In the vicinity of IIT Bombay campus lies Powai lake, known for its varied flora and fauna. But over the years in recent past, the lake has undergone enormous eutrophication (algal bloom) due to reckless discharge of untreated domestic effluents into the lake. This pathetic sight of a dirty lake is an eye sore for the public besides the slow decay of the lake. Hence, in order to find an effective remediation, our group along in collaboration with Prof. Yen Wah Tong from National University of Singapore is working to check water pollution in urban localities using green algae.

Public transport systems are regarded as efficient and environmental friendly as compared to personal transport. Nevertheless, the perceived advantage of public transport should not be taken for granted as it is sensitive to several factors viz. type of fuel and electricity used for running vehicles, material intensity of supporting transport infrastructure, service life of vehicles and infrastructure, etc. Therefore, our lab in collaboration with Dr. Rajesh Kumar Singh from thinkstep sustainability solutions Pvt Ltd.

Do you know that for every liter of alcohol consumed, about 8-15 litres of wastewater is generated? Are you aware that a mind boggling 40 billion liters of waste waters are generated from distilleries in India alone? Please understand that distilleries in a way are transforming ~100 million litres of drinking water in rural areas into wastewater every day. The water, which should have been used by farmers to grow crops! There is one more dark side of these dark, dirty looking and odorous waste waters, severe contamination of receiving surface or ground waters.

A large amount of food waste is being generated from hotels, restaurants, canteens, companies, vegetable markets, super markets and residential blocks. These waste ultimately ends up rotting in landfills. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is the route that can transform this food waste into a renewable energy source by producing ‘biogas’, a renewable energy source as electricity, heat and vehicle fuel.

Are you fed up of seeing waste being dumped on lands and causing all sorts of pollution? We too! However, for our researchers, this is not just ‘waste’ but ‘wealth of resource’. Yes, you read it right. Our researchers in collaboration with industry have taken up the challenge to covert wastes into soil. Soon you may start seeing these wastes turning waste barren lands into green lands – which are safe and sustainable.

Our group specialises in water and wastewater treatment. We have developed cheap and effective pollutant removal technologies which includes community scale hand-pump attachable arsenic removal filter using indigenous materials to achieve international drinking water standard. This filter is the most economical amongst the available technologies for arsenic removal and more than fifty units are installed and functioning across India.

water is no longer a safe and free commodity because most perennial Indian rivers are polluted with persistent organic pollutants. Thus provision of clean and safe potable water to all sections of society is the key challenge faced by our nation today. Clean water is also the key to enable Indian industries to produce goods of environmentally acceptable quality.

We all want our painted walls to have uniform colour and be free of surface cracks or warps. This is achieved by formulating paints that dry homogeneously and do not crack or de-bond from the surface during drying.

Due to wide spread industrialisation, the environment is always challenged with the discharge of large number of chemical species, some of which are dangerous and toxic to human health. Among these, mercury and cyanide are two important ions having deleterious effect on human health. For example, cyanide compounds (like HCN, CNCl, NaCN, and KCN) are discharged into the environment due to the increased utility of these in many chemical processes (such as electroplating, plastics manufacturing, tanning, and metallurgy) to an extent of 900-1000 tons/year.

Increasing level of CO 2 in the environment owing to anthropogenic activities is one of the pressing global issues that needs immediate resolution. Ever increasing development of industries and human population will produce more and more CO 2 emission by continuous consumption of fossil fuels. The immediate challenge is to improve the current technologies which can capture CO 2 efficiently and convert it into useful sustainable fuels (i.e. methane and methanol) in presence of natural resources such as water and sun light.

Each year during the winter season (December-January), dense fog engulfs the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) in South Asia, extending over a stretch of 1500 km, for more than a month disrupting day-to-day life of millions of people living in the IGP. Increasing air pollution combined with sufficient moisture available due to the passage of frequent north-westerlies favor fog formation in this region. Trends in poor visibility suggest a significant increase in worsening air quality and foggy days over the IGP.

Aerosols are tiny suspended particles released in the atmosphere from natural and anthropogenic emissions/processes such as dust storms, volcanic eruptions, forest fires, vehicular and industrial emissions, etc. Aerosol particles are a significant part of our weather and climate system, and due to their complex interactions with clouds and rainfall processes, these tiny particles (although emitted in large concentrations in the air), they pose a large uncertainty in our in depth understanding of clouds, rainfall, and the overall climate system.

Disposal of waste foundry sand (WFS) remains one of the major challenges faced by the foundry industry today. India’s annual casting production is around 9.3 million tons which is the third highest in the world.WFS contains toxic heavy metals and particulate matter which makes dumping of waste sand an environmental and health hazard. More than 80% of Indian foundries (i.e. more than 3600) are medium and small scale foundries which cannot afford costs associated with the dumping and treatment of waste foundry sand.

Mountain belts like the Himalaya have both sustained and destroyed humans and closely affect our lives. Mountain building processes result in earthquakes and landslides which are major hazards to the human civilisation. Major earthquakes that activate the main frontal thrust (MFT) are particularly devastating.My research group is involved in understanding the kinematics of the Himalaya that result in the these earthquakes by undertaking a detailed study of the main frontal fault zone that results in extreme pulverisation of the rocks (Fig. 1) and building of Himalayan topography (Fig. 2).

Microbes play an important role in modifying depositional dynamics of sedimentation systems. Microbes dominated the Precambrian biosphere and were limited to stressful depositional conditions in Phanerozoic. Microbially mediated sedimentation is well known in Precambrian. However, microbe- sediment interaction is less studied in Precambrian siliciclastics.Microbes play an important role in modifying depositional dynamics of sedimentation systems. Microbes dominated the Precambrian biosphere and were limited to stressful depositional conditions in Phanerozoic.

Floods in cities are an increasingly frequent phenomenon across the world, especially in coastal urban areas. However even well governed, well-equipped, well-financed urban governance institutions, disaster management agencies, and municipal bodies are unable to either reduce flood related disaster risk, or mitigate the risk of flooding. Despite the availability of high-tech equipment, simulation and prediction models, and research inputs from scientists and social scientists, this continues to be the situation whether in Asia, Europe or North America.

Oil spill, due to collisions or grounding of ships, is one of the most devastating forms of pollution in the marine environment. The impact of an accidental oil spill could be tremendous on marine ecosystem, coastal economy and other activities. Heavy vessel traffic in and out of the major commercial ports, such as Jawaharlal Nehru Port and Mumbai port has made the coastline of Mumbai vulnerable for oil spill incidents.

The Thane creek which houses two major commercial ports; Mumbai & Jawaharlal Nehru Ports faces periodic siltation problems. The maintenance dredging, carried out to keep navigational channel navigable, incurs high annual cost. A detailed understanding of the dominant processes causing morphological changes is required in tackling the problem of siltation.An attempt has been made to simulate the annual morphological change soccurring within Mumbai port limits, using a process-based hydrodynamic and morphological numerical model.

A team of scientists from five different institutions: National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management Project Directorate (ICMAM PD), Chennai; National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa; and National Central University (NCU), Taiwan led by IIT Bombay has successfully demonstrated the joint capabilities through a one-day field measurement campaign to estimate the nearshore dynamics along Pondicherry coast, located about 150 kms south of Chennai.

Tidal energy is one of the most promising resources of marine renewable energy. In India, Gulf of Khambhat, Gulf of Kutchh in Gujarat state and delta of Ganga in Sunderbans, West Bengal state are potential sites for generating tidal power. The aim of the research study is to estimate the tidal power potential along the Gulfs of Khambhat and Kutch. Two independent hydrodynamic models have been developed to estimate the spatial and temporal distributions of tidal energies in these Gulfs.