Gurwinder was also named one of the three finalists for Agilent Award for innovation in analytical sciences, at the Clean UP 2017 conference, for his cutting edge and low cost solution to carbon capture and conversion.
Speaking to SBS Punjabi earlier this week, Gurwinder Singh said, "Global warming is a dire reality and possibly the biggest challenge facing humanity at the moment. There is no reason to be skeptical about the data that clearly proves that man-made activities have resulted in global warming and climate change.
"Carbon dioxide is one the main greenhouse gases its concentration is continuously increasing in the atmosphere, mainly due to industrial activity.
The concentration of carbon dioxide in atmosphere has risen to above 400 ppm (parts per million) which is already more than the accepted number (350 ppm) for climate safety to preserve a livable planet."
"The seriousness of this problem could be rationalized from these numbers. A concentration of 400 ppm means that for everyone million air particles, 400 of them are of carbon dioxide which is 0.04% of the total. Now it is expected (IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007) that the concentration of carbon dioxide will grow up to more than 70 ppm by the end of this century."
"Such a high value imposes the imminent danger of a rise in earth’s temperature by 1.9°C which can lead to serious consequences such as rise in sea levels and disappearance of many low-lying land masses. Therefore, there is immediate need to minimize the CO2 emission into the atmosphere by developing suitable technologies."
"As a graduate material chemistry researcher, it is quite intimidating to discover new kind of materials for CO2 mitigation. As majority of CO2 emissions comes from industrial operations, so our main research strategy was to discover materials that could be used in such operations."
Gurwinder Singh was the only scientific researcher of Punjabi origin to present his findings at the Clean UP 2017 conference held in Melbourne this week Source: SBS Punjabi
"Our priority was to reduce the total cost involved in making the material that would capture CO2 even before it is released into the environment. So we chose plants to devise materials through a simple process where we converted them into activated carbons."
"This could make a huge breakthrough once the technology is commercialized as it has the potential for replacing the use of conventional activated carbon in various industries." Australia is a big market for import of activated carbon - 3500 tonnes of it was imported for pulp gold extraction process alone.
"Making activated carbon in our own backyard with relatively cheaper resources from within local Australian areas could potentially boost the local economy and generate more jobs and more importantly help to minimize the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere."
"A process or method is considered sustainable if it can impact the social, economic and environmental aspects and our research shows this potential to a very high extent."
"Finally, I would say that innovation is what keeps you at the cutting edge and asks us to be always competitive. The process developed in the current innovation is quite unique and highly effective for CO2 removal from the industries. The overall process involves low cost, is non-toxic, has little to no disposal considerations and is environmentally friendly."
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