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 inauguration of the three day event was held at the institution’s premises on 17 November 2024, it will go on till 20 November 2024.

Chief guest

Eminent personalities to attend the event at Sharda Universities were Professor Ramji Prasad, Founder Director of CTIF and Founding President of GISFI, SK Marwah, Scientist-G and Group Coordinator of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Sharda University Pro Chancellor YK Gupta, and Vice Chancellor of Sharda University Dr. Sibarama Khara were also among those present at the program.

Dr Sibarama Khara lit the ceremonial lamp as a mark of commencement of the program.

Progress

S K Marwah, Scientist-G and Group Coordinator, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said that India is progressing beyond the deployment of 5G technology and is now moving towards the creation and establishment of its faster and more advanced successor: the 6G telecommunications network.

The 6G technology innovation group, TIG-6G, has developed India’s 6G Vision, a strategy aimed at creating 6G technology in India by 2030, he said during the symposium at Sharda University.

This vision aims to design and deploy a 6G network that is secure, intelligent, and offers widespread connectivity, allowing people worldwide to live ever better lives, he said.

The vision statement emphasizes India’s commitment to socio-economic prosperity and highlights the potential benefits of India’s leading 6G technology, which will enable ultra-low latency and speeds up to 1 terabit per second. This could be a game-changer for the Indian economy, he said.

Experts shared their thoughts on innovations related to Wireless Personal Multimedia Communication and Secure 6G – AI Nexus.

India is expected to file around 10 patents related to 6G technology, which will be highly beneficial for the Indian economy, he said.

Pro Chancellor of Sharda University

Sharda University Pro Chancellor Y K Gupta emphasized that the 6G network would be able to utilize higher frequencies compared to 5G, offering much greater capacity and very low latency.

He stated that 6G would demonstrate the emergence of simple, convenient, and easy-to-carry devices with vast digital capabilities, said Sharda University Pro Chancellor.

This will help advance rural ecosystems with minimal or no need for equipment on-site for paramedical staff, teachers, agricultural technicians, doctors, professors, and agricultural experts, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 6G Vision document for India, presented by the government, aims to position India as a leading contributor to the design, development, and implementation of 6G technology by 2030. Many countries view India as a promising destination for investment in the 6G technology sector, said Sharda University Pro Chancellor.

Sharda University Pro Vice Chancellor Dr Parmanand, Registrar Dr. Vivek Gupta, Dean of Research Dr. Bhupnesh Kumar, Dr. Pallavi Gupta, Dr. Amit Sehgal, Director of Admissions Dr. Rajeev Gupta, Dr. RC Singh, Director of PR Dr. Ajit Kumar, along with deans and HODs from various departments also took part in the event.

The institution has a strong focus on providing world class education to the students, who arrive at the institution in great numbers every year to study various courses.

The dynamic management of Sharda University has taken giant strides in promoting the scientific methodologies for career selection among the youth via its highly successful career counseling program.

Vision of this institution is to serve the society by being a global University of higher learning in pursuit of academic excellence, innovation and nurturing entrepreneurship.

Organization aims to create high-quality and flexible collaborative research space and culture that enable and promote knowledge creation.

It also desires to encourage involvement of students in research and also strengthen entrepreneurial and innovation culture among students.

The organization also encourages students to become lifelong learners and imbibe essential skills to serve the society at the highest level.

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