Publications

This paper discusses the need for green energy and the critical minerals needed for green energy production and their geological occurrences with a special focus on  lithium based minerals .

Thermochemical energy storage is emerging as a promising seasonal thermal energy storage technology. Strontium Bromide has recently become one of the most used salt hydrates for the salt-hydrate and moist airbased open thermochemical energy storage system. This article suggests that radial flow fixed bed reactors offer advantageous configurations owing to their lower pressure drop without compromising thermal performance. Four possible configurations of radial flow fixed bed reactors, Inward flow Π-type, Inward flow Z-type, Outward flow Π-type, and Outward flow Z-type, are analyzed in detail. Energy efficiency, exergy efficiency, pressure drop, and non-dimensional constant named non-uniformity are used as performance metrics for comparing the proposed configurations with four different combinations of flow rates and aspect ratios. It is found that the type of the reactor configuration (Π-type or Z-type) has a negligible impact on the performance, with a maximum change of 4% in the energy efficiency during the hydration phase. The inward and outward flow arrangements exhibit considerable differences in performance, with inward flow having 3.5 times higher exergy efficiency than outward flow. The π-type configuration shows the highest non-uniformity of -0.22 for an aspect ratio of four, with a flow rate of 50 m3/h.

This study experimentally investigates the scarcely studied stratified, oil-based sensible thermal energy storage (STES) tank, to examine the heat retention capability of Hytherm-600 silicone oil during the standalone period and its heat dispatchability during the discharging process. To conduct an experimental study on the thermic oil, a vertical cylindrical tank with a helical discharging coil fitted inside is used. Three different oil charging temperatures (50, 70, and 90 °C), and three different discharging flow rates (water) through the helical coil (0.5, 1.25, and 2 L/min) have been considered. The thermal stratification phenomena in oil and the evolution of thermocline have been investigated. Results indicate the formation of a thermocline zone of 154 mm thickness in the lower portion of the tank within 3 h from the commencement of the stand-alone period. The discharging operation fluctuates the thermocline stability in the storage medium (i.e., commercial thermic oil Hytherm-600). During the discharging operation, a water flow rate of 0.5 L/min through the helical coil led to higher discharging efficiencies owing to better heat transfer attributable to the higher water residence time inside the coil. For the aforesaid water flow rate, the average discharging efficiencies are 85.6%, 75.6%, and 81.6% for the charging temperatures of 50, 70, and 90 °C, respectively. Finally, the primary thermocline thickness is found to be constant at 82 mm following the splitting of the initial thermocline during the discharging operation.

A marine section from Um Sohryngkew riverbasin, in Meghalaya,  have been studied for serach of fullerenes and associated carbon polymorphs .  This section is known for Ir-enrichment with an order of magnitude enhancement of Ir and Os, accompanied by unambiguous extinction of planktonic foraminifera, is found in a cm thicklimonitic clay layer in this section..Peak iridium concentration is found to be 13 ng/g. Os/Ir andNi/Ir are estimated to be 0.37 and 196000 respectively.  We reported here the first observation of C60 fullerenes and nano-diamonds in in the iridium-rich Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K-Pg) boundary layer from the Um-Sohryngkew river section of Meghalaya.