IIT Guwahati researchers who achieved this task were led by Dr. Kaustubha Mohanty, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati.

While IIT Guwahati researchers were led by Dr. Mohanty the team comprised Dr. Ranjeet Kumar Mishra, Dr. Krushna P. Shadangi, Mr. Mithelesh Koul, Mr. Gautam Ganeshan and Mr. Gourav Chatterjee, who have coauthored these papers.

Currently, ‘biofuels’ are successfully made from vegetable oils and animal fats. In USA and Europe, for example, surplus edible oils like soybean oil and sunflower oil are being used for the production of biodiesel.

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The conversion of food resources to fuel compromises the global supply-demand of food, especially in developing countries with existing nutritional deficiencies.

Dr. Mohanty who lead the team of IIT Guwahati researchers said oils derived from non-edible seeds of plants can be used to produce biofuels, to eliminate the competition between food and fuel.

Plants/trees found in India, such as peela kaner, mahua, gulmohar, neem, rain tree, castor, kusum etc., produce seeds that have oil from which biofuels can be made.

IIT Guwahati researchers comprising Dr. Mohanty and his team used a heat-chemical route to produce biofuels from these and other such seeds that they painstakingly collect from various parts of the country.

The team of IIT Guwahati researchers designed a low-cost pyrolyzer to obtain biofuel from these oils.
While the yield of biofuel was very encouraging, there were some problems – the biofuel had lower acidity and high oxygen content, which made them unsuitable for use as transportation fuel.

To improve the properties of the biofuels derived from non-edible seed oils, IIT Guwahati researchers used various catalysts such as calcium oxide, zeolite, etc. during the conversion of seed oil to biofuel.
Both yield and quality improved, the biofuels produced were comparable in properties to regular diesel, except for viscosity.

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The higher viscosity of our biofuel is still a problem, but we’ll find a way to overcome this, said Dr. Mohanty who led the team of IIT Guwahati researchers.

Biofuel is not all they have obtained from these non-edible seeds. After purification of the oil derived from the seeds, the team was left with valuable chemicals in the discards, which find a plethora of industrial applications.

One such remnant they could recover was hexadecanoic acid, which is used in making soaps, various cosmetic products, and release agents. Another was stearic acid that has numerous industrial applications.

This is truly a waste-to-value operation, said Dr. Mohanty. The team of IIT Guwahati researchers are seeking to understand the chemical mechanisms by which biofuels are produced from these sources and are studying their applicability in engines.

The team of IIT Guwahati researchers have not stopped with plant sources. They have derived bio-oil from a mixture of waste plastics and waste biomass.

Single-use nitrile gloves used in lab and medical settings were used for this purpose.

The demand for biofuel is expected to increase in future and it is certainly not sustainable to generate them from food sources, said Dr. Mohanty who led the team of IIT Guwahati researchers.

This work is critical in the search for dedicated non-edible feedstocks for biofuel production, he said.

About IIT Guwahati

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati established in 1994 has completed 25 years of glorious existence in 2019.

At present, the Institute has eleven departments and five inter-disciplinary academic centres covering all the major engineering, science and humanities disciplines, offering BTech, BDes, MA, MDes, MTech, MSc and PhD programmes.

The Institute offers a residential campus to 412 faculty members and more than 6,000 students at present.

Besides its laurels in teaching and research, IIT Guwahati has been able to fulfil the aspirations of people of the North East region to a great extent since its inception in 1994.

The picturesque campus is on a sprawling 285 hectares plot on the north bank of the Brahmaputra, around 20 kms from the heart of the Guwahati city.

IIT Guwahati is the only academic institution in India that occupied a place among the top 100 world universities – under 50 years of age – ranked by the London-based Times Higher Education (THE) in the year 2014 and continues to maintain its superior position even today in various International Rankings.

The Institute has been ranked at 6^th position in ‘India Overall Rank’ and 350^th position under the ‘World Overall Rank’ categories released by Nature Index for the year 2020.

Along with the seven other institutes, IIT Guwahati has been ranked below 500 in the QS World ranking released recently.

IIT Guwahati has retained the 7th rank among the best engineering institutions of the country in the ‘India Rankings 2020’ and also achieved the best ever rank of #7 in the ‘Overall’ category this year (2020) declared by National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) of the Union ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) in June 2020.  

Among other frontier areas of research and innovation, IIT Guwahati is working towards augmenting critical science research initiatives in Genomics, Developmental Biology, Health Care and Bioinformatics, Flexible Electronics, Advanced Functional Materials, Sustainable Polymers, Rural Technologies, Disaster Resilience and Risk Reduction, and Water Resources and Management.

IIT Guwahati is poised to scale newer heights through all round growth and development.

The exam is being conducted on every Friday and Saturday from 7 March to 28 June 2025, closing date for online NATA 2025 application submission is Friday exam is 11:59 PM on every Monday from 7 March to 28 June 2025.

Similarly, deadline for NATA 2025 application submission online for Saturday exam is 11:59 PM on every Tuesday from 7 March to 28 June 2025. Link For information on important dates in connection with test and NATA 2025 application submission is here.

During that duration, the exam will be conducted on Fridays in afternoon session from 1:30 to 4:30 pm.

Students who are interested in studying graduation in architecture, can take up NATA 2025 application submission.

The brochure containing various details about NATA 2025 is also be released on the official website at the appropriate time. The official website can be accessed at ‘https://nata.in/’ to obtain the information brochure.

How to obtain the brochure

1. Candidates can type the URL ‘https://nata.in/’ in their browsers and submit them to allow the website to download.

2. Once the website is ready, candidates can click the button Nata Brochure 2025 which is located on the right hand top corner of the website.

3. Clicking the above button will open the brochure in another webpage and candidates can read the information there about NATA 2025 registration and other related topics.

Who can take up NATA 2025 application submission?

Candidates who have passed plus-two from a recognized educational institution can take up NATA 2025 application submission. It is nothing but applying for the exam.

Subjects in the plus-two must be from the science stream. Architecture aspirants have to pass plus-two with maths, physics, and chemistry as subjects.

Students who have appeared for plus-two exams and are waiting for the results or are about to appear for plus-two exams can also apply.

They have to, however, pass the exam and provide proof of it by the time of admission.

How to take up NATA 2025 application submission?

The process to undertake NATA 2025 application submission is online. Candidates have to visit the official website of the exam to submit applications.

The URL to reach it is ‘https://www.nata.in/’ and process mentioned below can be followed to apply for the exam:

1. The URL mentioned above has to be typed into the browser of the computer. The website has to be allowed to download.

2. Once the webpage is available, applicants have to click the required link for registration. Registration is to be done to obtain an account with a username and password.

3. Once the registration is done, applicants must log in with their username and password. The application form has to be filled out and submitted.

4. Post submission, candidates can obtain a confirmation message indicating successful submission.

5. Once obtained, applicants can download it and take a printout of it.

Website for NATA 2025 application submission is here

NATA 2025 Application Fee

Candidates taking up NATA 2025 application submission can pay a fee of  ₹1750 if they are from General or OBC categories.

SC/ST/EWS/PwD category candidates have to pay NATA 2025 application submission fee of ₹1250, applicants from transgender category candidates can pay  ₹1000 while taking up NATA 2025 application submission and fee for the outside India candidates is ₹15000.

Candidates seeking more information about NATA 2025 application submission, can refer the information brochure for the exam.

How to download the hall ticket?

Students who have successfully completed the process of NATA 2025 application submission alone can download hall tickets.

The dates for downloading admit cards will be informed in due course. Details will be available on the official website.

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The process to download admit cards is online, candidates have to visit the official website at ‘https://nata.in/’ and follow the process mentioned below:

1. This URL can be typed into the browser and then the webpage is to be allowed to download.

2. Once the website is available, candidates can click the link for admit card.

3. They have to enter their roll number, application number and other information and submit them to obtain the hall ticket.

After the NATA 2025 application submission

Those who have completed NATA 2025 application submission can download the hall ticket and appear for the exam.

The candidates have to pass the exam with the required qualifying marks.

Qualifying marks which are otherwise known as cutoff marks are the minimum scores candidates have to score to be eligible for the admission process.

Scores of the students in the exam have to either greater than the cutoff or equal to it.

Those who pass the exam with the required cutoff score can apply separately with educational institutions offering BArch admissions based on NATA scores.