Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hello, everyone. I am Ankur Dutta.
I am from the Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.
It's been a long journey coming to the G.E. Ecomagination challenge.
For the past one and a half years we have been working on this
and have come to this platform that GE has provided for us. It's really immense.
It all started with the Edison challenge where we put forth a proposal,
which was just a student project.
Nothing special, just a break from our mundane activities.
We persisted with that and brought in new members, which is how the team grew.
Then came the Ecomagination Challenge
which was worth $200 million dollars and was a worldwide challenge.
There were lots and lots of ideas coming from all over the world.
Smart grids and renewable energy, most of which came from
the U.S., with schools like M.I.T. and Stanford.
Also some of them were from India, so we thought
- we have an idea - so why not give it a shot. Let's put in our idea, and see what happens
The idea is simple.
The use of non-conventional sources of energy is being done but controlling it is the difficult part.
So what we have done in the University is figure out how to control and connect to the grid
and what will be the problems and how we can solve them.
These are the challenges we are facing
. I work with my professor and I thank him for his ideas regarding my progress in smart meters.
And I also thank G.E. for bringing me here and giving me this platform of the Ecomagination Challenge
so that I can speak with the whole world regarding the G.E. challenge and my own concept.
Not only my own personal concept, but our college and our team effort.
We are running out of oil reserves.
We are developing alternate sources of energy and what we have concentrated on is biodiesel.
Especially algae biodiesel.
The reason for doing that is it is clean energy.
That means when we burn it the amount of carbon dioxide emissions decreases by almost 70%.
The amount of nitrous oxide and sulfur dioxide is less compared to conventional diesel.
And not much change is required to run the engines.
There has been a lot of investment in this field but it didn't take off.
Why? Because of the inherent problems in it.
We have tried our best to address those problems and thankfully we have been acknowledged by G.E.
We have been provided with a special grant
and we have been assured of all the technological support that we will need.
We believe that after computers the next big thing is the energy sector.
We are supported by some of the best people in the world.
You must be thinking, what is algae about?
Algae is what you see in ponds.
The *** over it. That is algae.
Most people don't realize that this *** is actually very valuable.
You can extract oil out of it.
What we have done is something very basic.
We have taken that *** and put it into small containers which we call bio-pyramids.
There they grow because we give them ideal conditions.
We use a lot of technology and the conditions are ideal.
The growth rate is very rapid which is how we extract the oil from it.
Suppose some day our idea gets implemented.
Suppose you are getting biodiesel at 16-20 rupees when normally it is 40 rupees.
That's why we've gotten this award.
I am extremely grateful to G.E. for giving us this opportunity.
We will try to implement this is as soon as possible.
Once we started off, there was no looking back.
We worked hard. We made our presentations.
We made our submissions. We met our deadlines.
We did all sorts of things. Now that we are done, this is the happiest moment of our lives.
We came here. We got the award, a special student award
by the GE Ecomagination Challenge and we have been fortunate enough to speak
to many of the experts in this field.
You name anyone at G.E. Global Research Center in Bangalore,
it is one of the leading centers.
We are fortunate to come here and talk with all those experts.
This is giving a new dimension to our project.
From now on, we are going to take it to a new level and we are going to concentrate and make it big.
I thank G.E. for granting me a special student award
and also a prize amount of money to develop my work.
I especially thank my father and mother. I thank my brothers. And then my college.
Thank you.
Let me give a brief overview of this is.
Currently using algae biodiesel is quite unsustainable
because it is dominated by open risk systems which have a very low yield of algae.
yes, a lot of people are talking about it,
but it is inherently inefficient in utilizing resources.
Bio-reactors on the other hand have a very good yield
because they much efficient in utilizing resources.
We have developed a new generation bio-reactor which we call bio-pyramid.
This gives us a yield of distribution about 3-4x higher than
And if we are successfully able to implement this
then this will mean that algae prices will come down.
The price will become one fourth of the current prices.
This will create a huge impact because it will directly compete
with the conventional biodiesel that we have it right now.
It can create a huge impact in the market.
We have been working for the past one and a half years with a professor in IIT Kharagpur.
And we would like to utilize the grant that is given to us and help from GE
in building us a monitoring system. It is not an easy task.
It may be solar, it may be wind, it may be fuel.
Its a combination, an interconnection of many renewable resources.
So we are making a grid of non-conventional sources of energy.
Actually as you mentioned, a bio-management system,
, that we need to implement it properly.
If we are able to implement that, then the bio-reactors will be working at a very high efficiency.
Then what we are going to do is, I'm just talking about India
we have a national bio-fuel policy.
Now, the policy says that twenty percent of the oil has to be replaced
by bio-fuels by the year 2017.
which was needed to establish the bio-management system
which with G.E.'s help we would be confident that we are able to do it.
And then we would reach a huge market.
Just in India it's a huge market when you need diesel for everything.
For transportation, for everything.
Right now the nation will pay for a policy, as you know,
Actually there have been areas of such bio-reactors presented in different locations.
so there won't be a contiguous area
That's why we need this bio-management system.
After we came here there was a challenge in 2009 where we participated.
There we conceptualized this idea of using bio-reactors and algae.
Since then we have been continuously developing it at an agro-environmental lab.
We have been testing it and making bio-diesel, which has led up to the present.
It’s the future. We are transforming to green.
There is a definite need for renewable energy sources.
It would be very helpful if G.E. could help us.
G.E. has an established infrastructure in Bangalore
If we could use G.E's facilities, even in holidays, it would be very helpful.
We worked during our free time for the past year and came up with this.
If we are able to devote one month during our holidays, only working on this project.
The bio-diesel that we are producing is very complicated.
The production cost is around fifteen rupees a liter.
If we are able to do this successfully
it will change the face of the oil industry.