Sustainable Development

The focal problem at the center of our project was to find a sustainable solution to one of the most potent causes of climate change today: halocarbons. Halocarbon-based refrigerants and coolants have very high global warming potential and are also ozone-depleting in nature.

CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons) had been extensively used as coolants for most of the last century despite the harm they have caused to the planet’s atmosphere. After the Montreal Protocol identified them as the leading cause of ozone depletion in 1989, these gases were replaced by yet another group of halocarbons – HCFCs and HFCs. Although less potent than CFCs, these gases too have high global warming potentials and continue to affect the ozone layer. Currently, Halocarbons serve a massive 83% of the world’s cooling needs.

The world does recognize the need for greener solutions and countries have sanctioned numerous phase-out plans. But the problem of waste disposal, managing tons and tons of unusable gases from obsolete machines that will eventually leak and pollute the environment, is an open, festering problem that still hasn't been looked after. Today, every HCFC and HFC treatment method that has been approved involves only incineration processes or plasma technologies, all of which rely on heating to huge temperatures (this requires fuel and thus in itself leads to CO2 emissions) and causes the formation of harmful by-products such as HCl, HF and dioxins. In a sense, incineration is hardly a solution to the problem and more of an ad hoc effort to patch it up.

Most of these processes are too costly and/or need significant infrastructural requirements and thus unsuitable to deploy in developing countries from the outset. Many of the developing nations have still not been able to afford refrigeration blends that are extensively used by their developed counterparts. 

The number of refrigerating units are projected to touch 10 billion appliances by 2050. Domestic use of air-conditioners will grow as much as five times by 2050. At this rate of increase in cooling appliances, the need of an economical and green solution to the halocarbon disposal problem simply cannot be understated.

At IISc-Bengaluru, we aim to develop a sustainable method that can process halocarbons on a large scale. We are incorporating enzyme systems that can degrade most of these gases through a sequential anaerobic-aerobic pathway into the industrial workhorse, Pseudomonas putida. To deliver our remedy to the world, we are designing a cost-efficient bioreactor that can be installed in processing units all around the world and cleanly dispose off these polluting gases, ensuring green transition of economies at the grassroots level. With Halocleen we hope to create an impact that will benefit the planet for generations to come.

Besides our efforts in the laboratory, in coming up with a working solution, the team has also consistently sought every opportunity to spread awareness among the people in the most impactful ways. We recognise the global nature of a problem as big as the climate crisis and the importance of involving the people, the masses, more than just scientists, to find a tangible solution to the problem. Our community outreach programs include extensive workshops ranging from students in primary school, middle school up till high school. The potential of synthetic biology in providing some of the most innovative solutions to these problems was especially stressed upon. We had an engaging idea session where iGEM project solutions to the climate catastrophe plaguing us, were discussed with a wide audience in a workshop. 

We have also targeted audience that is usually missed out on when resorting to more modern media (e.g. social media, targeted talk series, etc), such as the rural populace (comprising 60% of the Indian population) as well as the elderly people. We visited the towns of Pimperkhed in Maharashtra and many other rural areas near Bengaluru to engage in a dialogue with the elderly and other authorities and come up with the most impactful educational material. The feedback helped us improve and edit our package to cater to different people. The reception ultimately was most motivating, and we now have the educational material translated into many languages, both national and international.

Our team hails from the Indian Institute of Science, located at the heart of the beautiful city of Bengaluru. Sometimes called the 'Silicon Valley' of India, the city has been built on the foundation of sustainable urbanization. With roads made of recycled plastic and compulsory rainwater harvesting, the city has stood out in the country in taking initiatives. However, even Bengaluru barely has a proper halocarbon disposal or degradation facility. Irene Papst, a scientist associated with modeling the global ODS banks for GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH) told us how developing countries like India usually have to export tons of halocarbons for degradation simply because they do not have the facilities. We verified this with our conversations with appliance repair shops.

We want to make our city and all the cities in the world, self-reliant with respect to halocarbon disposal. We seek to achieve this by promoting a solution that is cost-efficient and sustainable. Our efforts align well with United Nations' SDG aims under goal 11 - enhancing inclusive and sustainable urbanization and reducing the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, especially by paying special attention to air quality and waste management.

Innovation: Halocleen provides a solution that is novel and innovative. We resolved to develop a way of destroying Halocarbons that is more sustainable than any of the present technology. The simplicity and modularity of our solution provide scope for restructuring, improvement and innovation for anyone who wishes to join hands and take things ahead.

Infrastructure: The proposed solution is built on the cornerstones of sustainability and resilience. Even years down the line, when there might not be any halocarbon left to degrade, our bioreactor model will still be relevant for other industries to utilize.

Industry: Our bioreactor is a device that aims to degrade massive quantities of halocarbons. The application of this technology on a large scale calls for an upgrade in the halocarbon destroying industry for the bigger goal of promoting sustenance. This might be used by the local authorities to increase job opportunities at the grassroots level.

Novel technologies that work towards promoting a sustainable future need the support of the global community to achieve their aims. At Halocleen, we took the views of people associated with sustainable technology around the globe to understand how can we improve our solution further. We made sure our final product aligns with the agenda of a circular economy. In a future where all halocarbons have been done away with, our modular bioreactor can be reused for any other solid-state based industrial process like fermentation. To spread the message of cooperation and importance of talking to stakeholders, we hosted a talk by Mr. Ian Crosby, Former Manager of Sustainability Initiatives for East Asia and the Pacific at the International Finance Corporation. He talked in detail about designing sustainability initiatives for international development.

Halocleen focusses are coming up with solutions that bring developing, underdeveloped countries at par with developed nations through an economical solution to the halocarbon disposal problem. With a successful bioreactor, our efforts need not remain confined to India as this is a problem that stunts every country’s effort towards coolant treatment. Our technology will help people tackle this issue much beyond the borders as it slowly gets ingrained into the working machinery for waste disposal in various countries. The solution can be freely adopted and economically installed in nations worldwide, helping economies to green transition at the municipal level.