Serious search for large-scale helium in India began during the first years of the 1970’s by the legendary S. N. Bose, FRS, National Professor of Physics. Professor Bose had the foresight to recognize that India would need substantial quantities of helium gas in future to feed its emergent requirements in crucial scientific areas. And this supply must essentially come out of its own natural resources. Accordingly, he started off a ‘Helium Recovery’ project at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) at Jadavpur, Kolkata, during 1971. The entire task of planning and execution of this project was entrusted to the well-known experimental physicist, Professor S. D. Chatterjee, one of the distinguished students of Professor Bose. Prof. Chatterjee noted the presence of helium in the hot spring (72oC) gas emissions at Bakreswar, near Santiniketan, West Bengal. The helium content of the Bakreswar gas was about 1.8 volume percent. The helium recovery pilot plant (helium recovery from hot spring gas) built by Prof. Chatterjee and his colleagues at Bakreswar was a remarkable breakthrough. It immediately attracted the attention of Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). And therefore, in 1977 at the insistence of Dr. H. N. Sethna, the then Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) along with Dr. A. S. Divatia, Project Manager, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC), Kolkata the work concerning helium recovery done at IACS was transferred to VECC from March 1978. The related field work was taken charge of by the Atomic Mineral Directorate (AMD) of DAE. This part was also subsequently transferred to VECC in 1982. Around 1984, Prof. Bikash Sinha came to VECC from BARC and he got interested in the project, especially after meeting Professor S.D. Chatterjee who had extraordinarily original and innovative ideas and was greatly admired by Dr. Raja Ramanna and Prof. Sinha. Meanwhile, helium extraction from the nearby geothermal field at Tantloi (Jharkhand) also started through a joint venture of DST, VECC and Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Kolkata. A purification plant was installed improving recovered helium purity to 99.99 per cent purity level. In the year 2009 a prototype helium extraction plant was also installed at natural gas field at Kuthalam, Tamilnadu by VECC, SINP in collaboration with DST and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to extract helium from natural gas having feeble helium concentration of 0.05 volume percent. It was demonstrated for the first time in the country that it is very much possible to recover helium from natural petroleum gases having feeble helium content (0.05 vol.%). Moreover that extreamly low concentration helium bearing natural petroleum gas was purified using Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technique to produce a high grade helium (99.0 vol.% pure helium). The installation and commissioning of the PSA helium pilot plant (helium recovery from natural petroleum gas) along with purification unit (99.0 vol.% pure helium) was a remarkable breakthrough.
Prof. Bikash Sinha in his capacity as Homi Bhabha Professor of DAE along with some young colleagues continued the programme, which was funded by Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). Prof. Bikash Sinha and his group performed geochemical and geophysical research activities at Bakreswar-Tantloi geothermal region, West Bengal and in Jharkhand. The work brought to light two vital conclusions:

• The entire Bakreswar-Tantloi geothermal area is sitting on a huge reservoir of helium existing within the crust not far beneath from the top soil. The surface expression of helium, as seen at hot spring bubble gas, figures only but a tiny fraction of this reservoir. This region hosts almost 60 hot springs within 2500 square km area. These hot springs are enriched with high concentration of helium (1.88-2.77 vol.%.). Indeed, this fact was surmised and mentioned long time ago by Professor S. D. Chatterjee to Prof. Bikash Sinha. We wish to explore the entire topology and the extent of the helium reservoir.
• The high geothermal heat outflow (230 mW/m2), geothermal gradient (90 0C/km) is seen in this area. Also high concentration of helium and radon (radioactive gas) are emanating from the hot springs of this zone. These data indicates the presence of a potential geothermal resource in the area. This area will be ideal for setting up a “geothermal” energy reactor - a vital source of energy (green energy) still completely ignored in India.

Presently the entire programme is operated from NIT Durgapur. A high level scientific community is monitoring and supervising the said activity.

• Helium Exploration and Purification
• Geothermal Exploration
• Monitoring of Earthquake Precursors
• Nonlinear analysis of geochemical and geophysical data
• Theoretical Development

Origin of 3He isotope in the inner Earth
Earthquake Precursor

Recently an unprecedented scarcity of helium is observed around the globe. The largest supplier of Helium, the United States of America already announced to cut off the supply to the other part of the globe. The helium used in scientific research and modern technology in India is 100% imported till the date. So far work has been done to extract helium from hot springs (surface manifestation only) only Bakreswar geothermal area. However the He yield from this existing plant is very less (Fig 1).

The project is a start off venture for exploring the Geothermal Energy and setting up a proposed Geothermal Power Plant in the Bakreswar-Tantloi Geothermal Area. The high geothermal heat outflow (230 mW/m2), geothermal gradient (90 0C/km) is seen in this area. Also high concentration of helium and radon (radioactive gas) are emanating from the hot springs of this zone. These data indicates the presence of a potential geothermal resource in the area. This area will be ideal for setting up a “geothermal” energy reactor - a vital source of energy (green energy) still completely ignored in India.

  

The Earthquake Precursor Study will deploy gas geochemical techniques for the prediction of earthquake. It focusses in bringing together changes in spring gas and soil gas anomalies as a predictive tool in earthquake research by accessing instrumental data recorded at four geographically remote monitoring centres using digital data communication through VSAT networking.The principal objective of the research is to create baseline information on the relationship of gas concentration changes to imminent seismic events in the context of the Indian geophysical scenario. It proposes to examine inherent redundancies in the application of the method and the possibility of assimilating geochemically derived information with other predictive approaches.Statistical data correlation is a part of the investigation.Presently four Monitoring Stations are operated by the said group at different corners of the country along with a central data analysis centre at headquarter at NIT Durgapur. The monitoring stations are placed in dissimilar geological environments and in different seismic zones of the country. One of the monitoring stations is located at the thermal spring site at Bakreswar(23o 52’ 30” N; 87o22’ 30” E) which lies in the eastern part of the country in a moderate risk zone - seismic zone III. It is close to the extinct (115Ma) Rajmahalvolcanics of the Chotanagpur gneissic complex in West Bengal. The second one monitoring station is situated at the TattaPani(33o14’16”N, 74o24’43”E)thermal spring site which falls in the north-western part of the country in a high risk zone - seismic zone IV and it is located in a non-volcanic geothermal area that lies within the mountain folds of Jammu & Kashmir, situated in proximity to the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) of the Lesser Himalayas.The third one is at the mud volcano, Baratang island (12007’ N;92047’E) of Andaman & Nicobar islands. Mud or Sedimentary volcanoes are cone shape mounds formed from fine mud eruption containing gases and acidic liquids with suspended fine sediments. Mud volcanoes do not involve magma eruption. Muddy materials from great depths are squeezed upward. The fourth is located at Tantlio Hot Spring site, Jharkhand. In each site, soil gases as well as hydrothermal gases are collected. Different kind of instruments such as gas chromatograph, radon monitor, seismometer etc. is installed at the said laboratories to collect the geochemical and geophysical data. The recorded data are sent to the headquarter at NIT Durgapur through VSAT internet connectivity for further analysis.

  

• Helium Exploration and Purification :
Therefore a deep drilling based helium extraction plant along with purification system is proposed to recover helium in large scale.In this scenario very recently NIT Durgapur has taken a programme to explore the hydrothermal source of helium at BakreswarTantloi geothermal area. A research project has been undertaken at Bakreswar-Tantloi geothermal area to extract helium in large scale from a proposed 800 m deep drilling (bore-hole).The raw helium (concentration of 1.8-2.0 vol.%, mixed with other gases like CH4 3.43 vol%, N2 92.20 vol%, Ar 2.10 vol%, O2 0.90 vol%, CO2 1.20 vol%,) which is supposed to be extracted from this 800 m deep bore-hole.After extraction of helium from that hot spring gas we need to purify it. In this purposes we must need to build a Helium Plant having a well-developed purification Units (Fig 2).
This purification unit will be designed by the technique known as Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) to purify helium gas to obtain Grade A helium (Purity > 99.0 vol.%) that we can get high recovery rate > 20-30%, otherwise it will not be usable at all in the modern equipments ,technology and science . Our aim is to fabricate this purification system by utilizing the adsorption properties of materials and PSA technique.
• Geothermal Exploration :
NIT Durgapur has taken up a project of drilling an 800m borehole which will supply the natural steam for the proposed Pilot Geothermal Plant. Different data analysis will be done at different depths in the borehole which will be useful for the installation of the equipments for the above mentioned Pilot Geothermal Power Plant.
• Monitoring of Earthquake Precursors :
1. NON LINEAR ANALYSIS OF GEOCHEMICAL AND GEOPHYSICAL DATA
Earthquake prediction is a challenging job for the global scientific community. Geochemical and geophysical precursor signals from the earth interior are basically non linear in nature .These signals contain information about the deep earth. Our knowledge about the various interacting features(physio-chemical processes) within the deep earth is very limited which causes a great deal of uncertainty in the field of earthquake prediction .By applying different kind of non linear technique one may explore various information about the physics of deep earth geochemical and geophysical processes. Earthquake prediction is a challenging job for the global scientific community. Geochemical and geophysical precursor signals from the earth interior are basically non linear in nature .These signals contain information about the deep earth. Our knowledge about the various interacting features(physio-chemical processes) within the deep earth is very limited which causes a great deal of uncertainty in the field of earthquake prediction .By applying different kind of non linear technique one may explore various information about the physics of deep earth geochemical and geophysical processes.
There are a number of non linear techniques by the help of which we can explore the various nature of the geochemical and geo physical data that we are getting from the various hot spring and volcanoes.
The various non linear techniques that we are using are listed below:
• • Power spectrum analysis through FFT
  • Wavelet analysis through CWT / DWT (WAVELET TRANSFORM)
  • Nonlinear exponent – Embedding dimension, Correlation dimension etc. through 4.FRACTAL
  • Recurrence plot
  • Multifractal analysis
Nonlinear techniques were adopted on the recorded time series data to extract the information hidden in the helium and radon time series. Continuous wave let transform was applied on the radon time series recorded simultaneously at Bakreswar and TattaPani during the period of December 15-2007-January15, 2008. The localized contours present in the wave let of Bakreswar and TattaPani radon time series are the imprint of the pre-seismic anomalies. The wave let analysis shown in figure1 reveals the anomalies that were recorded in both the site during the period December24-27,2007.
The variation of the time series data at hot spring is shown below
In order to understand the underlying dynamics and nonl inearity involved in the physico-chemical processes of excess release of helium and radon prior to an earthquake the Fast Fourier Transform was applied to the recent soil radon time series data recorded at TattaPani hotspring site during July, 2009. Fig.2 shows the presence of long-range correlation in the radon time series data recorded at TattaPani during July, 2009. Multi-fractal statistics was also applied to the recent soil radon time series data recorded at TattaPani hotspring site during November 1-December30, 2012. Comparison of radon data for seismically active phase and seismically quiescent phase were made through the multi-fractal analysis. the fig.3 shows the multifractal spectrum of the time series data
• Theoretical Development :

  Continuous emanation of Helium isotopes (3He &4He) from geothermal springs has drawn our attention in the recent past. It is quite a puzzling situation to understand what the origin of these gasses is. The high 3He/4He (R) ratio indicates either there is a lack of the radiogenic helium isotope (4He) of excess of the primordial helium isotope (3He). The data of the 3He/4He ratio from various researchers around the globe indicate that the distribution of 3He/4He is not uniform throughout the various parts of earth. This unequal distribution brings us to question about the recently adopted model of earth’s accretion process.
  Another interesting situation is that 3He cannot be originated anywhere on earth through natural processes as per present day knowledge. We are thus forced to us ask how can there be such a huge reservoir of primordial helium that is continuously emanating at least for the past 2 billion years. All the 3He reservoirs around the globe are assumed to be originated during the accretion process of earth. But if that was the only source, the rate of emanation should have been decreasing over time which is not the case. So we our left with the option that probably there is source of 3He inside the earth itself. But as per recent geological construction of earth there’s no such scope for 3He generation. It is probable, that there is a natural geo-reactor running for the past 1.8 billion years. It is our endeavour to understand and establish a theoretical background for the origin of 3He in the earth’s interior.
  The background of this thought are based on the facts that firstly at Oklo, Gabon, Africa evidences of a naturally occurring fission geo-reactor was found which points out that in the planetary systems nuclear chain reactions can be initiated and sustained naturally without any exterior force. The second evidences of this prediction are the ever changing polarity of earth’s magnetic field. There can be a possible explanation of this planetary magnetic field’s origin by help of a nuclear geo-reactor at the centre of earth.
  Other basis is the fact that gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn are found to emanate twice as much energy than received by the sun. What is the origin of this excess energy?

  Earthquakes are well known to be the after effect of plate tectonic movements, yet little is known about the true causes of tectonic movements. Also there is, at present, no perfect theory that unambiguously gives the exact origin and range of effect of such movements.

  • Origin of 3He isotope in the inner Earth:
  • Earthquake Precursor:

Report on :

Visit to
Geochemical Monitoring Laboratory, at Bakreswar-Tantloi Geothermal Area, West Bengal & Jharkhand
Date of Visit: August 23-24, 2015

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Paper publications in National / International Journals:

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Other than SCI Journals

Books/ Monographs/ Book chapters written:

Full texts of all the publications are available on-line in Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hirok_Chaudhuri/publications/
Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=_X2gpvoAAAAJ&hl=en

Papers publication in National/ international Conferences:

Abstract of all the conference publicationsare available on-line in Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hirok_Chaudhuri/publications/
Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=_X2gpvoAAAAJ&hl=en

Coming Soon

Dr. Hirok Chaudhuri
Project Manager, Helium and Geothermal Project & Associate Professor,
Department of Physics,
National Institute of Technology Durgapur,
Mahatma Gandhi Avenue,
Durgapur-713209,
West Bengal, India.

Telephone : +91 343 2546808 (Office)
Cell Phone : +91 9434789019, +91 9830076271
Email : hirok.chaudhuri@phy.nitdgp.ac.in, chaudhuri_hirok@yahoo.co.in