Electrochemical techniques play a crucial role throughout the nuclear fuel cycle, including the production of nuclear-grade sodium through electrolysis, electro-winning of boron carbide for control rod materials, and electrochemical dissolution and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. These processes enable the extraction of valuable materials like uranium and plutonium for recycling, while also facilitating waste management through electrolytic acid killing and decontamination. The versatility of electrochemical methods allows for remote operation in radioactive environments, making them essential for sustainable nuclear energy production and India's three-stage nuclear power program.
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NCE-24 | 24th National Convention Of Electrochemists | Coimbatore CampusAdded:
by Society for Advancement of Electrochemical Science and Technology in association with CSIR Central Electrochemical Research Institute Kuri and Amrida Vishwa Vyapidam Coatu. We feel very much privileged to have distinguished professionals and esteemed degaries buing young researchers, scholars and students with us today.
Today we have with us a honorable chief guest professor Yu Kamaki Mandali, Vice Chancellor Homie Baba National Institute, HBM NI Mumbai respected guest of honor professor saga Indian institute of technology Bombay Dr. K Romesha director CSI karakuri president and patron NC24 Dr. Bipin nay register Amritish Vidya Dr. Sashangan Ramanadan Dean academics vishwidyapam Dr. B subramanyan chief scientist CSA secretary sist and kuina NC 24 and Dr. AK Nandakumar, Associate Chair, Department of Physics, Amrata Vishuvidya Pitam, Co- Conania NC24.
As a mark of tradition and to begin the two-day convention in an apicious manner, we invite our dignitaries to light the divine lamp marking the positivity and divinity.
>> [music] >> Time has blue [music] star and blue.
Amazing.
[singing] [singing] [singing] I love you. Fore! Foreign! Foreign!
[singing] >> [music] >> Hallelujah.
Summer.
[snorts] Now I request our respected dignitaries to kindly occupy the DS.
Over the next two days, we'll be sharing knowledge, celebrating research, and connecting as a scientific community. To begin this day, on an auspicious note, I kindly request you all to rise up for the invocation.
[singing] Fore speech. Fore!
Foreign! Foreign!
We request everyone to rise up for the invocation, please.
Oh, the [singing] world.
[singing] [singing] Fore!
[singing] Foreign! Foreign!
[singing] >> [singing] >> me. Come.
Thank you all. Now I request Dr. B.
Subramanyan secretary says to welcome the dignitaries with a floral bouquet to welcome a chief guest professor Yu Kamakshi Modali to welcome Professor Saga guest of honor.
to welcome Dr. Dr. K. Raisha, director CSR, President East to welcome Dr. Nay register Amritishyam to welcome Dr. Shashangan Ramanadan Dean academia of Dean of academics Amrat Shuya.
>> Thank you sir. Now I invite Dr. B.
Subramanyam secretary says to provide a formal welcome address.
Good morning and greetings from Society for Advancement of Electrochemical Science and Technology to everybody.
Respected chief guest professor Yu Kumar Shimali, Vice Chancellor Homi Baba National Institute, Mumbai and guest of honor professor Sagaritra IAT Bombay and our beloved director Dr. K Rameisha director of CC Sakri and president of SAT and pattern NC24 and Dr. Bibin Nay register of Amir Veshwa Vidyapam and Dr. Sashangan Ramanadan Dean of Amrish Vidya Pitam and the co-conveners of this NC24 Dr. Akandanda Kumar and Dr. Mulagadan I could find and uh all the invited speakers and faculty members of this institution ama vishuya and scientists from siki and we have this administrative officer and vice president Dr. Madurasu and campus director of Amritisha Vijyapam main and all other uh student participants, research scholars, exhibitors, sponsors.
On behalf of SAT, I welcome you all.
Let me briefly tell about the SAT.
Sest was founded in 14th November 1964.
As you are all aware, sed as part of its various scientific activities periodically organizes national conventions and international conferences to provide a platform to discuss advances in the area of electrochemical science and technology.
ST has organized so far 77 national seminars and workshops, 16 international conferences, 13 is and three ISEPS and 23 national convention of electrochemist and this is the 24th edition on various aspects of electrochemistry.
Eminent scientists are invited to deliver lectures to interact with the participants. In addition to the above, the NC host special lectures in memory of professor KSG Das and Professor SK Rangarajan and Professor is Sadya Narana who pioneered in the advancement of electrochemical science and technology in India.
As you all know, electrochemistry is central to achieving a net zero society.
While fuel cells and batteries are crucial for decarbonizing transport, electrolyers offer a sustainable route to producing fuels and chemicals such as hydrogen and ammonia. So with this brief introduction, I welcome you all again.
Our DG CSR director general Dr. Enali Madam was very keen to attend this NC24 but due to some ministerial program she could not make it possible. However, she has conveyed her best wishes for the success of this convention.
I cordially welcome Professor U Kumarimi, Vice Chancellor of Homie Baba National Institute Mumbai who has accepted our invitation to be the chief guest and also to deliver the professor KSG Das memorial lecture. Thank you professor. I will I welcome professor Sagar Mitra from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay for accepting our invitation to be the guest of honor for the inaugural function and to deliver professor SK Rangarajan lecture welcome you profer it is our director and patron NC24 Dr. K Ramisha who has been instrumental in organizing this event and his constant support and guidance throughout the program has made this event possible. I welcome you sir.
It is our honor to have Dr. Bibin Neyer register and Dr. Sasangan Romanadan dean of Amir Vishwa Vityam illustrious institution at kitur who are generous in supporting this NC24 by providing all the necessary arrangements. I welcome both of you sir.
>> [applause] >> I welcome Dr. Akin Nandakumar and Dr. U Maganadan sorry associate professors and co-conveners of NC24 from Amitaba Vishuya Pitam Kamur who have taken enormous efforts and spend valuable time in supporting us. I welcome you sir. It is my pleasure in welcoming all invited speakers, exhibitors, sponsors. These there are nearly 25 sponsors for this NC24 including the government agencies like DST, ANRF, CSR and BRNS and all other gold sponsors as you see here, Sakri, RSI, Classment Systems, Biologic and other sponsors. Thank you all and welcome you all. Last but not least, I welcome all the research scholars and student participants for whom this NC is being organized and I assure you all that these days two days will be a very beneficial and definitely enrich you with a lot of knowledge and ideas. Thank you all.
Thank you sir for the warm welcome. I request Dr. Bibinay register Amrityam to provide initial remarks about NC24 good morning everyone professor Yuk Kamashimali Vice Chancellor Humi Baba National Institute Mumbai Professor Sagar Bitra IIT Bombay Dr. Dr. Kamesh, director, central electrochemical research institute kar equity, invited dignitaries, delegates to this conference. Friends, it's indeed a real pleasure and a distinct honor for all of us here at Amitab Vishuya to have this privilege to host the 24th National Convention of Electrochemistry here at our Kohimaturur campus.
We are of course all cognizant of the fact that the principles of electrochemistry are crucial for numerous modern technologies from energy storage devices like batteries and fuel cells to industrial processes such as electroprating and metal refining.
So in the light of this understanding we can indeed envision that going forward electrochemistry will play a significant role in sustainable energy, environmental protection and advanced materials.
It was also highly intriguing to me as a biotechnologist that electrochemistry is also beginning to have an impact where electrochemical methods are providing a better understanding of redux processes in the activity of drugs and medicinals.
So we have also witnessed the tremendous potential of the applications of electrochemistry in our work here at Amriita in the development of sophisticated sensors for biomedical devices and diagnostics.
So with our focus here at Amritav Vishwa Vidya being on what we call compassiondriven research the opportunity to host this major event in C24 in association with CSI sri kurodi will certainly provide the right impetus for all of us attending this meeting to gain from the wide ranging depth of cutting edge research.
discussion and interactions with all the experts who are gracing this occasion over the next two days. So I wish this event resounding success and the best opportunity to create partnerships and move ahead swiftly to the heights of collaborative excellence, cutting edge research and productive partnerships.
Thank you.
Thank you sir. Today is the 24th convention of sist in emphasizing the advancements in electrochemistry and related fields. At this juncture it's our pleasure to welcome Dr. K. Romesha director CSR sikri karuri president and patron NC24 to deliver the presidential address.
Respected professor Kamachi, Vice Chancellor Baba National Institute of Mumbai, professor Sagaritra, Indian of Technology Bombay for the chief guest and guest of honor of today's function and the eminent host Dr. BP Nayer register and Dr. Sasang Raman Natan, Dean of Amtra Shvidy Pittam and NC coordinators um like you know and sh functionaries and all uh speakers and my dear students good morning and welcome and all warm welcome to NC24.
four.
So on behalf of sikree uh central electrochemical research institute and um as a president of sales it's my pleasure welcome you all for this NC24 along with that I also thank uh the management of uh um this special place I'm vishapam to uh host this NC24 here. such in a serene and holy atmosphere.
Say um like a sik started 1948. S that time dos who was the director he founded say 1964 and of course 1964 you can imagine 60 six decades ago. Um perhaps electrochemistry was done at some pockets Indian soft science perhaps BC and IG car. So uh then the director thought to create one society like the say so which will work as like know the the society to spread the knowledge of electrochemistry popularized the electrochemistry all through India and even abroad. And with that noble thought he initiated he founded uh Sast and for last six decades SE has been doing this noble job of conducting the conferences workshops like national and international in alternative years and last year we had international national usually we will have in place like colleges like this.
So the idea is that so that we can attract the students community and we will be able to impart knowledge about electrochemistry can teach electrochemistry. So that is the idea.
So I think around one in last six decades SE has organized around 120 conferences workshops and uh national conventions like this NC24.
Um so with that nobel idea and also during the subsequent years we also thought let's have some memorial award lectures that's a three in sequence one is for SKG dos and then professor SK Rangarajan these are were the eminent director of sikree and professor satanaran are such a contribution like you know in this field of electrochemistry particularly in batteries uh like you know uh being professor from Indian of science Bangalore and then of course ISRO work.
So so much contribution from these three great people. So we initiated these three award lectures and uh fortunately today professor Kamat Modali Modali who will give the KG O dos memorial lecture and professor Sagaritra will be delivering the SK Rangarajan lecture and the other one which will be delivered tomorrow by professor ataraj. So along with that we also have 12 uh very very special uh lectures by the young electrochemist all over India. So um like you know those will be the the the the new trend in electrochemistry. So they will speak and then we also have couple of lectures by our senior colleagues um like Ningshan who will be talking about the the corrosion and molten salt electrolysis and then professor Shane who is from ISRO will be delivering the lecture on how new energy devices will like you know be used for space applications and etc. And then we also have the oral presentations by the our budding scientists the students and all. So overall for last next two days we have very very interesting lectures uh by eminent scientists and of course the bing students are like electrochemistry. So um along with that we also have an MOU exchange between Sikri and Amatish Vidya Pitam. So idea behind is that those these two great institutes will work together collaborate in all aspect of the R&D uh education and also any uh startup work or like know entrepreneurship and all that. So we look forward to uh that closely working with the amya um next like you know in the coming days. So with that and also um I see that more than 500 delegates are here registered and let's hope that we'll have let's wish that we'll have great two days of conference and at this sha vidya and this is a place where science technology and philosophy philanthropy will come together and with this again wish you all great two days of conference and again uh wish I wish you all the best and warm welcome to NC24.
Thank you sir for highlighting the role of importance of NC24 and your insightful words on the importance of electrochemical science and technology.
Now we request Dr. A Ramisha director CSA secret to honor our chief guest with Shin M. Please sir.
We request Dr. Bipin register Amratavishyam to honor professor Sagamitra guest of honor with a shin moment. So, thank Thank you sir for doing the honors. Now we move on to a special moment of this event. I now request our dignitaries to release the abstract comevener book of NC24. I invite Dr. P.
Ragupati chairman technical committee and Dr. M Pandi Raj joint secretary s to join for the release.
>> [applause] >> Thank you dignitaries. It is the most devoted moment. We feel privileged to request professor Yu Kamachi Modali to deliver the inaugural address.
Very good morning distinguished director and president say Dr. K. Romesa Dr. BP Noeler register Amita Vispy Vidam Professor Sagar Midra Hayati Bombay is also a guest of honor Dr. Sasang Ramanadan the dean Amitita Visvy Puam from the organizer side Dr. B Subramanyan Dr. andakumar Ulaganadan many other organization committee members who are here from Sakri and from SAS my dear good friend Dr. Professor Wenger Raman whom I know him for a very long time from DMRL days and I see a lot of invited speakers the delegates invitees for this event NC 2020 NC 24 the students and scholars who have come for making presentation as poster and oral presentations special invitees ladies and gentlemen a warm Welcome and good morning once again to all of you. I'm extremely happy that Sikri Kakuri and S Kakuri they come over here to this beautiful campus Amrida via Visavy Pedam to conduct this NC20 NC24.
The 24th event of this national convention is an important event at the time of technology transition, the energy transition and many things that are happening all over the country and also globally.
I want to thank Dr. Ramisha for inviting me as a chief guest and also honoring me to deliver professor KG Das memorial lecture. So Kidas is the founding president of Cast and he has made phenomenal contribution to Sikri when he was director for a full decade. I think 10 year he was director.
Today when we talk about electrochemistry I think we think that electrochemistry is such a very narrow field in chemistry. Chemistry is a ocean and the electrochemistry is just a small island there. So we all think that what chemistry electrochemcy will play in this ocean of big chemistry.
But electrochemistry has a very big role to play. Today if you talk you know the all of you will be knowing today in the whole country and globally three four terminologies go around buzzwords. One is hydrogen, energy transition or batteries, electric vehicles, the critical minerals and materials, decarbonization, you know, all these are the buzzwords.
You will hear that everywhere the whole nation is working on the global countries, all countries are working on this. But electrochemistry has a very big role to play. That is where if you look at the entire electrochemcy market electrochemical market as such if you look at the globally it is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 8.4%.
From 28 billion last year to 49 billion it's a very astounding and phenomenal growth by 2029 we will have in the electrochemistry market. And in that specifically if you take the electrochemical instrumentation which is growing from 2.7 billion to 4 billion by 2034 or the electrochemical sensors they play a major role and they also grow from 17.8 8 billion to 33 billion means it is a field that is growing now year over year and there is lot of importance given because of whatever that I told about hydrogen batteries critical materials and minerals and decarbonization and electrochemistry when you talk okay I can little bit dwell more on that when you talk about hydrogen towards energy transition we now look for hydrogen so what is so very interesting about hydrogen hydrogen is a very well-known production technology by which you know you have a steam methane reaction you can always produce plenty of hydrogen volume of hydrogen that is required but the efficiency is very low then there are techniques very conventional techniques like the electrochemical techniques using an electrolyer you can do electrolysis and then produce hydrogen that is what is being utilized now for many applications all over the world. But again the efficiency is low and also it is an energy intensive process. So you need huge energy and then the factor of decarbonization and carbonization comes into picture when you are going to demand energy from the fossil fuel based sources to produce hydrogen.
These days of late you will find that lot of new techniques advanced techniques have come like the copper chlorine uh thermmochemical splitting or the iodine sulfur thermmochemical splitting of water where you can go up to 20% efficiency where very high tonnage of hydrogen can be produced easily.
Production of hydrogen is very much required for industrial applications.
It's not only for the conventional energy transition but also for industrial applications.
As a materials background person, if I would like to tell you that uh you know the country has got a steel policy, national steel policy 2017 by which today we are producing about 150 million tons of steel. By 2031 this would be around 300 million tons and by 2047 Vikid Bharat our honorable prime minister has set a target 500 million tons of steel should be produced. But for producing the steel every ton of steel nearly 2.8 ton of CO2 is produced.
This is because we have to use coal and coke as the burning agent and also you it is an energy intensive process. So if you want to reduce this CO2 production per ton of steel that we produce, let us say below two tons from three tons to two tons we have to do introduction of hydrogen into the fuel mixing with coke and coal to start with. But later on you have to use hydrogen as a source for burning the uh you know the mineral and then you should get a green steel.
Another option is that you can also produce by electrochemical root that is electro winding that direct oxide reduction process droction process by which oxide can be directly reduced to steel and again that is an energy intensive process unless you have a photovoltics based energy continuously available it will also lead to a carbon credit. So towards any industry that way if you take you want to make decarbonization you want to reduce the carbon dioxide production hydrogen plays a big role and hydrogen production by electrochemistry route is the only option either it is the conventional electrolyer based route using PV based electricity or having a thermmochemical splitting electrochemical process by which you can produce hydrogen is very important I think talking about batteries is like you know selling coal in Newcastle in front of Romesha and Sagar Mitra they have been all working with batteries for their own entire carrier. There will be more speeches on this how batteries are important today and where electrochemcy plays a major role in particularly with respect to solid state electrolytes and molten salt phenomena.
We also talk a lot about today critical minerals and materials. Any material, any mineral that is short supply in our country that we depend on another country that is highly demanding for our application like the rare earth minerals that is called critical minerals and critical materials any metal any material can become critical when we do not have the resources for that for example I'll tell you in 1980s our country had the resource of only 60,000 tons of uranium in our country by the exploration and the mining process processes. So there was a setback to our progress in the energy production because 60,000 t cannot work for hundreds of years. It can be exhausted by another 25 30 years and that is where that we did exploration because no country will sell you that easily uranium dioxide. So we have done our own exploration. Today I'm very proud to tell you that India has identified resources of nearly four lakh tons of from 60,000 to four lakh tons.
Similarly, we are uh you know in the top five with respect to rare earth minerals. But what is be lacking is the technology. The technology to produce these products from these minerals by high efficiency processes. That is where that electrochemical techniques play a major role. Being from the nuclear industry for the last 43 years, I'm very happy to tell you that electrochemistry plays a major role. That is what I'm going to speak in the Kstas memorial lecture. But whether it is an analytical experiment, analytical purposes or it is for sensing purposes, sensors or it is for some processes like electro winding and electro refining the understanding the corrosion processes or materials production like you know boron carbide the sodium production, radioisotope production or the hydrogen production or the basic fundamental studies on electrochemistry. nuclear industry is hugely benefited by the field electrochemistry. That is where that we gave lot of importance to electrochemistry. I'm very happy to recall that in the year 1987 we founded at Kalpakam and that used to be you know a very good heterogeneous junction for the chemists working on the electrochemistry aspect from various disciplines meet together and work for the application of the electrochemical technique for the nuclear industry. We had very successful conferences including the national conversion of electrochemist. It was there in 2007 when my guru late Dr. Baldhaj was the director at Kalpakam. So electrochemistry has been heavily recognized in our nuclear industry [clears throat] and my own personal experience when I was serving as the chief executive of the heavy water board. Uh we used to have the electrolyers for the production of dtoriium gas by electrolysis process.
The duttoriium gas can be produced by electrolying heavy water which is D2O and we used to have this electrolytes in heavy water plant boda and we used to produce this gas and sell it for the farm and life sciences industrial applications. We also produce this boron tetraoron chlor carbide which is used as the control rod material in the passed reactor program and we have established an electrochemical molten salt process by which this can be directly produced and this process is our own uh uh innovation. We have a huge application that way uh for many uh interesting industrial applications not only in the heavy water but also in the nuclear uh re fuel reprocessing applications.
One thing that I would like to tell you that most of you must be from the academic and the research background.
One very important message that what I would like to tell is that producing uh uh research and publishing papers presenting your results in a conference uh is not is the end of your journey unless you translate that into a product or process for industrial application.
Industrial application only will help our nation to have our own indigenous technology. Otherwise most of our research and academic excellence ends up in uh giving lectures and publishing some good papers. This is what is very important and I'm very happy today because of the atman bat and the skill up and you know the entrepreneurship program produced by the government today we have more than two lakh startup in our country and I would like to tell you more than 10% of this is related to electrochemistry thanks to the hydrogen technology and the battery technology and all this decarbonization that is being vigorously pursued by the government lot of young People are now going from the academic platform to the research platform to now their own industry.
You know having an idea is not important. Translating or converting that idea into a product into a process by having your own entrepreneurship is the most important. So I want to urge all the younger people I see a large number of students research scholars and young faculties and young scientists here that please don't stop with just you know presenting your work and then publishing it as a paper and this is where that I want to tell you that department of atomic energy we never had any support from any country moment we had this 1974 nuclear exploration explosion that we have been branded as you know untouchable and we were denied all the technology from the foreign countries. Today I'm very proud that India is pursuing the three-stage nuclear power program which was the dream of homie Jayangir Baba which successfully completing our prototype for hospital speed reactor which was attaining critical on April 6. It is 100% indigenous technology you know everything you know starting from the construction to operation everything all the devices systems more than 200 plus industries were associated with the manufacturing of all the components and systems and devices for the prototype phospid reactor. So all that is possible because our department trains all our young scientists to work on mission mode to make any technology, any product, any process, any device that we have to use it in our own industry because we do not get anything from outside. So that was the demand that made us to work like that. So that is what is the message I want to tell to the all the young people that please try to do very good academic study. Please do very good research but finally you have to convert that into a product or process or to in an industrial application at least maximum whatever that is possible is to do that is where our country can progress that we can attain atman bat the vikit bat by 2047. Thank you so much for inviting me and wish the conference all the best and I'm very proud to inaugurate it. Thank you.
Thank you sir for the inspiring inaugural address highlighting the pipetal role of electrochemistry in meeting Vikshit B 2047 to green hydrogen batteries critical material extraction.
May I now request our guest of honor professor Sarat Mitra to address the gathering.
Yeah. Uh good morning everyone. Uh Dr. uh professor Kamachi Maduli from uh Homiiba Institutes and Dr. Vipin nay from Amitabas Bishop uh Bishop Pitham and uh Sang Sagam maybe I'm pronouncing a little differently that's fine this Omnit should make me because I'm Bengali anyway so uh all the dignitaries in the DAS all my friends uh faculty guest uh good good morning everyone again so I'm here uh I really appreciate uh Dr. Raisha because he's my friend anyway so for inviting me and giving me a memorial talk uh on behalf of one person to whom I worked for first two months during my first uh PhD periods. So I know him very personally. So I worked with him and when I come for that memorial talk this is my pleasure.
>> Yeah this is my pleasure to when you say that I'm going to give a talk on that I immediately accepted because of that reason. Okay. So I had a personal experience with him. Uh that's one thing. So here uh I won't elaborate much on the whatever we are discussed. We are here for discussing electrochemistry. uh when I joined in electrochemistry uh as a PhD in IC Bangalore 1998 that time uh I joined in a uh professor professor sat at IC Bangalore and I to do a electrochemistry and that time most of the case like from Kolkata whoever coming to IC Bangalore they will be doing maybe theory or doing spectroscopy that's our trained of Bengali should do do that so I was ch I have selected electrochemistry because not I was much interested on it but I was interested on uh mathematics part of it as well as the application part of it that's the only reasons and I see that I have not done the wrong decision during that time and if you look at it uh at 1998 that time to uh to 2026 right now uh electrochemistry has tremendously progressed and I always say that secret is one of the maybe the catalyst for that and for that I am always associated with the secret uh and any way wherever I can and electrochemistry is one of the subject right now people think that is electrochemistry is just from solution looking at the redux redux reactions it is not the electrochemistry electrochemistry is a combination of many many topics it's like starts with mathematics then experimentations physical chemistry you are actually understanding your interface between two missible or miss immissible layers and uh obviously electrical engineering if you are studying some of the uh electrical part of it like equivalent circuit part of it. So is a is a bunch of many things together and then that's is electrochemistry and already previous our GIF guest already talked about it that electrochemistry if you look at the national mission right now four five topic we are right now we are looking at where at least three topics are related to electrochemistry so that we have a huge pro prospect for the all institutes all students who are working on this field try to what is my opinion that you try to open your mind and think little beyond whatever is already people are talked about. Okay. Look at in different way. Every problem is a problem. If you look at it just go to the chat GBT and look at top five problems which is not solved yet. Out of that five three problems are electrical problems. So that is the one thing you should look at it right now.
uh so that means we have a lot of prospects and I hope whole two days that is a two days today and tomorrow we'll be discussing many uh advanced level uh topics batteries fuels and I was looking at the brochures many topics are there but one thing is very common that all electrochemistry right now material electrochemistry it's like a materials and then electrochemistry that's the things I was looking at it but pure electrochemist or electrochemistry is not that it is a right now it is like we are looking at the is a interface but is not or the electrochemist electrochemistry is just a one redux couple in a solution or in a continuum model continuum media and you are studying their redux behaviors or how the molecule moves dynamics of the molecules or ions so uh you should look at in different aspects try to read Bon Faulner book very I think you read 50 times you'll understand one time two time you will not understand what is Barton Faulner's book electrochemical methods and uh I hope you'll understand many things out of the talks discuss with everyone all student this 500 students are registered here that's a very good numbers I congratulate the organizer even Romesha for the organizing this type of uh organizing this type of uh gathering where you'll discuss only electrochemistry with all electrochemist Thank you very much and see you next or second talk is mine. So I'll show you again. Thank you.
>> Thank you sir for your inspiring words highlighting bigger and prospective role of electrochemistry. Now I would like to invite Dr. Shashangan Ramanadan Dean academics Amratu Vishu Vidya Pam to deliver the felicitation address.
Omnashaya.
Well, I think um Dr. Subramanyan welcomed [clears throat] everybody.
I would take this opportunity to welcome Dr. Romesha, Dr. Kamachimodi. Again, sir, welcome back to Amrita. The last time we saw you was in our convocation attire dress. This time you're in a different uh suit. Um welcoming Dr. uh Saga and of course um Dr. Subramanyan and everybody from uh Sai and Segri.
This is a welcome on behalf of Amitav Visha Vidya Pam representing our registar Dr. Bipin Naya.
It's a great honor for me to stand here and and give this uh felicitation address. I mean everybody has talked about how electrochemistry makes a world of difference and how interdisiplinary it is.
I would like to take this opportunity to actually thank SAS for promoting bringing this electrochemistry the importance of electrochemistry to the world to at least our nation at large inspiring encouraging the youngsters to look at electrochemistry.
This is the 24th national convention.
That means it's been a long journey. Why don't we give a round of applause to the organization institutions like uh Sikri have been there for a very long time pioneers in electrochemists and I should thank Sikri for actually educating a lot of our faculty.
A lot of our faculty have graduated from sikree and they are here and they've been part of this whole journey on advanced research and I should thank Sikri for that.
It's very important that we understand that when we are pushed to a corner we come through and we come through it in a big way.
ISRO and uh Bark and Homie Bababa Institute they had no support from anybody you know when there is technology available we can buy we take the easy route we have been as India but when you don't get technology from outside we can beat the entire world and we have proven it time and time again now what do we do Dr. Dr. Kamach is very nicely said product development I mean we have a lot of basic research done we publish publish and we accumulate a lot of papers but how many products are out there from India that says made in India with a beautiful lion sign and says I will compete with US products with the Japanese products with the South Korean products Singapore products How many products are out there? You can chat GPT and find out.
Our manufacturing is quite good.
But are we competing at a product level?
So as youngsters, I'm telling you today, research in the lab is not going to be sufficient. You have to translate that research from the lab into a product.
Which means your thinking must be more system level.
Think system level when you start your research as eminent electrochemists. I'm going to challenge all of you one time because you won't see me at least for the next two hours so I don't get beat up. How many of you think copper electrochemistry electroplating is a huge challenge?
Every one of you will think ah copper plating has been known we can plate anything and anywhere no big deal.
copper electroplating is not a big challenge, right?
I beg to differ.
I beg to differ.
What you buy in chips in your mobile phones, laptops, and even in your big servers. Now, that's a big thing.
Every one of those chips has kilometers of copper.
And I'll give you an example. I'm going to pull a hair, which is not my hair, which is quite short. 30 cm um I'll keep it very short sir 30 cm of hair very nice you drill a hole which is 0.5 mm okay let's say I solve that challenge of drilling because it's been solved 0.5 mm hole 30 cm hair how you going to plate copper into it let's say it's conducting all all your parameters electrodes everything is given Can you uniformly plate inside that hole using copper?
Now you take that challenge. Why am I saying this? Anything that you think is a basic research and it's advanced and we are done with it. When you start looking at product, huh, it has its own list of problems, challenges, reliability, the challenges of how to do something given a a set of constraints, those things come when you talk about product. So I'm telling you today copper plating has a lot of challenges starting from plating to recycling the slurry to recovering your metal reusing it. All this is carbon footprint.
So you're looking at a holistic picture of starting with a simple process to a product to sustainability.
This is how your thinking must go as young researchers. When you do that and when you can come up with products that has that the pride of made in India, make in India, we will shine. And I think I should thank Sist and Sikri for choosing Amita to host this beautiful convention, this national convention. And we will do have more more of these in the future.
And I wish all of you the very best.
Interact, think system level, think product. Now this should be the kind of things that set into your mind. And I thank all of our esteemed people um who are going to be giving talks here.
Please share your knowledge and let's all network together solve grand challenges that translate into Atmanar Bharat. With that I will once again welcome and thank everyone of you for attending this uh national convention.
[applause] Thank you sir. CSR sikree and Amrada Visha Vidya the premier R&D and academic institution have been working together through academic collaboration to further strengthen this. CSRE and Amrita Vishwa Vidya Pedum is signing an MOU on this important occasion. Now I request the officials from CSR secret and Amritav Visha Vidya Pedam to exchange the MOU.
Thank you all. May I now invite Dr. AK Nandakumar Associate Chair Department of Physics I'm Amratuya Pidam Cocon NC24 to deliver the word of thanks.
Good morning. Uh on behalf of the organizing committee, it is my pleasure to thank uh uh many people here who have been uh responsible for the success of this uh inaugural ceremony. Uh it's a pleasure to thank u starting with the chief guest uh professor Kamachi Modali uh who has come over uh all the way from Bombay for this inaugural ceremony uh professor Sager Mitra uh our guest of honor uh from uh Sikri Dr. Romesha who's also the president of casu and also the director of sikree uh I would also like to thank uh Dr. Bipin nayer our registister uh Dr. Sashangan Ramanadan our dean of academics. Uh I understand that on on behalf of the organizing committee we appreciate that all of these are people with a lot of administrative responsibilities but they have made time to come over and inaugurate this function. Uh thank you all. Uh I would also like to thank u the uh head of the TTBD section technology transfer and uh business development section of uh sikree and the uh corporate and industrial relations department of Amita uh who were responsible for the smooth uh transfer of exchange ofus uh a big word of appreciation for them. Uh I would like to thank all the sponsors of uh NC24 whose stalls are put up outside.
Eventually I will come across those.
Thanks to all the sponsors and uh I would also like to thank u all the uh principles of various schools of Amriita. Uh the heads of departments of many departments who showed a keen interest and cooperation in this uh joint convention. uh all the scientists um faculty members, students uh participants uh and all the committee members uh whose cooperation has uh uh led to a very smooth inauguration and hopefully uh we hope that uh you will have a very pleasant and enriching experience for the next two days here. Thank you.
Thank you sir. With this we come to the end of the inaugural event of MC24. May may we request our esteemed dignitaries to kindly take their seats off the dice as we proceed with the technical session.
something.
>> Now we request Dr. K. Romesha chair to present a citation to professor Kamak please.
It's an honor for me my to read this citation. So, so I told the students that I myself would like to read this um Society for Advancement of Electrochemical Science and Technology National Convention of Electrocom NC24.
Proud to honor professor Yuk Kamach Mudali with the professor KSG do memorial lecture award 2024.
The society for advancement of electrochemical science and technology in bra like we call cest is proud to honor professor yu kamach mudali with the professor ksgd doll do's memorial lecture award 2026 in recognition of his pioneering contributions over the past four decades in advanced materials quoting technologies electrochemistry corrosion science and engineering for nuclear and allied industrial applications.
Professor Yukamachi Modali is the distinguished vice chancellor of Homie Bababa National Institute Mumbai, a premier deemed university under India's department of atomic energy. A globally renowned metalologist and corrosion expert. He assumed his leadership role in May 11, 2023, bringing decades of pioneering contributions to material science for nuclear and other extreme environments. Dr. Modali journey began with an MTech in corrosion science and engineering from IIT Mumbai rank holder and a PhD in metalology corrosion from Madras University in 1993. His academic ferwork fueled his lifelong pursuit of innovative solutions in corrosion resistant materials especially for India's atomic energy program. Prior to joining home baba national institute he served as a vice chancellor of vit university bopal that is 21 to 23 honorary professor at IT metas 21 to22 and chairman and chief executive of heavy water board Mumbai 20 2017 to 20 his leadership qualities are well recognized by the participation in various committees of nitayog bis IC N India Dr. Modali was the president of Indian Institute of Metals Kolkata N India and Asia Asia specific area IC MRC Mumbai and ECSI Bangalore.
Dr. Kamach Modali in his career at Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research Zika Kalpakam 1984 to 2017 pioneered in advanced alloys and coatings enabling sustainable technologies in harsh conditions and led various R&D projects relevant to fast breeder reactor program. He was the director of materials chemistry and metal fuel cycle group at IGAR in Homie Bababa National Institute as senior professor. He mentored nearly 162 students of various institution in different UG and PG programs including 12 PhDs with 477 plus journal publications 25 books five patents and 350 plus invited talks his works boast 15,300 citation with an H index of 59 and I 10 index of 325. Dr. Dr. Madali was honored with the lifetime achievement award by the ministry of steel, national corrosion council of India. That's the last time I remember NCCI um and electrochemical society of India and as a distinguished alumni of both IIT Bombay and PhD College of Technology Coat. Key accolades include Homie Bababa science and technology award, DAE and distinguished faculty award, GD BLA gold medal, IM platinum medal and meritorious award for corrosion from NAS in and NCCI curricul mention professor Kamach Modali is the first Indian to receive the Frank Newman award from N in 2019. So Dr. Dr. Modali is a fellow of 13 academic societies including five from abroad. So with this citation, it's an great honor for me uh to besode the KSG dos memorial lecture award 2022 professor Kamachi Modali.
Thank you sir.
>> [applause] >> With this, I request you to tell your >> [snorts] >> The lecture should be loaded.
You can open from the pen drive directory. There is only one file percentage.
Very good morning and thank you so much Dr. Romesha for honoring me with this prestigious professor Kiddas memorial lecture and as I mentioned that in 2007 the same lecture was delivered by late Dr. Baldy Raj at Kalpakam when the national conventist was conducted and I was a young scientist there observing and watching the presentation and today I'm really feeling that destiny has given me the opportunity to deliver the lecture by myself and thanks to siki thanks to for giving me this opportunity and honoring me. So what I'm going to speak in the next 45 minutes is a lecture 30 hours of lecture that I take electrochemcy and nuclear technology course in Hoba National Institute sometime back when I was a senior professor. So I'm trying to condense it and I want to give an idea to all the young bright you know students and scholars that it is not electrocom is just nothing something you can do only electroplating or some you know small work in the laboratory. It has got a wide variety of application for mission program like department of atomic energy and that also I'm focusing only on the electrochemistry related work done at first reactor research and if you take the entire you know the department of atomic energy it's going to be a phenomenal it should be a course on that so I'm trying to give a overview an essence of the different aspect of the application of electrochemistry for a product for a process for some application directly in the department of atomic energy in the phosphate reactor program and my uh homage to professor KSG Dar the founder president of S and also the uh director of secretary for about 10 years and it is my honor and privilege to deliver this memorial lecture uh by professor Das is an outstanding electrochemist well-known internationally for his original and innovative contributions to both fundamental and applied aspects of electrochemistry.
He has made remarkable achievements as teacher, mentor and administrator and is a role model for the youngsters pursuing electrochemical science and technology with minimum experimental facilities and funding available. Professor Das has shown to the world that excellence in science and science could be achieved. I am very proud to dedicate this memory lecture on industrial application of electrochemical processes in closing the nuclear fuel cycle to these pioneering electrochemists of this nation.
Let me give an introduction that today you know energy is a very important requirement with respect to global scenario or Indian scenario. Energy is the most important thing that is required. Without energy, we will not be able to make any progress in the society or industry and public. Today, if you look at 4.3% is the electricity demand year-over-year by 2024, you can see this is the total energy demand 2.2, GDP was growing at 3.2 and electricity demand was 4.3%. And out of this energy that is produced in 2024 you can see renewable natural gas and they are taking the predominantly the 38% and 28% coal and oil are taking only 26%. Global energy is produced 8% nuclear but unfortunately India we are only producing less than 3%. Our progress is not as it is anticipated due to various constraints.
India's power generation is projected by 2047 vixit pro vixit bat that is 708 gawatt electricity which is almost you know double four-fold increase that we have to increase uh to 2,00 gawatt. So we have to increase the installed electrical capacity today what is available by six times. Today it is around 400 gawatt. So we have to increase by six times by 2047. But we should also have like the global thing we should have 78% share from non-fossil that is the target of the government. So 50% of the power capacity should be at least by non-fosil sources and we should reduce the emission industry by 40% by 2030 in order to achieve a net zero emission by 2070. That is what if you look at the NIT vitri 2047 the target that is set it is now the government has set up a target for the nuclear power that it should be 100 gawatt by exit bar 2047 so we have to produce out of the 2,00 gawatt 100 gawatt through the nuclear power and today if you look at the rest of the world the world scenario and the other countries India is the biggest producer of the fossil fuel based power. If you look at here the renewable nuclear and the natural gas is very insignificant compared to the global average you can see here the fossil fuel is significantly reduced it is around 28% you can see the rest is by the renewable and nuclear nuclear is 8%.
Look at other countries. Look at China here. China is you know constantly they are working on increasing the renewable and decreasing the fossil fuel.
Countries like you can see European Union the coal is almost you know around 10 to 12%. And the United States is around 15%.
So we have a very big target set to increase nuclear and renewable and reduce the coal and towards this this is what is the government of India's target that is set from today 2020 from today to 2047 you can see that the green one that is the renewable and the clean energy should increase tremendously and we have to also reduce the coal based power by 2047.
Coming to this 100 gawatt by nuclear power, India is pursuing its nuclear power program which is more than 70 years old through a three-stage power program. This is the vision and dream of Obi Jagangir Baba. In the stage one, we produce power primarily by pressurized heavy water reactor where we will be able to build the file inventory that is plutonium. Uranium oxide which is naturally available. Natural uranium oxide is used as a fuel in the pressurized high water reactor and the unused uranium and the plutonium that is produced in the reactor which is a man-made element both together will be put into the plutonium fueled phosphate reactor that is coming up at Kalpakam where the plutonium can be you know recycled and breeding will take place then we can introduce thorium at this stage in the peripherals of these reactors. So you produce enormous uranium 233 that becomes a big inventory for the third stage where directly thorium and uranium 233 can produce 155,000 gawatt electricity year that is going to be the biggest energy resource for our country. So from stage one to stage two to stage three we have been taking quite a lot of time because the whole technology has to be mastered right from fuel to reactor utilization reprocessing of the fuel spent fuel reutilization recycling it and then putting thorium processing it and producing an inventory of uranium 233 then going to these though we have produced successfully nearly 20 pressurized heavy water reactors in the country Today with you know majority of the power coming from the pressurized hay water reactors today I'm very proud that the PFBR at Kalpakam you know prototype phospid reactor on April 6 attained criticality which is a 500 megawatt one reactor and subsequently two more such reactors will come at Kalpakam uh with time the third the stage is experimentally proven we have a reactor called commini kalpaka mini reactor which is already operating with uranium 233 fuel world research reactor.
So the technology is proven for all three but making it into realistic situation is taking time. If you look at a nuclear power plant how that it operates basically you have the fish reaction happening here with the nuclear fuel and the heat generated is converted to steam by making the water to become steam. Then by operating the turbine and generator you make the power. Then the steam is condensed using a condenser where we need continuous source of a huge quantity of water. That is where the power plants are set by the side of a lake, river or sea, coastal atmosphere. Then this condenser condenses the water and again it comes to the reactor core where fish is happening. Heat is generated and the heat convert this water into steam. So this is the way the nuclear power plant is operating. I'm proud to tell you that India has got four different type of nuclear power plants operating in the country. We have as as I said pressurized a water reactor where natural uranium oxide fuel is used. Then we have a boiling water reactor at Tarapur. In fact the world's longest serving 55 years continuous operation the boiling water reactor at Tarapur is belonging to our country. Then we have pressurized water reactors. We have all the nuclear submarine that is operating in our country is with the pressurized water reactors. We also have a commercial two VVER type pressurized water reactor at Kangulum which are producing two into,000 megawatt you know power generation. Now currently the PFBR the prototype phosphate reactor at Kalpakam which has attained criticality the all three other reactors are based on water. So they are all based on heavy water or boiling water or pressurized water reactors. Whereas this reactor is entirely different technology. It uses liquid sodium as you know coolant and uh it's a high temperature reactor high efficiency reactor.
If you look at the pressurized heavy water reactor scenario in our country, we started in 1970s with the Robert PA atomic power station 1 and two and then by forming the nuclear power corporation of India in 1987, we made an excellent road map. The 220 megawatt reactors we improved and then you know enlarged to 540 megawatt at the Tarapur atomic power station and today we are operating 700 megawatt reactor. This is entirely from 220 to 540 to 700 by the indigenous technology and no other countries involved in this and today we are masters of making the 700 megawatt reactors. So our capacity today from 8,880 megawatt to 22,480 megawatt by 2031 they're tripling the present quantity only by adding 15%age heavy water reactor the PFBR 500 megawatt at Kalpakam and four more 100 megawatt VBR type at Kangalam. In fact, I think by in the in this year 2026, the third unit of this thousand megawatt is going to be commissioned and fourth unit will get commissioned in 2027.
Our reactors you know will number today from 2026 24 by 2031 it will become 50. That is a phenomenal growth that we will have to jump from 8,880 to 22,480 and uh the capacity will further increase from 22,480 to 1 lakh megawatt that is 100 gawatt 100 gawatt energy by 2047 which is bat how this will be achieved in addition to NPCL setting up number of reactors we are going to have additional foreign collaboration with Russia France like at Konglam at Japur at many places the government PSUs today like the NTPC the Gale and private partners like Adani Reliance they also will be permitted to set up this nuclear power plan with the support of the NPC so towards this Santi act has been already passed by the government in the parliament and this is going to make all this contribution from 22.4 gawatt to 100 gawatt by 2047.
This is the second stage the sodium cooled fast reactor and fuel cycle facility at Indra Gandhi Center for Atomic Research. We already have a fast speed test reactor operating since 1985.
It is a 13.5 megawatt electricity test reactor which uses plutonium carbide, uranium carbide fuel and this you know uh the generation of power and excellent performance has already been achieved and we are going for a2 with metallic fuel which is under design and approval by the government. we after this you know the uh the 40 megawatt thermal 13.5 megawatt electrical fast speeded test reactor today this PF that is critical will also will be producing power this year end of this year by the first quarter of the 27 the it will attain the full power and this is a greatest achievement for the Indian country after this we have two different routes duplicating the same to two different reactors twin units at Kalpakam and then we will in the meantime doing a metallic fuel activity. Currently we use uranium plutonium mixed oxile fuel but in future we will go for uranium plutonium zirconium metallic alloy fuel uh pro project and that will be thousand megawatt and this also will be set up indigenously beyond 2031. This is all based on already the experience and the expertise that we have achieved by operating this APR and by setting up this PFBR. This is the stage two. And if you look at the general nuclear fuel cycle, it's a you know it is having different different technologies and facilities and units threat over our whole country. See first of all you should have the uranium fuel. So we have to do mining and milling of the fuel mineral that you get and we get finally a uranium laquake that is U308 which boast the fuel manufacturing plant where it is getting converted to oxide UO2.
This U2 will go to a fuel uh you know producing unit where either UO2 will be used directly or it will be enriched or UO2 will be mixed with PO2 or this will be converted to uranium carbide and mixed with plutonium carbide. So three different type of fuel are today used and the fourth one will be upu jhatar metallic fuel that will be in the future. Now these fuel are used and the reactor operates and the efficient reaction produces heat and energy and that is what is producing uh the power by operating the turbine and then the uh energy that is produced power that is supplied to the thing. So once the reactor power uh reaches its different stages the fuel bundle will be removed and that goes for chemical reprocessing.
So in a nitric acid based plant the spent fuel is you know undergoing processing the you know radioisotopes that are produced that will be taken out and that will be going for various industrial application, medicinal application, agricultural application and the waste solution will be processed and stored in geological display. What is very important during reprocessing we take out the plutonium that is produced with a man-made element that will be sent to the fuel plant for further use and the unused plutonium uranium that has not undergone fision will be taken out and again it will be converted to uranium oxide or uranium carbide and it comes back. So this is a fuel cycle that is nuclear fuel cycle that India is adopting. This is called close to nuclear fuel cycle. Now I come to the topic that where is the electrochemistry comes into this picture. You can see here I have put different you know uh sectors in which the electrochemical science and technology used. Number one is in the reactor system the controlling the water chemistry. The PH and gas sensors that are used not only in the reactor but also in the heavy water production. The HTS sensors harden plating that is required for various operating components where electrochemical deposition is used.
Hydrogen meter to measure the presence of hydrogen and sodium and cover gas for the prototype phosphate reactor. Carbon meter to study the level of carbon in liquid sodium. These are all in the reactor system. In the reprocessing of the spent fuel, we use a number of electrochemical processes. Electro oxidative dissolution, electrolytic conditioning, electrolytic partitioning, electrolytic urinous production, electro winding and electro refining in motor salt. So these are the techniques in the reprocessing of the spent fuel. Then in the processes various processes in the entire nuclear fuel cycle for the process control we use electrochemistry using potentiometry amperometry polography and number of their derivatives too in the analysis part for nuclear material accounting potentiometry ampometry and polarography and the derivatives are also used.
Electrochemical material science plays a major role in the entire nuclear industry. Not only for production of the special materials like boron carbide the control draw material and liquid sodium nuclear grade liquid sodium but also the production of various electroc catalytic quoted electrode materials for the electrochemical processes in the reprocessing like the mixed oxide coated titanium mixed oxide coated titanium anode glazed and the plasma modified mixed oxide coated titanium anode it's a patented process and we used it successfully today also the polarization and impedance are analysis, electrochemical noise analysis for the corrosion testing, evaluation and monitoring. In the waste management when the solution that is coming after recovering all the wealth you know radioisoapes we have to do the waste volume reduction for which we use electrolytic decontamination and electrolytic acid killing for reducing the concentration. We do the destruction of organics and resins that are present by electrochemical techniques and we also separate whatever trace amount of actinates that are left using electrochemical techniques. So this is the entire you know spectrum of the electrochemical techniques. I'm just going to give a bird's view of some of these techniques that you can understand. Sensors play a major role in the nuclear fuel cycle, entire nuclear fuel cycle, right from the mining of the fuel to the spend fuel storage and waste management facilities. The various types of chemical sensors, conductivity sensors, the ediurren the non-destructive sensors, thermographic sensors, ultrasonic sensors, radiation sensors, laser based sensors, various sensors being used and entire sensors we make ourself and we produce ourself in our nuclear labs and then we use for this application. Coming to specifically to the phospactors, we need to detect the level of sodium. We need to detect the impurities in the sodium. We need to see the flow of the sodium. All that is being done by various sensors here. The most important is the when there is a possibility of a nanog of sodium interacting with water or steam that can produce exothermic reaction. That's a very dangerous reaction that cannot be allowed. So we need to sensitively monitor for hydrogen because once there is a single molecule of sodium interacting with the water molecule it produces hydrogen and the hydrogen we can detect up to parts per billion levels using our sensors. That's a very important thing. Then we have radiation sensors, sodium aerosol sensors and then you can see here different family of sensors based on mutual inductance at current sodium ionization detection, delayed neutron detection in addition to the electrochemical sensors for detecting carbon, detecting hydrogen, detecting oxygen in the phospactors.
So as I mentioned see the this [clears throat] is a tube that is sodium is present inside the tube inside the big tube and you have smaller uh you know heat exchanger tubes where inside water is coming inside water is coming and that becomes a steam. In case of any leak in this tube, sodium can react with the water and that can lead to sodium hydroxide and hydrogen production. So to detect this hydrogen parts per billion, we have used hydride ion conducting calcium bromide, calcium hydropromate electrolyte. This is the electrolytic system here. And this has been arrived after studying so much of the phase diagrams. And uh for example you can see under normal operating conditions of the reactor up to 13 parts per billion we can the resolution we can detect this hydrogen and you can understand even at very high temperature of 450° the reactor operating sodium temperature we can detect the limit of 50 parts per billion. And these sensor probes have been attached in our reactor. Not only the reactor but also in the facility like sodium uh the steam generator facility. And very important is with international collaboration we have put our sodium and the hydrogen meter in the Phoenix reactor of France in October 2007 to see its entire performance in the uh oper plant operating condition.
So what is very important for the young people that we do also the uh you know the academic research we do the R&D in the laboratory we do also develop a lot of sensors but we stop with the sensor we stop with writing a paper or presentation on that but what we do further the sensor is made into a product the product is tested in the lab and calibration is made standardization is done then it is put into you know pilot print lab scale facility then it goes to the actual reactor and that where you can close the entire you know the TRL the your research level from you know the product that is coming and you can do the demonstration that how you know accurate sensitive is your hydrogen detection when there is a injection artificially you inject sodium into the steam into the sodium or water into the sodium we have also made a hydrogen sulfide sensor for the heavy water plants the heavy water is produced by the isotope being exchanged between hydrogen sulfide and water. So we use you imagine the two streams of the heavy water production plant in Managuru 400 tons of hydrogen sulfide 400 tons of hydrogen sulfide you know the the limit the TLD limit is the 5 ppm that somebody will meet a federal situation so our sensor has to has the capability of detecting that you know since it is not a nuclear directly we get the sensors from foreign countries now there is a requirement of more heavy water for increasing our uh production. So there is going to be a denial regime. They may not supply us the sensors. So we have made these sensors compared to the currently operating sensors in the plant. We put our sensor that has developed in our Indra Gadi Center for Atomic Research. This is basically a tinoxide copper oxide waste thing. So two of these modules that we have made we put along with the commercial one and we have found a matching performance of these sensors. So we are going to now use all the future heavy water plants the indigenously developed the laboratory tested and prototype that is made applied in the plant. Now we are going to duplicate it or we are going to find a vendor we are going to produce ourself in our electronics corporation of India limited ECL and use it in the plant.
There are other related you know cover gas hydrogen monitor. This is the temperature is maximum is about 250°.
The oxygen content in the ambience of the sodium reactor is very important.
Ingress of moisture is going to be a dangerous thing because anytime this water can condense and it can get into the system that can lead to problem. So we maintain a positive pressure inside the control room so that no moisture enter into that. So to monitor that the oxygen has to be sensed detection limit of 1 ppm oxygen in the operation area.
We also have a electrochemical carbon probe because carbon can get into sodium through the oil leak into the sodium or any other way that it can do that. So we have these sensors are also now operating in the test reactor. So this is the family of such sensors. We don't stop with the research. We make all these products. We standardize them, calibrate them and we get it qualified, certified and these sensors are being directly used in the reactor application. Today our fast speeder reactor is operating entirely with these detectors and proofs that are used.
The second important thing is that as I have told the fast speeder reactor requires 1,700 tons of liquid sodium for 500 megawatt reactor. 1,250 will be in the reactor. Additional 400 ton will be there outside. So this is a recirculating loop. So this sodium is now becoming a critical material for us.
The only country which produces nuclear grade sodium today in the world is China. And any day China can either jack up the price or they can deny like they have now denied giving fertilizer to our country which is a common material. So that as fertilizer has become a critical material for us. We are trying to get from the Arab nations. We are trying to get from China you know Russia. So sodium has to be produced. The production of sodium is a well-known technique. You know all of you know the downs process where you can do the aerotrolysis of a brine you can take sodium. So that is as simple as that we can tell but what is the important thing is that producing a nuclear grade sodium is the most important thing because you will have very high level of carbon calcium magnesium and oxygen and iron.
If you use such a impure sodium this will undergo radioactive reaction and that will spoil the whole fast you know power spectrum. So we cannot allow this impurities. So we need to produce sodium in industrial scale and also we have to produce the sodium in nuclear you know grade. So we have set up a plant at heavy water plant Manuguru which is you know operating with this basic down process and this process uh is going to you know right now we have a 2,000 ampere cell. This is the down cell and the sodium that is produced come to the uh uh the storage tank and then we have set up this plant and operated and produced seven tons and then sent to IGAR Kalpak for application and qualified this for the reactor application and then now we are setting up a 24 uh you know kil that is 2,000 to 24,000 you know ampere cell we have designed and uh with this you know uh this operator at an efficiency of 50 and uh the we are now expecting this 12 number of this 24,000 ampere each one of them will with 50 metric 10 it will produce 600 you know metric 10 perom so if you operate for 3 year then we will get sodium that is required for one reactor so if you set up one more facility then we can increase it and cut down the time also so The cost also we have worked out which is about 850 degree 850 rupees per kg.
So this is a very important requirement and these are the parameters that we have almost you know optimized and what is very important you can see the requirement. This is the nuclear grade sodium requirement and we have met all the parameters and in fact some of the parameters are much much better than what is required. we get we can get 2 ppm of iron and you can see 1 ppm of magnesium and all these are all you know we don't want this to be present in the sodium then the boron that is required for the phospactor as a control rod material where electrochemistry where is it coming into picture we have elotra winding cells operating at the heavy water plant Manoguru where the KBF4 conversion the the uh PF3 Ether that is mixing with the potassium to produce the potassium fluoroborate and electroin of that produces boron carbide and this boron carbide powder is made into pellet and that is used in the phosphate reactor for controlling the reactor and uh this is an you know normally it is produced by the molten salt electrolysis of KBF4 KCL KF mixture and uh this these are the reactions and we have already produced uh so much of quantity for application in our reactor and this is the electro winding facility that is at Managuru.
You can see that this is the basic principle of the boron electroing cell.
Uh we have about I think operating is about eight numbers but 12 number of cells are set up in Managuru. These are the final boron carbide pellets that are used to assemble and make the boron carbide control rod. But one important thing is that in the end of life of this boron carbide control rod the unused boron has to be retrived back. This is also very important because we can't throw it as a waste because it's very very expensive. So we also technology to produce this from boron carbide to boron back. So electro oxidation of boron from boron carbide we have made a process but it is yet to be you know upscaled to operating in pilot plant. It will take a longer time.
Coming to the reprocessing which is very very important which is you know where the spend nuclear fuel is undergoing a chemical processes like dissolution, clarification, partitioning, extraction, decontamination, recon conversion in a nitric acid based medium. This is called Purex that is plutonium uronium reduction by extraction process aquest reprocessing. Another for the metallic fuel we follow molten salt pyrochemical reprocessing where electro refining is the heart of the entire thing where we can convert the spend fuel that is uranium plutonium jironium with a lot of minor actinates fish product and sodium into uranium and jaconium and plutonium separately for making fresh fuel. These are the two different roots we are following it up in the acquisive processing. We have a phenomenal we have very large number of you know the processes that are being used as I have already mentioned and uh not only the processes optimization and utilization for the plant scale but their structural materials and the dimensionally stable electrodes that are required for this electrochemical processes are also very important.
So why it is so important? Because the fuel is ceramic in nature. Uranium plutonium oxide is highly noble in nature. Dissolving it in a conventional any chemical solution is very difficult.
So we use 11.5 molar nitric acid under boiling condition. We also use a number of you know electroc catalyst like silver electroc catalyst or serium electroc catalyst for enhancing the reaction at the anode for the dissolution of the fuel into the its soluble state in the nitric acid. So we have designed and developed a dissolver exclusively for that we have developed electrode material for that the process has been developed. So at a time 1 kg of the spent fuel can be used in such a dissolver and we can continue the processes directly for the production.
There are a large number of electrochemical reactions that will be happening. One of the one of the advantages of electrochemical processes is that by excellently controlling the electrochemical potential, you can always try to separate any one of these you know the uh uh you know the element that is to be separated from the solution. You can do the electrochemical method because electrochemistry plays not only in the dissolution and conditioning but also separation of not only uranium and plutonium but so many other valuable radio isotopes and once we finish the reprocessing the high level liquid waste that is accumulated which is highly concentrated which contains also lot of very hazardous you know the ions. So to destruct that to destroy this assault nature to reduce its concentration we have designed and developed an electrochemical cell where electrolytic acid killing can be done by which and you can see that by which at the anode hydrogen can be generated and several other the nitric acid based reactions can happen as a reduction and we can reduce from 4 m to 01 m concentration once it become dilute it is very easy to Now handle it in a conventional evaporation technique.
So we need these electrodes. These electrodes should be highly conductive.
Electrocatalytic activity should be higher and they should have very high corrosion resistance. The conditions of electrolysis will involve nitric acid from dilute to concentrated condition.
Room temperature to boiling. And most of the time this medium contains also various present products electroc catalytic ions like silver and serium chromium and ion from the structural materials. So we need the dimensionally stable anodes which are basically mixed oxides of the noble oxides quoted over the surface of wall metals like titanium, tantelum and so on. So we have developed three different types of you know the oxide quoted. One is the oxide coated family. Another one is the metal coated family. I'll give a brief example of it. The strategy is that it is well known the TSA what people call srias you know developed long back that is titanium substrate insoluble anodes which are used in the chloroic industry where brain electrolysis is done up to 80° it works excellent. Whereas for 11.5 m nitric acid and boiling condition it is very difficult to use this electro because they fail after 80°. So what we have done strategically we introduced a very thin conducting layer in in between here non stochometric layer over which we put a normal metal coating. So this has become an excellent you know otherwise what happens is the once you have such a thing they form a thick transition insulating oxide and this is not acceptable. So not only the the strategy of making such a inter layer but also the conducting surface on the top with the noble metal electrocatalytic activity corrosion resistance longer life resistance to short circuit these are important parameter that one one need to work before developing such electrodes and this is the method of preparation the flow seat mechanical and chemical treatment coating composition and structure preparation and application of the coating solution coating development treatment this all this has to optimized and we made an Indian patent in 1997 to produce this uh DSA category of runium dioxide 40% titanium dioxide 60% with or without an overlay of platinum oxide on the surface. This is the entire flow seat for this preparation of these electrodes. So the first category was developed by thermal decomposition of the salt of rutanium and titanium where we get a cracked mphology of the mix oxide of rutanium and titanium dioxide but unfortunately it works only up to 215 hour in an electrolysis. Then we developed over this uh platinum oxide glazed coating and that worked I think up to uh 1,840 [clears throat] hours. But not satisfying with this we have made also a plasma modified MTA coating by which controlled oxygen is supplied through a DC reactive oxygen plasma and that all worked also,460.
So compared to the conventional oxide quoted electrodes which can work only up to 200 hours these electrodes which are innovative in nature they can work up to,800 degree without failure.
So these are the electrodes that are used today. But there is always a question that why we have to use an oxide coated electrode why not a metallic coated electrode. So when we use electroplated platinum the what is happening is that when we once we use into the service the coating fails by opening up at different defects and different you know due to the electroplating you have lot of defects and the coating opens up. So this fails in service very short time. So what we have done we have given an inter diffusion treatment between titanium and electroplated platinum and even there is a failure of the platinum coating. This indiffusion layer will help a longer life. This heat treatment is been designed by looking at the allotropic phase transmission temperature of titanium and this is done after platinum electroplating at 1100°. This diffusion alloying treatment produces an excellent inter diffusion zone. You can see here this is the platinum plating. This is the normal titanium and this is the inter diffusion zone where platinum is diffused and this gives an excellent performance in the rate rate determination measurements and uh this is one of the alternate opportunity that is available. Recently one of my PhD student just about she finished it a few years back and we tried innovative platinum nanoparticle coated titanium TIO2 nano tube. We took four different routes in the root one hydrothermal reduction of platinum. Route two cyclic photometry and electro deposition of platinum on the surface. Then root three is electro deposition and then followed by hydrothermal reduction. And root four is development of a TA2 on titanium.
Then electro deposition followed by hydrothermal reduction. The root four become the successful one. So we developed electro deposition of the platinum particles on a titanium dioxide the nano tubes and over that also we put the hydrothermal reduction of platinum and that gave an excellent performance the electro deposit directly followed by hydrothermal and the nano tube formation then electro depos and hydrothermal which gave by you know the CV studies and the life analysis the best performance to be used for future And uh you can see here the electrodes for a pilot plant was made and we checked and we found that the platinum nanoparticle loaded titanium nano tube worked up to,750° compared to platinum nanoparticle coated titanium 1150°. Not only that we also evaluated their uh you know surface coverage, adhesion to substrate, mechanical stability, electroc catalytic activity and we found that platinum nanop particle quoted TA nanot tube is the best one. Whereas in the previous oxide coated you are to give a heat treatment at 500° or 1100° which is very difficult to do in a radioactive environment. Whereas here the application is within 100 degree. So we can do easily in a radioactive environment if you have to recote and use these electrodes for further application. So number of these electrodes have been you know produced and they are all used in the plant. This is what I want to tell the young students and scholars that it doesn't stop with paper. You could have seen that I mentioned several publications made but they all go into application in the plant. These electrodes are qualified and used in the plant.
The second one is the pyrochemical reprocessing where I said the electro refining is the heart of it. The metal fuel will be put into solution in a molten salt solution. You can see here and there are number of you know the uh techniques oxid electroin the plutonium electro refining direct oxide reduction and then demonstrating all of them in the bulk processing. This is what is done for the pyrochemical reprocessing.
And basically you take the spend fuel in a basket put it into molten salt at 500° of lithium chloride and potassium chloride. Then you have two different you know cathodes. One is solid cathode graphite or steel. The second one is a liquid cathode. The liquid cathode is cadmium here. And you will adjust the potential current conditions such that the uranium is completely deposited on the first cathode. Then the remaining solution is electrolyed again with the liquid cathode as the cathode liquid cadmium as the cathode and the remaining uranium plutonium and minorate deposit here. Then this is taken to the cathode processing and the melter melting was done for removing uranium and also to take this plutonium and minor actinate.
So this will be used for making the further the fuel for the future. So in this regard we have set up a pyroprocess R&D facility with 10 kilogram uranium alloy because we cannot use uranium plutonium alloy in public laboratory. So with the natural uranium alloy we did a batch sale uranium electro refining and the entire uh you know the process flow has been successfully you have you can see here the uranium pellet the electro refining unit this is the deposition on the cathode then we scrap it and then melt it and then this is what is a consolidated uranium in c. So similarly we have done for uranium zirconium as an alloy. Instead of just doing uranium uranium sirconium alloy was also done.
We have repeated the same thing and we have done it.
Then with the permission of uh the department the uranium zuconium slug that was used in the reactor for radiation also has been successfully done. We have taken out and uh the uranium has been successfully recovered from that. The ultimate thing was to do for uranium plutonium jironium. So we have taken permission in a confined electrochemical cell in a radioactive environment the unradiated uranium plutonium jaconium metallic fuel. This was also electrolyed by the electro refining process and you can see here the uranium plutonium alloy rod into pieces. Then it is put into anode basket. And then this is the liquid cadmium cathode. And this is the electrode cell. You can see this is the the uranium plutonium jaconium. This is the liquid cathode reference electrode.
This is put into the cell and electrolining cell. Then finally after one run we have taken out the alloy after the one run. So we have now you know have the laboratory scale process that is optimized and similarly for direct electrochemical reduction instead of you know the urodium oxide we can directly reduce and then produce uranium metal and this is another similar to your electroin so we have a 100 g uronium oxide pellet plant small plant and this has been operated and uh we are now you know further doing it with uh you know the other methods like the lithiated method which I will show in the next slide before that the molten salt after the reprocessing is left with a lot of you know impurities. So again what we do the salt is converted into oxide and then oxide is converted into metal. So this is also used for processing of the you know the waste molten salt and this is the electroliththiotic reduction and this we have done as an advanced process which is much more efficient than the previous one and we have demonstrated and produce electrolyed uranium metal and all these technologies are never available in the textbook and we have to you know evolve it on our own and bring it to the pilot p plant scale level and wait for the reactor to operate and the do with the electrochemical ical uh uh technologies.
So uh in conclusion, I'd like to tell you that why we are pursuing this elochemical techniques because it is very simple. The technique is very simple. You need your material as an anode or cathode and you need a counter electrode. You need the medium and you need power to be applied and with room temperature with less than 100° we can do many processes and this we can operate remotely in a hot radioactive cell. what you do in a normal laboratory cell we always handle it in a radioactive cell. So we have to use remotely operating manipulator and do this experiment. So electrochemical experiments that way are very very you know uh convenient and easily operatable and they are versatile and uh that is where that this is very important. So I have given you four different examples.
Electrochemical sensors and probes.
Industrial production of nuclear grade sodium enriched boron carbide and boron and electrocatalytic electrode materials for industrial scale electrochemical processes and electro refining and winding for metallic fuels. So the entire you know the front end to the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle from the fuel manufacturing to spend fuel you know you know management electrochemistry is used as a versatile tool and I want to tell all the young people who are pursuing electrochemistry as your career never get disappointed don't think that you just do a kind of a subject that is not having a great application please see in a mission project like the atomic energy electrochemistry has very big role to play and uh you should continue to be motivated and working on your electrochemistry project and on your research or on your uh academic activity. Thank you very much.
[applause] Thank you sir for the insightful lecture highlighting the importance of electrochemical techniques in various segments of nuclear reactor as a part to reach Vikshitpar. Now I request Dr. Kisha chair and Dr. J Madas co-chair of the session to honor professor Kamachi under please sir.
Now we have come to the end of the first memorial lecture. We will now take a short tea break for 15 minutes and assemble back by 11:50. Meanwhile, we request the dignitaries to inaugurate and open the exhibition of stalls. Also, we request the audience to witness the opening and join for a photo session in front of mine building. We request the volunteers to assist the participants.
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