The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) under the Ministry of Science and Technology has launched the ‘DBT-Pan IIT Centre for Bioenergy’, a virtual Centre spread across five Indian Institutes of Technology; Bombay, Kharagpur, Guwahati, Jodhpur, and Roorkee.
The project has been coordinated by IIT Bombay. A Memorandum of Agreement has been inked with the DBT and the five IITs. The first virtual centre for collaborative research will focus on the thematic areas of research in advance bio-fuel technologies, said a statement from the Ministry here. The collaboration was initiated in early January and engaged a research team from the five participating institutes consisting of 32 investigators who have been working on bio-energy and will jointly undertake research activities in the following thematic areas: Cyanobacterial Biofuels, Biofuels from micro-algae, ligno-cellulosic biomass to Biofuels and Techno-economic and life Cycle Analysis. The main objective of this centre is to develop advanced technologies in the area of biofuels, paving the way for a sustainable solution to the energy crisis.