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Environmental problems extend beyond national borders and have become global in scale. These problems can exert an adverse impact on future generations and pose a threat to the very existence of humanity. Accordingly, one of our most fundamental responsibilities is to protect our irreplaceable asset, the earth, and to ensure that our planet is handed to future generations in a healthy state.
As a good corporate citizen, Mitsui fulfills this responsibility by designating environmental protection as one of its most crucial management issues, making every effort to realize "sustainable development," which strives for a balance between economic development and preserving the environment.
Mitsui has also endeavored to fulfill its corporate responsibility to make useful contribution to the Society and particularly Environment preservation in trading-partner countries of long association.
In 1993, to commemorate 100 years of Mitsui's existence in India, Mitsui & Co., decided to form a Trust in India by name of Mitsui & Co. Environmental Engineering Trust (MEET) whose principle objective was to carry on research and development in the field of Environment preservation and conservation technology.
It was set up with a corpus of Japanese Yen 50 Million.
MEET entered into a MOU with The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a unit set up under the aegis of Ministry of Science, Government of India to fund environmental preservation and engineering research projects with the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), a unit of CSIR.
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| MITSUI FINANCED PROJECTS
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| UNDER RESEARCH & IMPLEMENTATION BY NEERI |
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Officials from Mitsui & Co, India on the behalf of the company met with officials from NEERI to mark the occasion of commencement of the projects financed by Mitsui.
An amount of INR 3.15 million was handed over to NEERI as advance for the initiation of projects.
Calling it a memorable occasion, official further said that Mistui would continue to make conscious contributions towards the conservation and preservation of environment. He also drew attention to the hazards of nuclear warfare. Officials from NEERI thanked official of Mitsui and reiterated Mitsui's official commitment towards conservation of environment. He stated that the Mitsui financed research would go a long way in changing the present environmental conditions.
Projects financed by Mitsui: Mitsui & Environmental Engineering Trust has decided to finance the following three research projects of NEERI. The duration of each of these projects is expected to be approximately 3 years and the budgeted cost of each project is estimated at INR 1.5 million.
• NANO-STRUCTURE ZEOLITIC MATERIALS FOR ARTIFICIAL PHOTOSYNTHESIS VIS-À-VIS CONTROL OF GREEN HOUSE GASSES.
The purpose of this program is to explore the use of long-wavelength visible and near-infrared light for the synthesis of chemicals and fuels.
Synthesis using visible and near infrared light not only offers an opportunity to utilize sunlight as energy source; it offers possibilities for environmentally benign alternatives to existing chemicals production methods through high selectivity, energy efficiency, and access to untapped starting materials.The goal is to develop new methods for the use of long-wavelength photons for the synthesis of important organic building blocks, and for the storage of these quanta in the form of fuels.Preliminary experiments initiated:
Transition Metal Molecular Sieves for Artificial Photosynthesis
Photochemical synthesis of fuel by direct oxidization of Carbon dioxide using visible light and Water as electron source is one of the most attractive, yet unrealized goals in solar energy to fuel conversion. Photosynthesis of methanol for larger scale use in fuel cell is considered as a most promising option for replacement of fossil fuel combustion as a means of power generation.
Supramolecular templated mesoporous materials for artificial photosynthesis
Two significant areas of research in recent years have been development of mesoporous materials such as MCM-41 and the design of ship-in-bottle catalyst for various environmental applications. In the first approach we have combined two areas of research to create composite hetrogenous catalyst that would show excellent activity for a umber of industrially and environmentally important reactions.
• BIOLOGICAL DEODORIZATION OF WASTE GASSES CONTAINING CHLOROBENZENE:
Development of cost effective process using air-phase bioreactor for de-oxidization of waste gasses containing chlorobenzene.
Waste gas containing pollutants is generated from warehouses of chemicals, industrial emission of the industry and from gasses from the wastewater treatment plants. The waste gas containing undesirable compounds produces obnoxious odors and causes health implications to the living communities, which are exposed to such gases for long periods.
Chlorobenzene is one such pollutant present in waste gases and it exits in the environment for a longer period. DDT and its isomers are generally manufactured using chlorobenzene as a starter compound. These are commonly used as disinfectants. They are also used in insecticides and pesticides.Chlorobenzene as total odour index of 52600, while it has a threshold odour concentration of 0.72mg per cubic metre. The recognition threshold reflex response (adverse response) is 0.2mg per cu.m.Thus, proper treatment of waste gas containing chlorobenzene is required prior to discharge into the environment.
• AN INTEGRATED GREEN CHEMISTRY BASED BIOTECHNOLOGICAL APPROACH FOR TREATMENT OF HIGH ORGANIC CONTAINING WASTE WATER
Development of process applicable to waste water generated from food processing unit, fruit processing units, dairy and dairy based products units & sugar and integrated distillery unit having bottling of beverage and packing.
A large number of industries discharge wastewaters containing high concentration of organic pollutants in the environment. These pollutants discharged through wastewater have adverse effect on the soil and aquatic ecosystems.
This project involves a green chemistry based biotechnological process for treatment of high organic content wastewater, which appears to be promising as it replaces the conventional chemicals used in the treatment process.
Further, an integrated green chemistry based biotechnological approach will generate some of the value added chemicals, which will add to the economical benefit to the society.
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