NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OCEAN TECHNOLOGY – GEOGRAPHY
News: National Institute of Ocean Technology to
set up a green, self-powered desalination plant in Lakshadweep
What is in the news?
● The
NIOT is providing potable water in six
islands of Lakshadweep using Low Temperature Thermal Desalination
technology.
● Currently
the desalination plants, each of which provides at least 100,000litres of
potable water every day, are powered by diesel generator sets.
Key takeaways:
● Currently
there are five desalination plants in operation in the Lakshadweep islands.
● For
such plants to work, we need a large
gradient [difference in temperature between the surface and the ocean depths].
● In
Lakshadweep these depths can be achieved fairly easily unlike, say, off the
coast of Chennai. It will make the power produced this way extremely expensive.
Funding and Technical assistance:
● The
new demonstration plants were funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the existing desalination plants were
funded by the Lakshadweep administration.
● The
Ministry provided technical assistance and the plants were commissioned via
private industry.
Advantages of Low Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD)
Technology:
● The
LTTD technology does not require any
chemical pre and post-treatment of seawater and thus the pollution problems
are minimal and suitable for island territories.
● Since
no effluent treatment is required, it gives less operational maintenance problems compared to other
desalination processes.
● The
LTTD technology is completely
indigenous, robust and environment friendly.
National Institute of Ocean Technology:
● The
NIOT, an institute under the aegis of the Ministry
of Earth Sciences (MoES), has worked for years on harnessing energy from
the ocean.
● Established
in 1993 as an autonomous body.
● The
major aim of starting NIOT was to develop reliable indigenous technologies to solve various engineering problems
associated with harvesting of non-living and living resources in India's
exclusive economic zone, which is about two-thirds of the land area of India.