Polymetalic nodules or manganese nodules

Polymetallic nodules or Manganese nodules

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Define
Formation
Occurance
Polymetalic nodules program of India
Merits and challenges

 Polymetalic or manganese nodules is a rock concretion lying over the sea floor at the depth of 3500 to 6000 meters. it appear like a potato with concentric layers of manganese and iron hydroxides depositing around the core. which further crystallised turning even the core into manganese .it grows of diameter from 10-100mm

Polymetallic nodules are Fe-Mn oxides deposits,potato shape, porous,black
earthy colour with size from 2 to 10 cm in diameter. The nodules develop under calm deep water conditions such as :

1.     low sedimentation rate
2. Oxidising environment means supply of good oxygen
3. availability of nucleus around which accretion of oxides takes place.
4. bottom currents of low velocity
5. low sedimentation rate of suspended material otherwise nodules will be covered by sediments
6. Constant flow of antartic bottom water that remove fine sediments and coarser sediments of shell or other act as nuclei for metallic compound deposition.
7. aqueous sediments capable of holding pore water.

there is 3 ways/process by which manganese or polymetallic nodules formed over the core 

1. Hydrogenous process : above 4000m, over smooth surface, rich in Fe,Co,P,Pb,Ti content. the Mn/Fe ratio =1
2. Diagenetic process : below 5000m depth over rough surface, rich in Mn,Cu, Ni, and Zn content. The ratio of Mn/Fe is more than 2.5.
3. muxed type : both hydrogenous and diagenetic process is involved at depth of 4000-5000 m.

Nodules develop by the above process you can see below :-

OCCURANCE :  Manganese nodules is found in many oceanic regions . it is found in 4 regions which is economically exploitable are given below:-

1. CLARION-CLIPPERTON ZONE (CCZ): With an area of around 9 million square kilometres, approximately the size of Europe, this is the world‘s largest manganese nodule region. The CCZ is located in the Pacific, extending from the west coast of Mexico to Hawaii. The nodules are not evenly distributed over this area. At some sites they are more densely grouped. No nodules at all are found in stony areas. On the average, one square metre in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone contains around 15 kilograms of manganese nodules. Especially rich areas can have up to 75 kilograms. The total mass of manganese nodules here is calculated to be around 21 billion tonnes.
2. PERU BASIN: The Peru Basin lies about 3000 kilometres off the Peruvian coast. It is about half as large as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. The region contains an average of 10 kilograms of manganese nodules per square metre.
3. PENRHYN BASIN: The third important manganese nodule area in the Pacific is located in the Penrhyn Basin very near the Cook Islands, a few thousand kilometres east of Australia. It has an area of around 750,000 square kilometres. Large areas in the Cook Islands coastal waters have concentrations of over 25 kilograms of manganese nodules per square metre of sea floor.
4. INDIAN OCEAN: So far only a single large area of manganese nodules has been discovered here, with an area comparable to that of the Penrhyn Basin. It is located in the central Indian Ocean. Each square metre of the sea floor here contains around 5 kilograms of manganese nodules.  Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) tested successfully at 5462 depth manganese nodule.

INDIA's POLYMETALLIC NODULES PROGRAMME :-
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India recieved the licence for exploration and mining of polymetallic nodule from international seabed authority (ISA) in 2002 for a period of 15 years. the term of contract is further extended to 5 years recently in central Indian ocean Basin (CIOB).
   In the 75000sqkm area of CIOB, the estimated polymetallic nodules resource potential is 380million tonnes, containing 92.59mt of manganes, 4.7mt of nickel, 4.29mt of Cu & 0.55mt of Co. polymetallic nodule programme is oriented towards exploration and development of technologies for harnessing of nodules from the central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) allocated to India by international seabed authority.
    It has 4 components such as :-

1. survey & exploration
2. environmental impact assessment
3. technology development(minining), and
4. technology development (metallurgy)

after detailed survey & analysis , at this stage ,an area of 7860 square km has been identified in the CIOB for the firts generatiin mining site. EIA studies for mining of deep sea polymetallic nodules is also carried out to evaluate the possuble impacts of mining in deep-sea environment. A Remotely Operable Submersible (ROSUB 6000), capable of operating at 6000 m water depth was developed and tested successfully at a depth of 5289 m for assessing environmental condition below 5000 m.

even two pilot project to demonstrate the extraction of nodules was commissioned at 

1. A 500 kg nodules per day for extracting Cu,Ni & Co at Hindustan Zinc Limited, Udaipur
2. A 500 kg processing capacity for extracting of ferro-sillico-manganese ore from the residue obtained from HZL plant.

INDIA is pioneer in R&D ,EXPLORATION AND MINING OF MARINE RESOURCES UNDER DEEP SEABED MINING PROGRAMME . India is among top 8 countries to do deep sea mining project. Presently, such project is not commercially -economically viable due to higher cost involved in the process along with technology for mining and metullergy is at infant stage. machinery is not available now at low cost. even though India is going through its polymetallic nodule programme due  to its strategic needs of these minerals for defence,space and electronic industry , developing hi-tech industry, with the continious R&D the cost of these mineral mining will fall and in future these nodules could be potential mineral resource reserves for us. presently, all the found nodules reserves in CIOB is uneconomical and unprofitable.

Recently, INDIA was re-elected as the member of INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY(ISA). and term for contract to explore and extract polymetallic nodules is eztended for 5 years i.e., till 2022.

For the manganese nodule areas this means that contractors apply to the ISA for an exploration area of up to 150,000 square kilometres. The individual contractor must pay a licence fee for these areas. The crucial condition is that the countries can only use half of their licence area, or a maximum of 75,000 square kilometres. After preliminary exploration, the other half is reserved for developing states. So far the ISA has awarded 12 licences for the Clarion-Clipperton Zone and one for the Indian Ocean, all to various states. The contractors are China, Germany, France, India, Japan, the Russian Federation, South Korea, and the Interoceanmetal Joint Organization, a consortium of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, the Russian Federation and Cuba

all the countries experiences two problems for mining the polymetallic or manganese noduels they are follows as :-

1. machinery for deep sea mining is not fully developed so, cost of mining remains very high making deep sea mining project unviable. for example near papua new guneia projec was suspended.
2. environmental impact assessment due to deep sea mining is not done ,no detail analysis is available. no idea to environmentalist how adversely such mining project affect the marine ecology.

Eastern peripheral expressway (national expressway-2)

Eastern Peripheral Expressway project

In News : today PM Modi inaugurated India’s first smart and green expressway  called as Eastern peripheral expressway .

Facts :- as we see in the map ,135km -long six lane, access-controlled expressway connecting kundli to palwal , it is a bypass or outer ring road around Delhi. But India first outer ring completed was around 158 km long road in Hyderabad. So national expressway is the 2nd such Greenfield road project.

Route :-- eastern peripheral expressway is from kundli to palwal passing through east of Delhi and cities of Ghaziabad and Noida. It connect NH-44( earlier called NH -1 at kundli Haryana) and NH-19 ( earlier called NH-2)

Merits;--
1) To decongest the Delhi  traffic situation which arise due to entry of 2 lakhs vehicles from surrounding region or 20000 trucks daily into Delhi.
2) It speed up traffic movement in NCR region, save the wastage of time of daily commuters which is around 23 km/hrs now.
3) It helps to keep Delhi NCR region pollution free more.
4) Green expressway means planting of lakhs of trees, useage of watershed management and rainwater harvesting , 8 solar plants, solar lighting across the expressway,
5) Supply chain infrastructure get strengthen towards hilly states
6) Economic corridor it becomes due to intense economic activity such as setting up industrial plants and urban projects.
7) New cities will further emerged along with supporting other satellite towns of Delhi.
8) Smart expressway means use of electronic system for toll payment ,etc
9) Security provided by Uttar Pradesh and Haryana police.
10) It provides seamless connectivity beyond Delhi since it is one of the important node of golden quadrilateral and North-south corridor road

Demerit :-- land acquisition for the expressway was the major hurdle along with environmental clearance. Farmers along the expressway stalled the construction of road , experience protest too. It was acquired by paying compensation more than the market rates.

Timeline :- the project was first time proposed in 2011 as a part of national expressway-2, the project was approved by cabinet in 2015 and construction started in 2016. The project completed before the due time i.e., took only 500 days rather than 910 days as proposed time

finance:funding of the project
Cost of the project is around 11,000 crore of which  Rs 7,558 crore project is being used constructed under the engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) model with five firms – Sadbhav Engineering, Jaiprakash Associates, Ashoka Buildcon, Gayatri Projects, and Oriental Structural Engineers – being awarded various sections of the corridor. TheThe expressway was originally planned to be built under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, but it did not receive any bids. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) then had to go for the EPC model, where 167 requests for quotation were received.


Features – why this expressway is green and smart.?

1) This will be the second major access-controlled ring road in India after Hyderabad’s 158km-long Outer Ring Road.India's first smart and green highway, the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), . The Prime Minister will dedicate to the nation the 135-km six-lane access-controlled expressway, built at a cost of nearly Rs 11,000 crore to decongest the national capital along with the first phase of Delhi-Meerut Expressway.
2) The EPE is equipped with smart and intelligent highway traffic management system (HTMS) and video incident detection system (VIDS) besides a closed tolling system in which the collections will be made only on the distance travelled and not on the entire length and would be lit with solar lights.
3) "This will be a fully access controlled six-lane expressway and entry and exit will be through designated interchanges only. There will be closed tolling system and the toll will be collected only on the distance travelled and not on the entire length. Toll plazas will be equipped with Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system for faster toll collection and uninterrupted travel experience," he said. The minister claimed that the project is going to be completed in a record time of about 500 days against a target of 910 days.
4) it is designed to check pollution and will help in decongesting Delhi and its adjoining area as no commercial vehicle (which is not destined for Delhi) can enter Delhi. "This is the first expressway in the country with solar power for lighting on the entire expressway. There are 8 solar power plants on this expressway having a capacity of 4000-kilo watt (4 MW). For plantation, drip irrigation has been used in the central median as well as for avenue plantation,"
5) Apart from Highway Traffic Management System (HTMS) that includes Variable Message Signs (VMS) CCTV, Video Incident Detection System (VIDS), Warning Devices, Over Speed Checking System, Weigh-in-Motion, Pavement Management Systems and Fiber Optic Network, it will have real time incident management.

BS-VI NORMS ROLL OUT IN INDIA

BS-VI NORMS ROLL OUT IN INDIA

BS - VI Norms rollout and its merits and challenges
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The News
• Delhi became the first city to switch to BS VI grade fuel well ahead of the 2020 target in a bid to combat alarming air pollution levels.

cause : to purify the ambient air quality and reduce the air pollutants produce by major source that is automobile sector. since we are committed to paris agreement to reduce emission by 30-33%, indian cities has worse air quality according to latest studies, smog and related health issues to people, to fullfill international norms such as EURO NORMS on vehicles.

earlier target year to implement BS-VI Norms was 2024 but reduced to 2020
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Targets
• India had in 2015 decided to leapfrog to Euro-VI emission norm compliant petrol and diesel from April 2020, from the Euro-IV grade at present.
• ‎13 cities including Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Faridabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune will switch over to cleaner BS-VI grade fuel from January 1 next year.
• ‎Rest of the country will follow suit from April 2020.

About BS-VI
• Vehicular emission (NOx, SO2, CO2 and particulate matter) is a major contributor to the worsening air quality of Indian cities.Bharat Stage VI (BS VI) is an emission standard that will induce technology in the vehicles to reduce pollutant emissions.
• ‎The vehicles will mandatorily include On board diagnostics, which will and monitor the pollution caused by the vehicle in real time.
• ‎NOx emission will come down by approximately 25% for the petrol engine and 68% for the diesel engines.
• ‎BS-VI grade fuel contains 10 parts per million (ppm) of sulphur as against 50 ppm in BS-IV fuels.
• ‎The BS-VI fuel would result in 10-20 per cent reduction in particulate emission when used in BS-IV or lesser grade engines.
• ‎Full benefits will be realized when the automakers start manufacturing BS VI grade engines in their vehicles. The PM emission will see a substantial decrease of 80% in diesel engines.
• ‎The Octane number for petrol engines has improved from 88 in BS-II to 91 as required under BS-VI emission norms.
• ‎Though BS VI is in lines with Euro VI norm, it overcomes the drawback in the Euro VI norm that allows emission of higher PM (particulate matter) in diesel engines.

challenges BS-VI
> bs vi fuel production is done at oil refinaries , here sulfur and heavier component of hydrocarbon is removed which need investment of around 80,000crore by oil marketing companies . question us who is investing and how?
> vehicle engine technology improvement by several round of research and testing of 70,000km which involve cost ,time by auto manufacturers
> at individual level ,the cost of purchase of automobiles and its maintenance will increase
> A Diesel particulate filter (DPF) will be fitted in the automobile to expel particulate matters from the exhaust gas. Similarly, for NOx reduction, selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) will be used. In a nutshell, the engine will now a have a purification plant built into them.

These components and standards will have to be calibrated, tested and validated. The process will be akin to an extensive R&D and will require revamping the automotive product development processes. The cost involved in such a transition is estimated to be huge and some of this cost may have to be passed on to the end-users

> the requisite BS IV compliant fuel that had to be 50 ppm ultra low sulphur was not mandatory and the BS IV vehicles could manage with BS # compliant fuel as well. However, there is no such backward compatibility in case of BS VI vehicles.

According to some of the reports, many oil refineries are now equipped to produce BS VI compliant fuel and will soon be able to give out samples for testing

India to switch to world's cleanest petrol, diesel from Apr 1

Originally, Delhi and its adjoining towns were to have BS-VI fuel supplies by April 2019 and the rest of the country was to get same supplies from April 2020. But oil marketing companies switched over to supply of BS-VI grade fuels in the national capital territory of Delhi on April 1, 2018.

HIGHLIGHTS

India adopted Euro-III equivalent (or Bharat Stage-III) fuel with a sulphur content of 350 ppm in 2010 and then took seven years to move to BS-IV

From BS-IV to BS-VI it took just three years

BS-VI has a sulphur content of just 10 ppm and emission standards are as good as CNG.

Originally, Delhi and its adjoining towns were to have BS-VI fuel supplies by April 2019 and the rest of the country was to get same supplies from April 2020. But oil marketing companies switched over to supply of BS-VI grade fuels in the national capital territory of Delhi on April 1, 2018.

NEW DELHI: India will switch to the world's cleanest petrol and diesel from April 1 as it leapfrogs straight to Euro-VI emission compliant fuels from Euro-IV grades now - a feat achieved in just three years and not seen in any of the large economies around the globe. India will join the select league of nations using petrol and diesel containing just 10 parts per million of sulphur as it looks to cut vehicular emissions that are said to be one of the reasons for the choking pollution in major cities.

Sanjiv Singh, Chairman of Indian Oil Corp (IOC) - the firm that controls roughly half of the country's fuel market, said almost all refineries began producing ultra-low sulphur BS-VI (equivalent to Euro-VI grade) petrol and diesel by the end of 2019 and oil companies have now undertaken the tedious task of replacing every drop of fuel in the country with the new one.

"We are absolutely on track for supplying BS-VI fuel from April 1. Almost all refineries have begun supplying BS-VI fuel and the same has reached storage depots across the country," he said.


From storage depots, the fuel has started travelling to petrol pumps and in the next few weeks all of them will only have BS-VI grade petrol and diesel, he said. "We are 100 per cent confident that fuel that will flow from nozzles at all the petrol pumps in the country on April 1 will be BS-VI emission compliant fuel."

India adopted Euro-III equivalent (or Bharat Stage-III) fuel with a sulphur content of 350 ppm in 2010 and then took seven years to move to BS-IV that had a sulphur content of 50 ppm. From BS-IV to BS-VI it took just three years.

"It was a conscious decision to leapfrog to BS-VI as first upgrading to BS-V and then shifting to BS-VI would have prolonged the journey to 4 to 6 years. Besides, oil refineries, as well as automobile manufacturers, would have had to make investments twice - first to producing BS-V grade fuel and engines and then BS-VI ones," he said.


State-owned oil refineries spent about Rs 35,000 crore to upgrade plants that could produce ultra-low sulphur fuel. This investment is on top of Rs 60,000 crore they spent on refinery upgrades in the previous switchovers.

BS-VI has a sulphur content of just 10 ppm and emission standards are as good as CNG.

Originally, Delhi and its adjoining towns were to have BS-VI fuel supplies by April 2019 and the rest of the country was to get same supplies from April 2020.


But oil marketing companies switched over to supply of BS-VI grade fuels in the national capital territory of Delhi on April 1, 2018.

The supply of BS-VI fuels was further extended to four contiguous districts of Rajasthan and eight of Uttar Pradesh in the National Capital Region (NCR) on April 1, 2019, together with the city of Agra.

BS-VI grade fuels were made available in 7 districts of Haryana from October 1, 2019.


Singh said the new fuel will result in a reduction in NOx in BS-VI compliant vehicles by 25 per cent in petrol cars and by 70 per cent in diesel cars.

The switchover, he said, is a tedious task as every drop of old, higher-sulphur cont