Students apprised of converting waste into energy

Our Correspondent

Phagwara, January 18

The NSS department of MLU DAV College, Phagwara, organised a seminar on the college premises here today. The topic of the seminar was ‘Development and presentation of innovative technologies for waste recycling & energy conservation’.

Students were apprised of new methods from which ‘waste’ can be recycled into energy. One of the biggest innovations coming to the waste management industry is the ability to turn waste into actual power. Instead of sitting in a landfill, certain types of waste can simply be converted into energy.

New machinery known as “digesters” can take the waste and the biogas it produces can be turned into energy that can be used on site.

Teachers said: “This kind of technology can be used on a variety of waste, including food, animal waste, agricultural leftovers and more.” The NSS volunteers told the audience that thermal conversion is another new technology that could be used to convert waste into specialty products. This process takes some cues from natural geothermal processes that use heat and pressure to turn useless materials into useful products, they added.

“It can be used to turn waste into chemicals, fertilisers, oils and other things that can give waste another life, said NSS volunteers. The audience were also acquainted with the new ways of recycling precious metals. So many products and industries require the use of precious metals. As these minerals are useful, they can be rather expensive. These materials which include platinum, palladium & iridium can be used as catalysts in a wide variety of industries, including the automotive and chemical sectors. New methodologies like plasma are recycling can help the society meet rising demands for the materials.

Principal Dr Kiranjeet Randhawa said: Technology can provide visibility on city sanitation and solid waste management, route planning for garbage collection, resource optimisation, efficient asset management, efficient maintenance, visibility of waste bins, air quality measurements, to mention a few.” The audience thanked the principal, and NSS volunteers for acquainting them with the latent facts of waste recycling.