, Deputy General Manager, Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd on the topic “Roof top Solar power plant”. India is located near the equator hence the intensity of sunlight is more during most of the seasons. The solar power should be harnessed to decrease the fossil fuel consumption. Quoting Tata Power Solar Ltd, he mentioned that the solar plant generates more than 24,000 units of power per day amounting to more than 8.8 million units per annum. The release said that this is resulting in an annual saving of approximately 2,680 tonnes of oil equivalent and reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of 7000 tonnes. He concluded the session by stating that we should be committed to sustainable development with a focus on reduction in carbon emissions and renewable energy generation.

Day Two of the workshop began with a session on “Energy efficient materials and devices” by Dr. Thirumaleshwara N Bhat, Professor, Dept of Material Science, Mangalore University. He spoke about the energy efficient materials like LED’s, making of LED’s and the advantages of using LED’s. He also threw light on “clean room” - a room wherein the total number of dust particles in the room are controlled including the temperature and light. This clean room is for the production of semiconductor wafers. He also mentioned about Gallium nitride (GaN) which has special properties for applications in optoelectronic, high power and high-frequency devices. The next session was on “India’s future as a solar” by Mr. Bhaskar Kamath, Head, Roof top Engineering, TATA Power Solar, Bengaluru. He spoke regarding the various ways of harnessing solar energy. Solar energy is abundant and we have to utilize it so as to reduce the fossil fuel consumption. He briefed about construction of solar module and efficiency of solar photovoltaic cells. He threw light on various aspects regarding solar energy like evolution of solar power; cost effectiveness, different solar power applications and so on.

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