Removal of microplastics from seawater ensures no plastic residues are present in the edible salt extracted from seawater.

Professor Kaustubha Mohanty and Dr. Senthilmurugan Subbiah, Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Guwahati have recently published the results of this research in the journal Environmental Technology & Innovation, in a paper co-authored by their research scholar, Mr. Naveenkumar Ashok Yaranal.

Micro-plastics – plastic pieces smaller than one-fifth of an inch – are now found in almost all oceans and marine animals.

IIT Guwahati researchers develop great microfiltration process

What’s worse, sea salt has been found to have considerable amounts of micro-plastic.
Research performed in East Asia has shown that 90 percent of the table salt brands sampled worldwide has micro-plastics.

Another study by IIT Bombay showed that eight brands of Indian sea salt were contaminated with micrometre sized particles of polyesters, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyamide, polyethylene and polystyrene.

Micro-plastics ingested by human beings can disrupt hormones, leading to infertility, and cause nervous system problems, and even cancer, say IIT Guwahati researchers.

While there have been many studies to identify and quantify micro-plastics in various food products, including salt, there have been fewer attempts at finding ways to remove them.

IIT Guwahati researchers have, for the first time, shown efficient removal of micro-plastics from synthetic seawater using hollow fibre microfiltration (HF-MF) membranes.

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Speaking about the work, Dr. Mohanty, one of IIT Guwahati researchers said in our hollow fibre membrane filter, hundreds of tiny straw-like tubes are bundled together to create a filter matrix.

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The walls of these tubes are filled with microscopic pores, and when water is passed through the tubes, the micro-plastics are trapped inside, thus freeing water of this pollutant, say IIT Guwahati researchers.

Hollow fibre membranes are already used extensively in daily life applications such as RO pre-treatment, industrial water/wastewater, juice processing, and other biotech applications, including in dialysis membranes used for kidney ailments.

The hollow fibres are made of many kinds of materials and the ones used by the IITG team was made of polypropylene and a silk protein called sericin, say IIT Guwahati researchers.

‘We were able to remove 99.3 % of the micro-plastics present in seawater, without any reduction in the salt content,’ say IIT Guwahati researchers.

The researcher clarifies that this can only remove micro-plastics from seawater before salt extraction, and obviously cannot remove micro-plastics that get added during salt production, such as through the use of descaling agents in the desalination process itself.

Some advantages of hollow fibre membrane technology that make it promising for pre-treatment of seawater include simplicity of installation and use, cost effectiveness, no need for power supply, no generation of waste, and operability under low water pressure.

About IIT Guwahati

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati established in 1994 has completed 25 years of glorious existence in 2019.

At present, the Institute has eleven departments and five inter-disciplinary academic centres covering all the major engineering, science and humanities disciplines, offering BTech, BDes, MA, MDes, MTech, MSc and PhD programmes.

The Institute offers a residential campus to 412 faculty members and more than 6,000 students at present. Besides its laurels in teaching and research, IIT Guwahati has been able to fulfil the aspirations of people of the North East region to a great extent since its inception in 1994.

The picturesque campus is on a sprawling 285 hectares plot on the north bank of the Brahmaputra, around 20 kms from the heart of the Guwahati city.

IIT Guwahati is the only academic institution in India that occupied a place among the top 100 world universities – under 50 years of age – ranked by the London-based Times Higher Education (THE) in the year 2014 and continues to maintain its superior position even today in various International Rankings.

The Institute has been ranked at 6th position in ‘India Overall Rank’ and 350th position under the ‘World Overall Rank’ categories released by Nature Index for the year 2020.

Along with the seven other institutes, IIT Guwahati has been ranked below 500 in the QS World ranking released recently.

Among other frontier areas of research and innovation, IIT Guwahati is working towards augmenting critical science research initiatives in Genomics, Developmental Biology, Health Care and Bioinformatics, Flexible Electronics, Advanced Functional Materials, Sustainable Polymers, Rural Technologies, Disaster Resilience and Risk Reduction and Water Resources and Management.

IIT Guwahati is poised to scale newer heights through all round growth and development.

The schedule to submit applications for JEE Advanced 2025 has been announced along with that of AAT 2025 registration,

Application process for AAT starts after result declaration of JEE Advanced. This year too, the trend is no different.

Who will conduct AAT 2025?

AAT 2025 will be conducted by IIT Kanpur and is expected to see a participation in impressive numbers. The same institution is conducting JEE Advanced 2025.

Details about the exam are available on the official website mentioned above. Students who pass AAT 2025 will be able to study BArch in IIT Roorkee, IIT Kharagpur and IIT (BHU) Varnasi.

Who can take up AAT 2025 registration?

Students who have passed JEE Advanced 2025 with required qualifying marks can take up AAT 2025 registration. Applying for JEE Advanced requires a pass in JEE Mains.

Candidates who have passed plus two with maths, physics and chemistry as subjects will be able to take up JEE Mains registration. The process to take up JEE Advanced AAT 2025 registration is online.

1. The URL has to be typed into the browser and the webpage has to be allowed to download.

2. Once the website is available, students should click the link for JEE Advanced AAT 2025 registration and enter JEE Advanced 2025 registration number, their date of birth, mobile number and email address.

3. Post providing the above details, applicants will be asked if they are interested in AAT. Students have to answer ‘Yes’ to take up JEE Advanced AAT 2025 registration.

4. Candidates have to provide the required information and choose the centers where they wish to write the exam and submit the form.

5. They will receive message indicating successful completion of JEE Advanced AAT 2025 registration.

The message has to be downloaded and a printout of it has to be taken and preserved for use in future. This could be of use during the admission process.

Website for JEE Advanced 2025/AAT 2025 Registration is Here

Exam pattern

Candidates who have completed JEE Advanced AAT 2025 registration must also know the exam pattern if they are to score good marks.

Those who have taken up AAT 2025 registration can take up the exam which will be held in offline mode, as a pen and paper mode test.

Candidates will have three hours time to answer all the questions. The medium of the test is English.

The sections in the question paper are – Imagination and aesthetic sensitivity, three dimensional perception, Geometrical drawing, Freehand drawing and Architectural Awareness.

Syllabus for AAT 2025

The next thing to do after completing AAT 2025 registration is focus on preparing for the test.

The subjects to be studied while preparing for AAT 2025 are mentioned below. Candidates can also refer the official website for more information on syllabus when the registration for the exam begins:

Geometrical Drawing

Exercises in geometrical drawing containing lines, angles, triangles, quadrilaterals, polygons, circles, etc. Study of plan (top view), elevation (front or side views) of simple solid objects like prisms, cones, cylinders, cubes, splayed surface holders, etc.

Freehand Drawing

This would comprise of simple drawing depicting the total object in its right form and proportion, surface texture, relative location and details of its component parts in appropriate scale.

Common domestic or day-to-day life usable objects like furniture, equipment, etc., from memory.

Three dimension perception

Understanding and appreciation of three-dimensional forms with building elements, colour, volume and orientation. Visualization through structuring objects in memory.

Architectural Awareness

General interest and awareness of famous architectural creations – both national and international, places and personalities (architects, designers, etc.) in the related domain.

Imagination and Aesthetic Sensitivity

Composition exercise with given elements. Context mapping.

Creativity check through innovative uncommon test with familiar objects. Sense of colour grouping or application.

The medium of the test is English. The sections in the question paper are – Imagination and aesthetic sensitivity, three dimensional perception, Geometrical drawing, Freehand drawing and Architectural Awareness.

The admit cards obtained for JEE Advanced 2025 can also be used to gain entry into the test centers for AAT 2024.

Point to remember

Candidates can visit the official website of JEE Advanced exam for more information on JEE Advanced AAT 2025 registration and other related topics.

The students have to quickly take up the AAT 2025 registration as the time left would be very short.

Like JEE Advanced exam where the registration is open for a longer duration, that of AAT 2025 registration is open for only a short period.

The details about AAT 2025 registration provided above are for general understanding purpose of the students.

There could be some changes in the exam, students can visit the official website of the exam at regular intervals to receive updates.

More information could be provided as the time for AAT 2025 registration would commence, till that time, students can refer other sources also.

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