Advanced Centre for Energy Research
The Advanced Centre for Alternate Energy
Why this Centre was created?
Every part of this world needs energy/electricity for various purposes, from house hold applications to industrial use. Reaching rural parts of India and remote locations poses bigger challenge. Currently the energy sources used are fossil fuel, solar, wind, nuclear, bio etc. But all of these have limitations such as, fossil fuel produces byproducts which are harmful to the environment, solar and wind energy have limitations with the season, time, storage etc. There is also heavy dependence for importing oil, gas, nuclear fuel and solar cells. The whole world is faced with a challenge in finding new/alternate sources of energy, which should be independent of season and time, affordable, environmental friendly, scalable, portable and sustainable.
Many countries including USA, China, Italy, and Japan are already working in this direction. We at Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (S-VYASA), are interested to contribute in this field of eco-friendly, Clean, Compact, Scalable, Portable, sustained and affordable energy source which can also be a standalone power source at remote and inaccessible locations. Such a solution will eventually lead to Nation-wide Industrial activity & Employment Generation leading to sustained economic growth. Strategically, India will also be free from importing fuel, and thus ensuring self-reliance and Energy Security.
The 4th International Symposium on Hydrogen-Matter Interactions, was conducted at S-VYASA University from July 30 to Aug 1, 2014, by the Division of Yoga and Physical Sciences. It was attended by eminent physicists like Prof. EGC Sudarshan, and other scientists from different countries. During this conference, it was resolved that research in LENR (Low Energy Nuclear Reactions) has to be promoted to explore potential green energy. It was also resolved that suitable collaborations from other national scientific and research institutes will be sought. Accordingly, proposals were submitted to the Departments of MNRE, IGCAR, DST, NETRA and PMO. To give impetus to this initiative and bring focus to the research efforts Dr. Prahlada Ramarao was inducted as the Adviser and subsequently designated as Director of the Advanced Centre for Alternate Energy. The Centre was formally inaugurated by the Hon’ble Minister for Science and Technology, Govt. of India, Dr. Harsh Vardhan on 3rd April 2015. However, formal financial sanction is yet to be accorded and S-VYASA is pursuing research through its own resources.
How/ under whose direction it was created?
The Chancellor of S-VYASA with wide vision in multi field along with Yoga, wanted to contribute to the self-sustainability of our Nation through the research on Cold Fusion/LENR.
As a part of it, he wanted to establish the Energy Lab as a part of Yoga and Physical Sciences division at S-VYASA University Campus. Hence, the Chancellor requested Dr. Prahlada Ramarao (Padma Shri Awardee 2015), Advisor to Chancellor, S-VYASA to take the leadership.
Basic infrastructure, like identifying the space, purchasing the materials required for the experiments, UPS, work benches etc. were done by Mr. Rangaswami, Dr. Ravi Kumar Itagi and Dr. Judu Ilavarasu under the guidance of Dr Prahlada. Subsequently, he hand-picked the group members with chemistry, electrical and mechanical engineering background.
What are the main objectives of the Centre?
- To develop high efficiently green and clean energy
- To decentralize the burden on the national power grid
- To offer safe and affordable energy to villages and remote areas in the country.
i.e., to understand and develop Sustainable, Green, Low Cost, Portable Energy devices and systems.
Facility & Equipment
The Energy Lab is well equipped with the equipment needed for the initial research. To name a few, glove box with option for Argon atmosphere, DC & AC power supply, Power analyser, PID Temperature controller, Thyristor, Hot air oven, calorimeter, brick reactor setup, computer for data processing etc. Consumables such as, thermocouples, Ni nano powder, Lithium Aluminum Hydride, Lithium granules etc., were purchased from various national and international sources.
Current work at the Centre
Currently dry methods using nano Nickel and Lithium Aluminium Hydride is being attempted to reproduce the results of basic LENR experiments. Initiatives in theoretical front is also being taken with the help of IISc Physics department Prof. Andrew Meulenberg. Wet experiments are also being attempted with collaboration of Prof. Umapathy of Dept. of Physical Chemistry, IISc.
The Centre attempts to make the prototype model soon to pursue the government for scaling up. The same will be further taken up for patenting.
Team members
- Dr. Prahlada Ramarao, Ph.D., Centre Director
- Dr. Shree Varaprasad N S, M.Sc., Ph.D.
- Mr. Shashank G Dath, BE (Electrical)
- Mr. Shyam Sunder, B.E. (Mechanical), M.Sc. (Engg)
- Dr. Andrew Meulenberg, Ph.D. (Visiting Professor)
- Dr. Alex Hankey, Ph.D.
Centre's relevance at this Yoga University
Energy is needed for every activity in this world, it may be biological, cosmic or physical. We at S-VYASA, work on Energy as a theme and how all forms of Energy are interrelated.
The energy lab under Physical Sciences at S-VYASA is trying to understand the theory and concept of transmutation taking place in the biological and cold fusion reactions. These might be conceptually similar. Hence it is relevant to have the Physical Sciences division carrying out the research on Transmutations of all kinds at S-VYASA.