The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

EDUCATION

Power generation from oceans now?
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 8
A Panjab University research has made a path-breaking success towards developing a new technique for harnessing electric power from oceans.

In contrast to an existing technique of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion( OTEC) in which energy is produced from the ocean source, the alternate technique, Direct Contact Heat Transfer, (DCHT) uses an innovative method. The new technique has an inherent advantage of eliminating metallic heat transfer surface which is prone to corrosion and fouling. The old technique has very short life span of the gadgets which has resulted in very limited application of the energy generation technology.

Prof R.K. Wangchoo, Department of Chemical Engineering who is the man behind the new technique, said the OTEC technology was already in use in parts of the USA, Israel and Saudi Arabia. However, it was possible to cover a very small segment of population as the gadgets had a limited life span.

Professor Wangchoo said, “Oceans cover a little more than 70 per cent of the earth’s surface. This makes them the world’s largest solar energy collector and energy storage system. On an average day, about 60 million sq km of tropical seas absorb an amount of solar radiation which is equal to heat content to about 250 billions gallons of oil.”

“If about 1 per cent of this stored solar energy could be concerted into electric power, globally, one should expect a 24-hour electric supply. There would be no need for additional nuclear, thermal or hydro-electric power stations. This in turn would also ensure a clean and ecologically balanced universe”, he said.

He said OTEC is a technology that converts solar radiation into electric power. OTEC systems use the ocean’s natural thermal gradient to drive a power-producing cycle.

This is based on the fact that the layers of the water have different temperatures. As long as the temperature between the warm water surface and the cold deep water differs by about 25°C, the OTEC system is expected to produce about 10 mw base load power generation.

However, the economics of energy production today have delayed the financing of a permanent continuously operating OTEC. The life of the gadget is also small.

Professor Wangchoo said, “in order to overcome these serious limitations, a new concept of heat exchangers had been developed. As compared to conventional heat exchanger, a direct contact heat exchanger (DCHE) requires a fraction of reaction area. “I have carried out extensive experimental studies on” collapse of a drouble in an immiscible liquid base” on my observations. Mathematical models have been developed to describe the most complex phenomenon involved in such systems.

The work of Professor Wangchoo has been published in journals of international repute including ASME (USA), AIChEJ (USA), besides certain others. “These models have been successfully used by other researchers in describing their experiments on the subject.”

Most importantly, he said, “We have reached a stage where a suitable design for DCHE can be postulated using the models developed”. One limitation, the model currently has, is the high cost of material used. The work provides a perfect base for further work to design a turbine that can be used to generate electric power, he added.

Mothers put together wonderful flavours
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 8
You just could not miss the divine flavour that filled almost every food preparation laid out under the Nestle cook ‘n’ serve contest organised by Futurama today. The event, dedicated to food, was especially conceived to mark the Mother’s Day and pay respect to homemakers who lend flavour to the world. Interesting to see was the fact that food had many takers in this city of concrete. In all, 155 entries were received under the various categories chalked out for contest.

Chosen as venues for the day were St Stephen's School, Sector 45, and St Xavier's Senior Secondary School, Sector 44. And the contest was open only to mothers of students of the respective schools, which offered their premises as venues for the contest.

The day began with St Stephen’s in the morning and ended very late with thunderous response coming from St Xavier’s. While St Stephen’s saw 45 wonderful recipes filling the ambience with colour and aroma, St Xavier’s saw about 105 entries under the categories of Maggie cubes, Maggie noodles and Milkmaid. All the recipes were required to be prepared with Nestle products as ingredients. Not just that, at the end of the day, Nestle also reimbursed the ingredients used by participants to put together their recipes.

The morning show at St Stephen’s was full of life. Final prizes, in the shape of gift hampers, however, went to the following participants:

In the Maggie cubes category, Nimmi Sethi won the first prize for her recipe called Maggie chilly chicken and Suman Choudhary was declared second for her coconut rice with nuts. In the section of noodles, Manu Mehra was first for her noodles with Italian sauce; Anju Anand was second for her maggi rolls; Samata won a consolation for her maggi salad.

In the category of Milkmaid, Chhaya bagged the first slot for her kesaria cake; Manu Mehra won the second prize for her recipe frosted apricot cherry and walnut slice; while Ritu Choudhry won the third prize for her Russian salad; the two consolation prizes in this category went to Amrit Uppal for cheese cake and Shalu Aggarwal for her mattar kheer.

The entries were adjudged by Ms Surjeet Patheja and Mrs Pratibha Gupta. The same process was repeated towards the evening in St Xavier’s School, which saw a high number of participants at 105. Results of the contest were declared quite late during the night.

After covering two schools in the city, Futurama will again hold a third sequel to this contest tomorrow at Community Club, Sector 9. About 175 ladies of the Thursday's Ladies Club will participate in the contest.

IMTECH to celebrate Technology Day
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 8
The Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh, will celebrate the National Technology Day on May 11.

The celebrations will include lectures on important issues by eminent award-winning scientists of the institute. The first day has been declared as "open day" for public to enable them to interact with the scientists of the institute and know about the technical functioning of IMTECH.

Dr C.L. Kaul, Director, National Institute for Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali, will preside over the afternoon session of the celebrations and Dr Amit Ghosh, Director, IMTECH, will welcome the guests. Dr Anand K. Bachhawat and Dr Pradip Kumar Chakrabarti, National Bio-science Award winners for 2001 and 2002, along with Dr R.K. Jain, First Novo Nordisk Award Winner for 2000, will deliver lectures on topics like Red light areas, drugs and stress — a yeast geneticist's view and Taming tuberculosis — a mission yet to be accomplished.

Tiny tots enjoy water activities
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, May 8
Students of The Gurukul, Sector 20 , are having a ‘splash’ of a time to beat the summer heat, involving themselves in various water activities that the teachers have organised for them.

In various fun-filled events organised here, from paper boat races to water balloon bursting, filling the bucket and many more events saw kids having the time of their life.

The tiny tots were doing whatever they pleased (and without being scolded for the mess ) . They splashed and swam in the tiny pools, threw water on each other, even as a few of the hydrophobics, preferred to stay away.

Competitions were also organised for these students. While Riya Raghav and Saksham Sood won the first prize in ‘fill the bucket’ competitions, Shauraya, Shantam, Raghav, Uditi and Samridhi won the first prize in ‘water relay’ competitions.

Inter-school art contest
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 8
A fete and an inter-school art contest at St John’s High School, Sector 26, marked the bicentenary year of the foundation of Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers started by Edmund Ignatius Rice as a part of his mission to uplift the poor and the needy.

As many as 250 students from various schools participated in the art contest where they were divided into categories on the basis of their age group and given different topics.

Earlier, a Eucharistic celebration was conducted by the Rt Rev Gerald John Mathias, Bishop of Shimla and Chandigarh Diocese.

The results of the contest are: Group A: Stamzim Dukgyais — St Xavier’s (1), Arshdeep Kaur — Manav Mangal (2), Kavisha — Sacred Heart Convent (3), Sakshi Kathuria — Mount Carmel (consolation); Group B: Kritharth Jain — St John’s (1), Gurvinder Kaur — Golden Bells (1), Ishan Vadhera — St John’s (2), Bharti — Carmel Convent (3), Abhishek B — Mount Carmel (consolation).

Story-telling session for kids
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, May 8
It was a departure from routine for kids studying in the Sector 44 Sanjay Public School. Students from classes I to V were given the choice of selecting books for their upcoming library “Kisse Kahani”.

This was not all. The tiny tots from the playway wing, accompanied by their teacher, went to the library section for a story telling session. Children were also given instructions on how to keep the books properly.

Primary section students selected the title of the books and their favourite were Harry Potter, Enid Blyton and the Ladybird series.The purpose of conducting the workshop was to make the students participate in student-related activities.

COURTS

DISTRICT COURTS
3 days’ remand in cheating case
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, May 8
An accused, Amardeep Singh, involved in a case of cheating, was given three days’ police remand by a local court. He was arrested by a team of police led by ASI, Mr Baldev Kumar, in this afternoon. The accused had been declared proclaimed offender on April 16 by the court.

The city police had registered a case against a resident of Sector 19-C, Amardeep Singh, on December 6, 2001, on a charge of cheating a resident of Hoshiarpur, Satnam Singh, on the pretext of arranging a kidney for him.

It was alleged that the accused had promised to provide a kidney to Satnam Singh and took Rs 4.15 lakh for this purpose from him. However he neither returned the money nor arranged the promise kidney.

As per the complaint, the complainant, Satnam, used to work in Bahrain as a carpenter. Satnam Singh suffered a kidney failure and required a transplant. As he did not have required funds, a gurdwara in Bahrain and other charitable institution provided Rs 4.5 lakh for his treatment. In July 2000, accused’s brother Mandeep, who was living in Bahrain, asked Satnam to contact his brother in Chandigarh who would help him to arrange a kidney donor for him. Satnam returned to India and got in touch with Amardeep in September 2000. Amardeep took Rs 4. 15 lakh from him and assured a donor within a month. However, he neither arranged the donor nor returned the money. Moreover, six checks given by the accused when presented in a bank, bounced

Bail granted

Ajay Kapoor, allegedly involved in a case of assault and criminal intimidation, was granted an anticipatory bail by a local court. He was granted bail on the furnishing a bond of Rs 10, 000. The complainant, Arun Kumar, alleged that Ajay, along with others, had threaten and beaten him up with sticks and rods.