Established in 1958 , NEERI National Environmental Engineering Research
Institute, Nagpur, pursues an effective R & D programme in Environmental
Science and Technology to enable solutions to backlog and future environmental
problems emanating from developmental imperatives in various socio-economic
sectors. The institute while fulfilling its commitment towards the national
and social missions and CSIR thrust area activities, has made a significant
contribution in the recent past, in the areas of institute's R & D, viz. Environmental
Monitoring; Environmental Biotechnology, Hazardous Waste Management;
Environmental System Design, Modelling and Optimisation; Environmental
Impact and Risk Assessment; and Environmental Policy Analysis.
The institute has retained its repute in International Scientific
Collaboration by undertaking joint R&D ventures with United Nations
Environmental Program (UNEP), World Health Organization (WHO), and
Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA). The institute is
designated as WHO Collaborating Centre on Environmental Health.
Mandate
To conduct research in different areas of environmental engineering,
to carry out R and D work in the areas of environmental monitoring,
environmental biotechnology, hazardous wastes management, and environmental
systems design, modelling, and optimization, to conduct environemntal
impact and risk assessment for industrial units, to help in social
upliftment through mission programmes on drinking water and Ganga
Action Plan etc and to cary out environmental policy analysis.
Major R&D Programmes:
The major R&D programmes of the institute relate to national/societal
mission on drinking water, Ganga Action Plan, environmental monitoring,
environmental biotechnology, hazardous waste management, environmental
impact and risk assessment, envronmental systems design, modelling and
optimization.
Signficant Achievements
Formulation of an integrated approach to water resources management
with environmental carrying capacity as the basis in districts of
Barmer, Koraput, East Sikkim, and Nagpur.
Design, demonstration and installation of iron removal plants
and defluoridation plants at various places in the country.
Impact assessment of Ganga Action Plan on public health at
Varnasi and Nabadwip; evaluation of two sewage treatment plants
in Patna for the Ganga Project Directorate.
Designing and implementation of waste recycling system at
Swargashram in Rishikesh employing the Rotating Biological
Rope Contractor, a technology developed by the institute.
Development and Application of water supply and sanitation programmes
in villages.
Development of indigenous low cost air pollution control technology
for small scale industrial sectors.
Study of air quality trends in ten major Indian cities for twelve years.
Development of nucleic acid probes for detection of enteric viruses
and Entamoeba hytolitica in drinking water.
Design of two full scale plants for bio methanation and six for
reuse of industrial wastes.
Biotechnological production of 2,3-butanediol from water hyacinth;
biotechnological conversion of methane to methanol.
Photoproduction of hydrogen from inustrial waste waters.
Microbial desulpharization of crude oil and natural gas.
Microbial degradation of oil spills
Use of r-DNA technology for industrial waste water treatment.
Development of molten salt combustion technology and biodegradation of
xenobiotics.
Indigenous catalytic convertor technology for autoexhaust emission control.
Engineering packages for common effluent treatment plants; modular
packages for waste water treatment.
Development of software for environmental systems modelling with
recourse to group method of data handling; health-environment interface
modelling; minimal cost design of water supply systems; development of
software for computer-aided EIA of industrial projects and risk assessment
with recourse to Monte Carlo Simulation and Fuzzy Fault Tree Analysis.
Development of environment management plan for Bombay sewerage
project, and regional EIA and carrying capacity studies at Jamshedpur.
EIA of water resources, mining, ports/harbours, and industrial projects.
Development of a database on cleaner technologies of industrial production.
Technologies Transfered
Major Future Programmes
The institute and strengthen and diversify its R&D programmes on:
Environmental Systems design modelling and optimization for the protection
of air, water, land, biological and socio-economic components of the
environment.
Environmental impact and risk assessment of major developmental projects.
Cleaner technologies for industrial production.
Application of r-DNA technology for environmental preservation.
Hazardous and toxic waste management.
Environmental policy analysis.
Main Facilities
Sophisticated instruments for analysis of pollutants.
Excellent computer facilities for large memory oriented software and
databases. NEERI is procuring three advanced workstations with necessary
software for activities related to Geographic Information Systems (GIS);
Digital Image Processing (DIP) and Knowledge-based System (KBS).
Bio-Informatics centre:
Bioinformatics Centre at NEERI aims to serve as a National Information
Resource Centre on Environmental Biotechnology by providing total computer
support in the form of information, data processing & analysis in
Biotechnology in general and Environmental Biotechnology in particular.
The need to keep abreast of the latest information on advances and
developments in environmental biotechnology has become imperative
for rapid progress in research, production and application. Accordingly,
to cater the needs of the scientific community of the host organization
and the local needs, an Environmental Biotechnology Bibliographic Database
(EBBD), has been developed covering the literature from a large number of
Biotechnology journals available in NEERI Library. EBBD is a bibliographic
database developed initially on CDS/ISIS and converted to dBASE IV by a
conversion program. Apart from a logical query facility, a retrieval
facility on author and keywords is also available for the database.
A database including the data entry , data handling and query software,
named QABIS has been developed for ongoing and closed Biotechnology
projects in NEERI. The query facility for QABIS is available on Lab
code, Scientist name and area code. The software is written in dBASE.
The centre has collected the data on biotechnology equipments from 59
biotechnology research organizations from India and a directory database
on equipment details has been developed with a query software to retrieve
the information on Equipment, Lab name, and city. The database contains
information on 400 equipment details, contact persons and the access
facilities. HCIS ( Hazardous Chemical Information System) is a software
Package developed at the centre using 'C' programming language for
quick retrieval of information about 276 hazardous chemicals. The
user interface has been designed with a view to enhance the utility
of the information readily available as ASCII text files which is
maintained by USEPA under Integrated Risk Information System(IRIS).
The searches are based on different chemical names. A directory
database on thesis submitted to Nagpur University in Life Sciences
and Biotechnology is in progress and the database comprises of 225
thesis submitted during 1987 to 1996.
CD-ROM Databases viz. Ei-Energy and Environment; CCINFO Disc Series, and
AHEAD series have been purchased for the centre and information retrieval
services are provided on demand to the clientele of the host institute
and other organizations.
How to Contact:
The Coordinator
National Environmental Engineering Research Institute,
Nehru Marg
Nagpur-440020
Phone : 36413
Telex : 0715-233 NEERI IN
Fax : 0712-225191
E-mail : root@csneeri.ren.nic.in
Services Offered
Consultancy services to industry and other agencies on pollution control
measures, water purification techniques, waste water/effluent treatment
processes and environmental impact analysis studies.
Collection and maintenance of National Air Quality Data.
Training Courses
The institute conducts training courses for industry and governmental/
non-governmental organizations in the areas of air pollution monitoring
and control, analytical quality control, environmental biotechnology,
solid waste management, and EIA.
Publications
The Institute brings out Indian Journal of Environmental Health,
Pryavarana Patrika (Hindi) and its annual reports.
