The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) was established in November 1993 as an autonomous society under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India. NIOT is managed by a Governing Council and the Director is the head of the Institute. The institute is based in Chennai.
The major aim of starting NIOT under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, is to develop reliable indigenous technology to solve the various engineering problems associated with harvesting of non-living and living resources in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which is about two-thirds of the land area of India.
Video National Institute of Ocean Technology
Technology Groups
Coastal and Environmental Engineering
The group functions with a mandate to develop application-oriented technology in ocean (Coastal & Environmental) related areas. The goals of the group are to promote programs consistent with the overall development perspective of the country in the infrastructure sector thereby contributing to the nation building exercise
The group's expertise and specialized facilities in scientific and technological fields cater to specific sponsored research and industrial sector projects by providing technical support and time-bound result-oriented research. Coastal and Environmental Engineering (CEE) program aims to bring the state of the art technology in coastal infrastructure development through field observation, numerical modeling and engineering application.
Energy & Fresh Water
The main area of focus of the group is the utilization of the ocean resources to find alternative technologies for fresh water and renewable energy. Currently the group is working on three specific areas, fresh water production using low temperature thermal desalination (LTTD) process and energy production using two distinctly different processes, Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion and Wave Energy.
The Group is committed to develop technologies for producing high quality clean drinking water and energy from the ocean. Technologies like Low Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD) using coolant water discharge from thermal power plant, wave energy using floating devices such as Backward Bent Ducted Buoy (BBDB), ocean current turbine development, solar desalination, heat exchangers for LTTD and ocean thermal energy conversion are the focal areas of research. Apart from the aspect of technology development, the group has taken initiative in transferring the LTTD technology to the society through industrial partnership
Marine Sensor System
Marine Sensor Systems group was established in September 2005 to cater the mandate of NIOT to develop and demonstrate technologies for oceans. Since then group has been concentrated in the development of different type of underwater sensor systems apart from electronic support given to the other groups in NIOT. Marine sensors are used in a wide variety of applications. Most of the underwater systems are acoustic based systems with underwater electronics. Presently, the group has the capability to design any type of sensors for underwater applications and the group activities have been attracted several public sector industries.
The design, development and integration of electronic systems for underwater applications pose many insurmountable problems. Needs of NIOT are unique and all the requirements could not be met with the facilities available at NIOT earlier. Now, facilities to qualify electronics under different conditions of underwater operation have been established like, EMI/EMC analyzer, Helium Leak detector, Environment testing systems, Corrosion Chamber and Shock & Vibration testing chamber etc., under a single umbrella. Hence a single step solution for all the electronic needs of NIOT under one roof has been set up for speedy and successful implementation of the project.
Marine Biotechnology
In order to develop agriculture and tourism, and to study the natural marine resources of the island groups, the Island Development Authority (IDA) was established under the chairmanship of Rajiv Gandhi the Hon'ble Prime Minister in the year of 1986. The IDA enlisted the then Department of Ocean Development (DOD), presently Ministry of Earth Sciences, as one of the implementing agencies for carrying out activities that will recuperate the socio-economic status of the island community. Based on the suggestions made by the IDA, the DOD took up several ocean related activities relevant to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep and the Gulf of Mannar group of Islands in order to bring in socio-economic benefits to the island communities.
Ocean Acoustics and Modelling
The Ocean Acoustics group was formed in the 11th plan period with the aim to focus on research and development in underwater acoustics as most of the applications in the oceans rely on acoustics. Research and Development activities in the following key areas have been taken up.
Three major in-house projects and few inter institutional projects are in progress. A fully automated ambient noise measurement system developed by the group is being utilized for collecting time series measurements in Indian shallow waters. The group also maintains an NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) accredited Acoustic Test Facility for testing and calibration of underwater acoustic transducers that caters to the needs of internal groups and external institutions/organizations.
Ocean Electronics
The Ocean Electronics group is created in December 2009 with main objective to develop technologies for Ocean Observation Systems.Ocean Electronics group has a mandate to develop ocean observation systems and demonstrate for applications in the ocean. The group is involved in the development of Deep Ocean Bottom Pressure Recorder (DOPR) & surface buoy data logger for Tsunami Early Warning Systems, Autonomous Underwater Profiling Drifter (AUPD), Drifter and technologies for data communication using INSAT satellites.
Offshore Structures
NIOT has been developing several offshore components for various programs like desalination, mining, data buoys etc. These include pipelines/risers, moorings in deep water for small buoys as well as large vessels. The need for developing several offshore components has been felt for most of the projects handled in NIOT. The group addresses such needs.
Maps National Institute of Ocean Technology
Technology Projects
Deep Sea Mining
Polymetallic nodules have economically valuable metals such as Copper, Cobalt, Nickel and Manganese in them and are viewed as potential resources to take care of the depleting land resources and increasing demand of these metals. There are 380 million tons of nodules in the retained Indian Pioneer area. However development of deep subsea technology for mining these resources is a major challenge considering the ultra high pressure environment, very soft soils and other factors. NIOT has been working on a mining concept where a crawler based mining machine collects, crushes and pumps nodules to the mother ship using a positive displacement pump through a flexible riser system. It is expected that multiple mining machines will cover the mining field during large scale commercial mining operations. With this perspective, the integrated mining system is under development for demonstration of deep-sea mining of polymetallic nodules.
Gas Hydrates
This group was created to cater to the sustained development of technology towards harnessing the enormous potential offered by the ocean towards the energy sectors and also to the industries related to offshore activities with particular reference to gas hydrates. Gas hydrates are crystalline combination of a natural gas and water (known technically as a clathrate) looks remarkably like ice but burns if it meets a match lit. Energy in the gas hydrates amount to twice as much as all fossil fuels combined. Gas hydrate estimated to contribute a very large amount of methane, a potential clear hydrocarbon fuel resource.
Submersibles
Development of deep-water work class ROV by NIOT in collaboration with Experimental Design Bureau of Oceanological Engineering (EDBOE), Moscow was initiated by Polymetallic Nodule Management (PMN) Board of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Govt. of India. The Submersible is equipped with multifunctional tools and sensors for offshore applications such as deep ocean mineral exploration, seabed imaging, gas hydrate exploration, pipeline routing, submarine cabling, well head detections, sampling etc.
Operational Programs
Ocean Observation Systems
Under the Ocean Observation Network (OON) programme of ESSO MoES, the Ocean observation systems (OOS) group of NIOT is entrusted to undertake the activities on moored buoy programme. The OOS group, erstwhile National Data Buoy Programme, was established in 1996, with the objective to operate, maintain and develop moored buoy observational networks and related telecommunication facilities in the Indian seas. Later, OOS has inherited lead responsibility for a number of important and well-established observational programmes in the northern Indian Ocean. Due to the remoteness of the vast open oceans, there have been a challenge to continuously observe the ocean, which was later harmonized by in-situ and satellite based observations.
Vessel Management
The Vessel Management Cell widely known as 'VMC' is an operational wing of NIOT which proficiently manages the running, operation and maintenance of the fleet of MoES research vessels viz. ORV Sagar Nidhi, BTV Sagar Manjusha, CRV Sagar Purvi and CRV Sagar Paschimi. Established back in 1996, with an aim to manage two coastal research vessels CRV Sagar Purvi and CRV Sagar Paschimi acquired by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), for understanding coastal pollution, coastal pollution monitoring, coastal surveys and near shore multidisciplinary work. During 2001, VMC committed to manage a barge, Sagar Shakthi that was used for implementing 1MW gross pilot plant to demonstrate OTEC technology, which is first ever attempt in the world with a major success.
Engineering
External links
- National Institute of Ocean Technology
- Ministry of Earth Sciences
- Centre for Marine Living Resources & Ecology
- Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management
- Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology
- The India Meteorological Department
- Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments