Environment Division

Fabrication and Manufacturing

SHEEL - FACE FACILITY

INTRODUCTION

Global changing environment is affecting the life on earth in several ways. One of the important consitutent of the earth's atmosphere is carbo dioxide (CO₂) gas, which controls the carbon cycle of the earth's rhizosphere. The level of CO₂ gas in earth's atmosphere which is increasing exponentially due to global industrialization, is likely to double its pre-industrialisation levels within next 50 years.

FACE stands for free Air CO₂ Enrichment facility, in which the simulation of elevated level of CO₂ is achived in the open fields by artificially injecting CO₂ gas in a controlled manner. Such facilities are being used to study the impact of risinf concentration of CO₂ on environment, crops, animals etc. all over the world.

M/s Sheel Biotech Ltd. a multi division, multi location, Agri Horti group in Northern India has become the first commercial venture in the country with the installation of a three ring Mid-FACE facility at DWSR, Jabalpur. The SHEEL-FACE facility was inaugurated by Hon'ble Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Member(Science), Planning Commission on 23.01.2010 at DWSR, Jabalpur.

FACE facility required no containment of spices. Previously difficult-to-study natural conditions such as temperature, wind, humidity and radiation are now possible in FACE. In addition, there are no plant size or growth problems caused by the constraint of enclosures. Therefore, long-term studies have become possible with the availability of FACE system and FACE field data can represent plant and ecosystem responses to concentrations of atmospheric CO₂ in a natural like environment expected during the coming years.

INSTALLATION SITE

M/s Sheel Biotech Limited, in technical collaboration with National Physical Laboratory (NPL), New Delhi have manufactured a medium sized FACE facility "SHEEL FACE" which has been installed at the Directorate of Weed Science Research (DWSR), Jabalpur. NPL design of Mid-FACE has established its credibility after its successful operation at the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi for more than a decade.

FUNCTIONING OF SHEEL FACE

The SHEEL FACE is an octagonal shaped ring having a diameter of 8 m Air mixed with CO₂ is blown in ring pipes with the help of efficient blowers. The control process involves monitoring of CO₂ concentration and metrological parameters inside the FACE ring along with the issue of control signals to a number of devices for their proper operation.

A PC-based (Computer) system controller is designed to control all such operations of the FACE facility. The computer control system receives information from various sensors and uses the information to adjust the CO₂ flow rates to maintain the desired CO₂ concentration in the FACE ring. A specially designed proportaional-integrat-differential (PID) algorithm adjusts the amount of CO₂ gas in to the ring.

The system then uses the wind direction and wind speed information to turn on/off feeding points of the FACE ring so that CO2 enriched air flows across the plots, no matter which way the wind blows. This feature reduces CO2 losses and reduces the potential for carryover of injected CO2 to adjacent plots. The entire FACE system is designed to cause no significant changes to the plots terrestrial environment or natural Airflow.

A team of Scientists & Engineers of Sheel Biotech Ltd. working on this project since last 8 months has updated the existing technology available in the country and this is the first time in India that 3 ring facility has been installed at Jabalpur which has opened a new technological innovation in the country in regard to commitment for Green Environment. The upgraded version of 3 ring system is the first facility in South Asia. Several other countries of the world are looking forwards for establishing such facilities.