Roorkee, 10th July 2018: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee hosted a two days’ workshop on 6th and 7th July, National Workshop on Bioenergy to bring together on a common platform the experts from all Four Centers of Bioenergy that were established by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.
The objective was to facilitate exchanging of ideas and issues that can boost the commercial success of bioenergy sector in India. The workshop was coordinated by the Department of Biotechnology, IIT Roorkee.
Prof. M. S. Ananth, Chairman SAC, Former Director, IIT Madras in his message told that DBT-Pan IIT centre has altogether 13 technologies under different stage of development. It has good number of international publication and patent.
Delivering the opening remarks, Dr. Sangita M. Kasture, Scientist, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, said, “The DBT started four Centers on bioenergy dedicated to translational research. The centers are DBT-Pan IIT Centre for Bioenergy, DBT-IOC Centre for Advanced Bioenergy Research, Faridabad, DBT-ICGEB Centre for Advanced Bioenergy Research, New Delhi and DBT-ICT Centre for Energy Biosciences, Mumbai.” She briefed the workshop about the objectives and functionalities of these centers.
Prof. R. P. Singh Keynote speaker, IIT Roorkee said, “Among the key discussions of this workshop was 2G bioethanol, biodiesel and biohydrogen production, which is cleaner and greener form of energy. Speakers stressed on the role of microalgae in biofuel production which has various engineering strategies at gene level that can significantly enhance the efficiency of microalgal cell for biofuel production. Various speakers spoke on large scale manufacturing of 2G bioethanol which is necessary on an urgent basis to meet set target.”
Addressing the workshop, Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, said, “The Energy bioscience program is one of the key programs of DBT, GoIfor sustainable biofuel production. The DBT-Pan IIT center for bioenergy is an initiative with five IITs (IITs Bombay, Kharagpur, Guwahati, Jodhpur and Roorkee), which has all laboratories contributing towards science and technical breakthroughs for developing new generation of sustainable and cost-effective technologies for biofuel production.”
