Workshop on Energy Efficiency for Fisheries
A one day workshop on “Energy efficiency for fisheries” was held at ICAR-CIFT, Cochin on 14 July, 2016. The workshop was organised in collaboration with M/s Datamatrix Infotech (P.) Ltd., Cochin, ICAR-CIFT and MPEDA, Cochin. The workshop had 45 participants. Representatives from seafood exporters, scientists from ICAR-CIFT, MPEDA officials and officials from the Energy Management Centre, Kerala attended the Workshop.
Dr. C.N. Ravishankar, Director, ICAR-CIFT in his introductory address highlighted the importance of energy efficiency in the fisheries sector. At ICAR-CIFT, initiatives have been taken on developing energy efficient systems and assessment of energy use in fish harvest and post harvest sector. In the post harvest sector, pilot scale studies were carried out on the energy use pattern in fish processing industries. In the global as well as Indian scenario, the fish processing industry is not a major energy user; its energy use is nevertheless a contributor to carbon emissions. Hence there is a need to establish a firm evidence base of existing energy consumption patterns and potential for savings in the fish processing sector. There is a need to develop tools for optimized energy use in fish processing units and data on GHG emission per unit of product.
Dr. Leela Edwin, Principal Scientist & Head, Fishing Technology Division presented an overview of the work carried out at the Institute on energy efficient fish harvesting systems and Dr. George Ninan, Principal Scientist, Fish Processing Division presented the energy use pattern in post harvest fishery operations.
M/s Datamatrix has given a live demonstration of the Energy Monitoring and Reporting Platform developed with the financial support from M/s Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, in association with Small Scale Industrial Development Bank of India. The platform was displayed with live energy data and key performance indicators from the fish processing /ancillary plants. M/s Datamatrix has also demonstrated advanced technology solutions of the company that can be integrated to the platform for continuous performance optimization of energy use.
Following the presentations, there was an interactive session with the representatives of the seafood industry. The participants acknowledged that the platform will be very useful for the sea food processing industries and aquaculture facilities to monitor the carbon footprint of the seafood industries. Shri Alex, Vice President of SEAI has informed that the carbon footprint monitoring and energy efficiency improvement is of distinct advantage to the industry and will give an edge for exporters in the international market. Shri R. Thomas, Chairman of M/s Datamatrix explained that technology solutions can meet the objective of monitoring carbon footprint, energy management and performance optimization.
