About The Speaker

Presently, Dr Ajay Kalamdhad is working as a Professor in Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati obtained his Bachelor, Masters and Doctorate degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from GEC Jabalpur, VNIT Nagpur and IIT Roorkee respectively in the years 2001, 2003 & 2008. Prior to joining IIT Guwahati in 2009, He was an Assistant Professor at VNIT Nagpur (2008-2009) and worked in various projects at RRL, Bhopal (Now AMPRI, Bhopal) and NEERI, Nagpur. He has published more than 150 international papers in peer-reviewed journals and presented his work in more than 250 national and international conferences/workshops as participant and invited speaker. He has also written four books related to biological treatment of solid waste with Springer and CRC Press. He has also associated with Indian Public Health Engineers, India, International Solid Waste Association Italy and National Solid Waste Association of India; and reviewers of more than 100 international journals. He is a recipient of ISTE- GSITS national award for best research by young teachers (below 35 years) of engineering colleges for the year 2012 and IEI Young Engineers Award 2011-2012 in Environmental Engineering discipline from Institute of Engineers India. He had worked on various research projects funded by MoEF, DST (SERB, TDT), MDW&S and CSIR, Govt. of India. He has guided 12 PhD students, 35 M. Tech projects, 30 B. Tech projects, and guided 16 PhD students, 7 M. Tech projects and 3 B. Tech projects.

Title of The Talk

Decentralized treatment of various organic wastes

India is the fastest developing country in the Asian continent. But development pushes many environmental issues such as water pollution, solid waste problem, air and noise pollution, as well as soil contamination. Management of such problems is a very essential function in a country to achieve sustainable development. Solid waste management in India is considered as one of the least prioritized functions during the last decades. Although many government programs and schemes came into existence during these periods such as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan and Swacch Bharat Mission in 2014 but were least success. Amongst different types of solid wastes, India is facing difficulties in managing organic wastes. The most common ways to manage such wastes in India is either by open dumping and uncontrolled burning. These methods are causing severe environmental pollution and health problems. The current study proposes decentralized treatment of such organic wastes by using the two technologies, i.e., composting and anaerobic digestion. The end product from these technologies is compost and methane gas which are beneficial in many ways in the different sectors such as agriculture and energy generation that helps to maintain the sutainability. The composters and digesters of the different capacities were installed at IITG and various parameters studied to identify its efficiency. The results indicated the final compost with nearly 3% nitrogen with sufficient phosphorus and potassium levels beneficial for soil health. The study on anaerobic digestion indicated its capability to produce 60-65% methane gas. The study also recommends that decentralized treatment of such wastes at residential complexes or at commercial places will increase its value and productivity.