BENGALURU: Clean air-centric policies are the need of the hour and India needs to let go of the dated concept of building cities based on “engineering designs” instead of “ecology-based designs”, which must be adopted, said Sachchidanand Tripathi, professor, Department of Sustainable Energy Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIiiT), Kanpur.
Prof Tripathi is also the winner of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and a recent laureate for the Infosys Prize, 2023, for developing a low-cost sensor for monitoring air quality.
In a conversation with TNIE, Tripathi highlighted the major sources of pollution in the country that are increasing greenhouse emissions. Industries, automobiles, burning of crop residue or household-related fuel burning, require policy-level intervention and a switch to green measures. He strongly advocated the ethical use of AI and ML to monitor sources in real-time to improve the tasks of regulators.
“If we shift to PNG, CNG, solar PV and green hydrogen, which makes a versatile mix of the energy portfolio, industries and vehicular emissions can be cut down PM 2.5 and there will be a 40 per cent reduction in ambient pollution,” he added.
Citing an example of one of the biggest industries in the country, Tripathi said, “To make steel, industries burn steel ore with coal, in which a part comes out as carbon dioxide, and a part as soot particles– leading to emissions of soot and ash. To go green, steel can be produced using piped petroleum natural gas or using hydrogen, making the entire steel industry clean without any emissions.”
Prof Tripathi has created and deployed over 1,105 large-scale sensors -- building an air quality network in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh using a mobile laboratory for hyper-local measurements of pollution. Data is generated and analysed using AI and ML for effective air quality management and citizen awareness. This data can help the government navigate sources of pollution to introduce robust solutions.
These unique sensors are low-cost and will soon be getting an update to predict the levels shortly. “I have a unique problem at hand. The Bihar government is developing a State Capital Region (SCR). Using the quality data from the sensors deployed we must suggest a plan for the region, where to place roads, industries and residential areas to reduce the impact of pollution,” he explained.
His team is working on building airsheds and micro airsheds, using the sensors. Explaining more, he said, “We want to build air quality management (AQMs) that just don’t record one city but also its neighbouring areas. Pollution doesn’t happen in silos, there are no borders for the quality of air. The tool will give out results related to these sheds and if these are managed well we will have larger benefits. Using the same techniques micro airsheds can also be identified.”