TERI & DBT to set up Centre of Excellence on Integrated Production

Realising the importance of investing in research and commercialisation of biofuels, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India has taken up a major research initiative. Under this initiative, a large numbers of scientists across various institutions in India and abroad are collaborating in second and third generation biofuel production. The DBT has already established four Bioenergy Centres across the country with state-of-the-art facilities and dedicated inter-disciplinary teams that have been working on cutting edge research to develop advance biofuels.

In what will become the fifth such centre, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and DBT signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on October 31, to set up the DBT-TERI Centre of Excellence: Integrated Production of Advanced Biofuels and Bio-commodities. The Centre is being established with the support of DBT in collaboration with the Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi; Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati; Transtech Green Power Limited, Jaipur; and ONGC Energy Centre, Delhi NCR.

The MoU was signed by Dr. Ajay Mathur, Director General, TERI and Dr. Mohd. Aslam, Senior Advisor, DBT and exchanged between Dr. Mathur and Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary, DBT on October 31.

On the occasion, Dr. Mathur, said, “Advanced biofuel technologies in biorefineries help us to use waste biomass for fuel production – thus helping us address the waste disposal, energy import and greenhouse gas emission problems, as well as bringing new livelihoods to rural communities. We look forward to pioneering new applications, technologies and business models through this programme, just as earlier DBT programmes in TERI pioneered the commercialisation of micropropagation and of mychorrhizal production technologies.”

Improving economic viability

So far, economic viability is a major constraint for advanced biofuel production, thus limiting its commercialisation. It is recognised that the by-products generated during biofuel production process can be utilised to produce value-addition in bio-commodities, in an integrated bio-refinery approach to make the overall process cost competitive. The by-products could be utilised as food, feed, nutrition supplements, developing bio-plastics and novelty speciality chemicals that can be further utilised for production of customer products. This will also ensure that waste generation is minimal.

“We’re looking at processes that can be developed and commercialised. ‘Waste to value’ is our topmost priority and this centre having an integrated bio-refinery approach is a good approach,” Dr. Swarup said.

“TERI is in a unique position because we have a multidisciplinary team ranging from engineers, biotechnologists, economists etc. Hence, we are capable of undertaking research on not just biofuels but also bio-commodities, which are also co-products of the production process. This makes the entire process economically and environmentally sustainable with minimal waste generation,” Dr. Vibha Dhawan, Distinguished Fellow & Senior Director, said.

The concept of integrated production of advanced biofuels and bio-commodities is based on the multi-disciplinary research expertise of TERI, including previous successes in establishing photo-bioreactor of 10,000-litre capacity for year-round production of high lipid containing algal strain; pilot scale (1,500-litre) bio-hydrogen production through dark fermentation process; and pyrolytic bio-oil production. Comprehensive techno-economic analysis, environmental assessment and socio-economic assessment would be carried out covering the entire range of the integrated bio-fuel and bio-commodity components.