Dr Purnima Jalihal

Senior Scientist, Head of Energy and Fresh Water Group

National Institute of Ocean Technology

Dr. Purnima is a senior scientist who heads the Energy and Fresh Water group in the National Institute of Ocean Technology, India. She has coordinated many first – ever projects in ocean energy and desalination. She has a tremendous contribution in the setting up of the first ever ocean thermal gradient based desalination plant at Kavaratti island in the Lakshadweep group in the Arabian Sea which has helped transform the lives of the small island community which had a serious lack of drinking water.

For this work she was awarded the Vishwakarma Medal in 2006 by the Indian National Science Academy. This success led to more plants in islands and offshore. Dr Purnima is now attempting to scale up the technology and power such plants using ocean renewable energies. She has a PhD in Civil Engineering from Duke University , USA. She is on many committees of the Indian Government , related to water and renewable energy

Dr. Purnima is a senior scientist who heads the Energy and Fresh Water group in the National Institute of Ocean Technology, India. She has coordinated many first – ever projects in ocean energy and desalination. She has a tremendous contribution in the setting up of the first ever ocean thermal gradient based desalination plant at Kavaratti island in the Lakshadweep group in the Arabian Sea which has helped transform the lives of the small island community which had a serious lack of drinking water.

For this work she was awarded the Vishwakarma Medal in 2006 by the Indian National Science Academy. This success led to more plants in islands and offshore. Dr Purnima is now attempting to scale up the technology and power such plants using ocean renewable energies. She has a PhD in Civil Engineering from Duke University , USA. She is on many committees of the Indian Government , related to water and renewable energy

Ocean Energy in India – Status and Road Ahead

India has a long coastline with a large EEZ and hence the ocean can be considered as a huge arena, which needs technologies to be implemented in a sustainable manner with no damage to the ecosystem for harnessing various resources. Energy and Fresh Water are two such resources, which are the need of the hour and can augment available sources especially in coastal areas and remote locations. The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) has developed technologies for harnessing off-grid power from ocean energies like wave and from tidal streams. Off grid devices of small ratings have a huge utility for remote coastal locations and islands. India being a tropical country also has a huge potential for OTEC. Compared to wave and tidal, OTEC is a base load power and hence can play a vital role in contributing to the green energy scenario. Use of the ocean thermal gradient has also led to the development of the low temperature thermal desalination technology for generating fresh water from sea water.

This technology has become very successful in the Lakshadweep islands and is currently being scaled up. A pilot project to run the desalination using power generated by ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) is also underway. This will be a land based OTEC plant. Efforts towards scaling up and moving offshore for mainland purposes are being taken up through design and implementation. A design for a scaled up offshore plant for OTEC and water by an industry is underway. The Ministry is also funding a small offshore plant for OTEC and water as a proof of concept.

HOSTED BY

SUPPORTED BY