Department of Biotechnology launched Pan-IIT bioenergy Virtual Centres

Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has launched a Pan-IIT Centre for Bioenergy in order to develop advanced technologies in the area of bio-fuels and make way for sustainable solution to the energy crisis that the world in facing today. This virtual centre would be spread across five Indian Institute of Technologies across the nation at Bombay, Kharagpur, Guwahati, Jodhpur and Roorke.

The first of the virtual centres for collaborative research would be coordinated by IIT Bombay. It would focus on thematic areas of research in advance bio-fuel technologies. The collaboration was initiated way back in January 2015 and participants from the five institutes took part in the collaboration. There are 32 investigators from the participating institutes that have been working on bioenergy, who would join and undertake research work. The research would take place over cyanobacterial bio-fuels, biofuels from micro-algae, lingo-cellulosic bio-mass to biofuels and techno-economic and life cycle analysis.

It is the first virtual centre that has been set in years, but it is the fourth centre in bioenergy research that has been set up by DBT. The other three centre that are functional are 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 would also help develop mutual and beneficial relationship with the bioenergy industry in the country. The research and development work conducted by the five institutes jointly would further be shared on academic level to comprehend with bioenergy issues over the world and help breaking new grounds in the field over the time.