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The article responds to B. G. Desai's comments on their work, emphasizing the consideration of a 50-year timeframe to set an ambitious Human Development Index (HDI) target for India. It authors stress the need for a high standard of living, the challenges of state-wise HDI variations, the importance of "energy footprint," and their view on a reasonable energy consumption target for the country.

Summary: Hydrogen production via water splitting using nuclear electricity is one of the most promising, mature and near‐term deployable low carbon routes to establishing the hydrogen economy in nuclear‐equipped nations. Hydrogen has enormous potential to decarbonize multiple industrial sectors, including the hard‐to‐abate industries, which release significant quantities of greenhouse gases every year. Both nuclear and renewables can be used as energy sources for green hydrogen production, but presently, the focus is on renewables, possibly because of the high upfront capital investment for nuclear power projects and the skewed perception of risk and safety issues surrounding nuclear energy. In this work, the rationale for supporting the deployment and growth of the nuclear‐driven hydrogen supply sector is established from the perspective of the power plant owner and the potential off‐take industries that will require large quantities of low carbon hydrogen for decarbonizing some or all of their operations. The status of the technology alternatives, their techno‐commercial features, the enabling mechanisms for project deployment, and the potential barriers along the way are analysed, and key recommendations for near‐term policy action are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The solutions to mankind's greatest problems today lie in the simultaneous development, adoption and deployment of a combination of technological, socio-political, cultural and financial initiatives and mechanisms. The present work serves as a brief compilation of concepts and information pertaining to the broad domain of green finance, particularly for a readership with non-financial background. Green finance indicates the deployment of private and public capital towards projects that not only prevent environmental degradation and related impacts such as climate change and air pollution but also generate a host of social benefits and adequate financial returns for the investors. Thus, green finance embodies several cross-cutting concepts. The various global events leading to the development of the current state of green finance, the typical forms and instruments involved, the regulatory framework and issuance process for these instruments and the various international agencies and organizations developing and making use of green finance schemes for identified beneficiary projects are briefly described in this work. Financial disclosures and the role of regulators and investors in strengthening green finance schemes are discussed, along with a summary of the current thought leadership and current academic research in this domain. The challenges in green finance are also enumerated and a few perspectives for the future are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purification of heavy water used as the moderator and coolant of pressurized heavy water nuclear reactors (PHWRs) is a vital step in ensuring its adequate isotopic content that maintains neutron economy in the reactor core. This process is carried out in a packed vacuum distillation column which requires condensers and reboilers as essential heat transfer components. A vertical thermosiphon reboiler is used to minimize operating costs of the distillation system by eliminating the fluid recirculation pump and improving system reliability and safety by minimizing leakages and heavy water losses. This work presents a simple, direct methodology for optimizing the design and operation of such a reboiler using codes developed in-house and based on heuristics and two-phase heat and momentum transfer correlations from literature. The methodology is general and can be applied to any application requiring a thermosiphon reboiler. Parametric analysis and cost calculations have also been performed along with exergy analysis of reboiler performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simulation studies of batch distillation of some non-ideal binary systems have been carried out and reported in this work. Differential distillation as well as batch distillation at total reflux has been simulated through a semirigorous unsteady state mathematical model, implemented via codes developed in-house. The Wilson model has been used to represent non-ideality in the liquid phase and predict-vapour-liquid equilibrium (VLE) data. Parametric studies of the composition and temperature profiles have been carried out. Heating and cooling requirements for batch distillation operation have also been estimated. The model presented here can be used for simulating the start-up of any distillation column for even multi-component non-ideal systems, as long as the VLE data are available for them, without requiring any commercial simulation software. The model can also be extended to simulation of batch distillation columns with a finite value of reflux ratio after suitable modification of the governing equations. Thus it can be used for preliminary design work as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]