• Environmental Systems Design.
• Environmental Modelling and Policy Analysis.
• Environmental Impact and Risk Assessment.
• Industrial Pollution Control.
• Water and Wastewater Treatment.
• Carrying Capacity based Developmental Planning.
• Calibration and Validation of Mathematical Models.
• Development of Knowledge based System for Environmental Impact Assessment of Industrial Projects.
• Environmental Audit of Industrial and Mining Projects.
• Pilot Studies on Biological Treatment of Complex Basic Organic Chemicals Industry Wastewaters and Cyanide bearing Wastewaters.
• Basic Process and Engineering Design Package Preparation for Domestic Wastewater Treatment.
• Industrial Wastewater Treatment and Common Effluent Treatment Plants Design.
• Performance Evaluation of Sewage Treatment Plants under National Mission Project on Ganga Action Plan.
• Water Treatment Plant Design and Evaluation .
• Directed several research and consultancy teams in the capacity of Project Leader.
• Carrying Capacity based Developmental Planning for Damodar River Basin , Greater Kochi Region and Jamshedpur Region - First time undertaken in the country.
Major components of work :
• Delineation of operational framework for planning Sustainable Development through allocation of resources among alternative uses in such a way that there is an efficient reduction of the waste, or residuals, discharged to the environment and in consequence, an increase in welfare.
• Estimation of supportive capacity by analyzing natural, transformational, distributive and socioeconomic resource base of the region and making use of GIS/DIP tools.
• Estimation of assimilative capacity of the environmental media through baseline data collection and modelling.
• Evaluation of regional and sectoral plans, delineation of environmental and resource management plans (Short term/ Long term) including cleaner technologies.
• Projection of Business As Usual (BAU) scenario and vision/environmental policy issues.
• Delineation of developmental alternatives/scenarios in terms of landuse, activity mix, industrial typology and zoning, strategic and regional environmental management plans and technological interventions.
Major Components
• Air Quality Status of Delhi
• Emission Inventory of Point, Area and Line sources.
• Source Apportionment analysis based on speciation and signature analysis of marker elements in Respirable Particulate Matter and Receptor Modelling.
• Projection of air pollutant emission loads and trends for the next ten years under different scenarios.
• Assessment of possible improvement in air quality due to air pollution control measures through dispersion modelling.
• Source apportionment for quantification (percentage share) of air pollutant emissions that are attributable to transport sector, industrial, commercial, residential sectors.
• Development of ‘Assimilative Capacity of Natural systems / Environmental media’ concept in designing different activities / programmes / projects under this multi-laboratory task force programme as the design / development of additional / new systems and devices needs to be optimized keeping in view the assimilative capacity constraints of natural media.
Major Components
(i) Standardization of methodology for environmental assimilative capacity estimation and development of assimilative capacity based standards.
(ii) Development of broad framework for the delineation of ‘National Environmental Assimilative Capacity Information System (NEACIS)’.
(iii) Generation of Comprehensive data base on assimilative capacity of natural systems at mesoscale.
(iv) Development of monitoring tools and techniques.
• Collection of data on ambient air quality status, emissions from point, area and line sources, meteorological parameters, water quality status, hydrographic parameters, wastewater discharges from point and non-point sources of pollution, ambient noise levels, sound power levels through field studies.
• PTMTP, OCD, PAL and ISCST air quality models for air quality predictions and validation.
• QUAL2E and WASP3 models for water quality predictions and validation.
• Wave divergence and FHWA models for noise level predictions.
• Study of applicability/calibration and validation aspects of different models to delineate appropriate recommendations.
• Development of Environmental Wind Tunnel facilities for the first time in the country at IIT, New Delhi .
• Air pollution dispersion studies by simulating different meteorological/emission scenarios.
• Delineation of framework for KBS.
• Design of KBS modules encompassing various steps of EIA.
• Development of models for different components of environment.
• Verification/Validation of KBS prototype.
• Development of prototype KBS for EIA of refinery projects and testing with three case studies of project level EIA for refineries.
• Development of Seven basic modules, viz., siting, scoping, identification, baseline, prediction, evaluation and mitigation.
• KBSEIA shell implementation on a PC in MS-Windows environment with the help of KAPPA-PC shell and other programming/graphical tools.
• Emission inventory of particulate matter (PM) from industrial, transportation and domestic sectors.
• Assessment of ambient and kerbside air quality status.
• Emission source apportionment.
• Delineation of PM reduction strategies and action plan preparation.
• Cost effectiveness analysis.
• Institutional arrangements and information dissemination.
• Detailed recommendations / strategies for controlling PM emissions
• Evaluation of the impact of industries and port activities on the ambient air quality of Visakhapatnam bowl area through monitoring and modelling.
• Development of Primary standards for short term and Secondary standards for long term implementation.
• Delination of air quality management plan.
• Industry specific recommendations to improve and maintain air quality in the bowl area.
• Water Resources
• Wastewater Management
• Hazardous Waste Disposal
• Offshore/onshore Oil/Gas Drilling Operations.
• Mining and Coal Processing Complexes.
• Nuclear Power Generation.
• Thermal/Renewable Power Generation.
• Oil Refineries.
• Ports and Harbours.
• Tourism
• Industrial projects including integrated steel plant, nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilizers, pulp and paper, petrochemicals, organic and inorganic chemicals and aluminium manufacturing industries.
• Environmental Audit studies with the objective of identifying avenues for savings with respect to the major resources required for the industry including raw materials, water and energy and other related aspects.
• Selection and application of appropriate tools/models .
• Air quality models (ISCST, PAL, OCD, MPTER, PTMTP, PTDIS/PTMAX, ATDL, CALINE etc.)
• Water quality models (QUAL2E, WASP, DIVAST etc.)
• Noise models (wave divergence, FHWA etc.)
• Geographic information system (GIS) and Digital Image Processing (DIP) tools.
• SWOT analysis.
• Particulate Matter Reduction Action Plan for Greater Mumbai Region.
• Environmental Impact Assessment of Middle Vaitarna Dam Project (Bombay).
• Environmental Impact Assessment of Aerated Lagoons Project (Bombay).
• Environmental Impact Assessment of Aerated Lagoons Construction Project (Bombay).
• Environmental Management Plan for Bombay Sewage Disposal Project.
• Environmental Assessment of Mine sites, Railway Routes and Ports (Orissa) sponsored by Rio Tinto Corporation, United Kingdom.
• Field/Pilot plant studies on Biological Treatment of liquid effluents from Basic Organic Chemicals Industry (Hindustan Organic Chemicals Limited, Rasayani) which is manufacturing a variety of substituted aromatics resulting in generation of wastewaters of complex nature and design and commissioning of a full scale treatment of 1100 m3/day capacity.
• Pilot scale studies at India’s first Sodium Cyanide plant (Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd., Baroda) using laboratory propagated cyanide degrading microbial cultures as the starter seed to facilitate treatment of cyanide bearing wastewaters.
• Designing treatment flowsheets for Industrial Waste Treatment with emphasis on pollution control, waste minimization and cost savings.
• Preparation of Basic process and Engineering Package for Common Effluent Treatment Plants with emphasis on recycle and reuse.
• Performance Evaluation of Wastewater Treatment Plants under National Mission Project on Ganga Action Plan.
• Member of NEERI Project team which was awarded first prize by Consultancy Development Centre, New Delhi for Design and Construction of Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) for Small Scale Industrial Clusters at Pali and Balotra in Rajasthan.
• Member of NEERI team which received NEERI Foundation Day Award for Conspicuous Contribution to R&D Excellence of the Institute.
• Preparation of Guidelines for Environmental Evaluation of Developmental Projects.
• Environmental Information Services and Environmental Database Generation.
Organising Training Programmes for several Public/ Private Sector (National/ International) Agencies
• Member of Technical Committees constituted for inspection on environment related matters as per the directives of Honourable Supreme Court of India.
• Member of several Technical/Administrative (Internal) committees of NEERI.
• Extra Budgetary Resources (EBR) of the Institute through R&D and Consultancy (National/International) projects.
• Supervision of the work of over 80 Scientists, Engineers, Research Fellows and supporting staff in Multi-institutional and Multi-disciplinary Projects.
• Guidance to Scientists/Research Fellows working for their Research Projects and Postgraduate/Doctoral Degrees.
• Defending Environmental impact Assessment Projects, Carrying Capacity based Developmental Planning Studies and other major R&D Studies at Ministry of Environment and Forests (Government of India), Central and State Pollution Control Boards, other Expert Bodies and World Bank Missions.
• Critical review of scientific reports submitted by a number of agencies from time to time.
• Major role in managing almost all the projects and R&D activities of the Division/Institute.