New Delhi, October 7-Witnessing the pollution hazard and health risk posed by firecrackers in 2018, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change exhorted scientific community to initiate research and development on fireworks to address not only the emissions from fireworks but also protect the economy of people.
CSIR responded the call by immediately embarking on a project to develop reduced emission/green fireworks, where in eight government run laboratories participated with CSIR Nation Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) coordinating the entire exercise.
Addressing the press conference on Saturday Honorable Minister Dr. Harshvardhan said, “I’m happy to announce that the popularly used products including sound emitting crackers, flowerpots, pencil, chakkar and sparklers based on new formulations developed by CSIR have been manufactured and are available in the market for consumers and sellers. I appreciate the efforts of CSIR in developing green crackers and pleased to note that nearly 230 MoUs and 165 non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) have Ben signed with fireworks manufacturers.”
Dr. Harshvardhan called for adoption of new and improved formulations by manufacturers and submission of compositional analysis of raw materials samples by fireworks manufacturers for emissions testing at CSIR-NEERI approved NABL facilities.
DG, CSIR, Dr. Shekhar C Mande in his opening remarks highlighted that the key achievements of CSIR in developing green crackers were in laying out clear definition of them and developing technology with reduced emissions for green firecrackers and setting up of first of its kind emission testing facility developed for testing emissions from source and establishing raw materials characterization compositional analysis facility.
He also highlighted that CSIR has contributed as technical expert in legal and policy interventions for establishing baseline values for bench marking green crackers and assessing Barium levels in conventional crackers and green crackers.
Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Director NEERI, highlighted, “a two-pronged approach had been taken in development of green crackers. CSIR-NEERI developed improvements in conventional formulations based on Barium Nitrate to meet the stipulated norms of green crackers as per the recommendation of technical committee.”
Dr. Rakesh Kumar also presented that CSIR-NEERI has developed new formulations to reduce emission light and sound emitting crackers with 30% reduction in particulate matter using Potassium Nitrate as an oxidant.
Fireworks based on new and improved formations including Safe Water Releaser, Safe Thermite Cracker and Safe Minimal Aluminium firecrackers and demonstrated to firework manufacturers like Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers’ Association (TANFAMA), The Indian Fireworks Association (TIFMA), PESO and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
These new and improved formulations are available for adoption by fireworks manufacturers after signing NDAs. He also highlighted that about 530 emissions testing certificates have been issued to firework manufacturers for new and improved formulations meeting the stipulated guidelines of green crackers.
Dr Sadhna Rayalu and the team of CSIR demonstrated the green crackers from conventional cracker and QR coding for monitoring.
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