To develop advanced technologies in the area of bio-fuels, paving the way for a sustainable solution to the energy crisis, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), has launched — Pan-IIT Centre for Bioenergy — a virtual centre spread across five Indian Institutes of Technology — Bombay, Kharagpur, Guwahati, Jodhpur, and Roorkee.
The first virtual centre for collaborative research, to be coordinated by IIT Bombay, will focus on the thematic areas of research in advance bio-fuel technologies, according to a release.
The collaboration, initiated in January 2015 and engaged a research team from the five participating institutes, consisting of 32 investigators who have been working on bioenergy, will jointly undertake research activities in cyanobacterial bio-fuels, biofuels from micro-algae, ligno-cellulosic bio-mass to biofuels and techno-economic and life cycle analysis.
The release said though the first virtual centre, it is the fourth centre in bioenergy research set up by DBT in addition to the DBT-IOC Centre for Advanced Bioenergy Faridabad, DBT-ICT Centre for Energy Biosciences, Mumbai and DBT-ICGEB Centre for Advanced Bioenergy, New Delhi.
The centre also aims to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with the bioenergy industry in India, the release said.
