- Union Minister of Science & Technology, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, on September 16, 2019 inaugurated the National Centre for Clean Coal Research and Development at Indian Institute of Science (IISc)-Bengaluru.
- Government of India through Department of Science & Technology, has set up the National Centre for Clean Coal Research and Development (NCCCR&D) as a national level consortium on clean coal R&D, led by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc)-Bengaluru.
- Dr. Harsh Vardhan also dedicated an Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research(ICER) to the Nation which is India’s first of its kind centre equipped with state-of-art facilities for conducting wide spectrum of energy research by knowledge network of elite researchers.
About Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research (ICER)
- Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research (ICER) is one of the youngest centres at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). It was conceived to take up socially relevant research in line with national-level missions of the Government of India, which will directly benefit the people of the nation and the world.
- The Centre hosts faculty members from different departments having diverse engineering and science backgrounds, pursuing cutting-edge research in the broad area of energy.
- Translational research carried out by ICER faculty members has resulted in technology transfers in India and abroad. Apart from a doctoral program, extensive skill development programs have also been conducted by the Centre in line with national requirements.
- ICER has so focused on research breakthroughs and developing sustainable technologies for renewable energy, combustion, concentrated solar power (CSP), next-generation solar photovoltaic (PV), novel energy storage technologies, hydrogen, biofuels and bio-mass.
National Centre for Clean Coal Research and Development (NCCCR&D)
- National Centre for Clean Coal Research and Development (NCCCR&D) is a national level consortium on clean coal R&D, led by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc)-Bengaluru.
- The primary goal is to address several critical R&D challenges towards the development of clean coal technologies, in tandem with developing supercritical power plant technologies, both at the materials and system level.
- In order to achieve international targets on climate change by minimizing anthropogenic emissions and also to address the ever-growing energy demand of India, development of clean coal technologies to reduce carbon emissions from coal-based power plants has become a prime necessity for India.
- The pathways identified for lowering the carbon footprint of coal-based thermal power plants is by shifting towards high efficiency advanced ultra-supercritical (AUSC) steam power plants as well as supercritical carbon dioxide (s-CO2) based Brayton cycle power plants, along with exploration of new combustion and gasification technologies.
