Curtin University – The KGP Chronicle

Sustainable Alternatives in Energy, Environment & Healthcare for Science & Society

INDO-US, INDO-AUSTRALIA AND INDO-CANADA INTERDISCIPLINARY WORKSHOPS AT IIT KHARAGPUR

The Bioprocess & Bioproduct Development Laboratory of the Department of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur along with the collaborators from USA, Australia, and Canada organized three days workshop under the Government of India’s Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) from 24th to 26th February 2023. The workshops were inaugurated by Prof. Amit Patra, Deputy Director, IIT Kharagpur in the august presence of Dr. Prachi Kaul, Director, Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute and Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti, Dean BTBS, IIT Kharagpur. The workshop saw a footfall of more than 80 participants from both within and outside the horizons of IIT Kharagpur. Sustainable Alternatives in Energy, Environment, and Healthcare for the well-being of Science and Society was the theme of the three different workshops that spanned across the institute.

Pic : Inaugural session of the Indo-US SPARC Workshop (L-R) – Professor Warren D. Seider from the University of Pennsylvania was present online; Prof. Amit Patra, Deputy Director, IIT Kharagpur; Prof. N. R. Jana, HOD, Department of Biotechnology and Prof. Ramkrishna Sen, Department of Biotechnology (Convener) were present physically for the inauguration ceremony.

The three day long programme witnessed 20 speakers from 10 National and International universities and institutes accompanied by eminent industry leaders. On 24th February 2023, the first of the series INDO-US workshop was initiated on ‘Algaeneering for Global Energy and Climate Challenge’, jointly organized by the Bioprocess and Bioproduct Development Laboratory (BBDL) at IIT Kharagpur and the University of Pennsylvania, USA wherein academia researchers and industry experts across India and the US discussed the challenges, avenues, and technologies in research, development & innovations and techno-commercial assessment of renewable energy sectors.

Prof. Warren D. Seider, a world-renowned Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania delivered a plenary lecture. The other speakers at the workshop were Prof. K. K. Pant, Director, IIT Roorkee; Prof. Pinaki Bhattacharyya Emeritus Professor, Head, R&D, Chemical Engineering, Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata; Dr. Anindita Moitra, Chief General Manager, Indian Oil Corporation Limited; Dr. Sangeeta Srivastava, Executive Director, Godavari Biorefineries Ltd., Karnataka and Dr. Harshad R. Velankar, Chief Manager, Bioprocess Group, Hindustan Petroleum Green R & D Center, Bengaluru.

Pic : Inaugural session of the Indo-AUS SPARC Workshop (L-R): Prof. Saswat Chakraborty, Dean BTBS, IIT Kharagpur; Prof. D. N. Singh, IIT Bombay; Prof. N. R. Jana, HOD, Department of Biotechnology and Prof. Ramkrishna Sen (Convener) in the inauguration ceremony.

Under the aegis of SPARC, the second day of the INDO-AUSTRALIA workshop scheduled on 25th February 2023 focused on ‘Bioinspired Solutions for Natural & Built Environment: Science, Society & Wellbeing.’ The Australian collaborators under the SPARC program from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Curtin University; Prof. Abhijit Mukherjee and Dr. Navdeep Dhami joined hands with the experts from India, Prof. Devendra Narain Singh, D. L. Shah Chair Professor for Innovation, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay; Prof. Brajadulal Chattopadhyay, Professor, Jadavpur University; Mr. Ramananda Adhikari, Deputy General Manager, Hindustan Copper Limited, Kolkata and Dr. Santanu Dasgupta, Senior Vice President, Reliance Technology Group, Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai put forth a series of insightful talks.

Pic : Dr. Santanu Dasgupta, Senior Vice President, Reliance Technology Group, Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai, India delivering his plenary talk online

A multidisciplinary concerted effort and partnership between educational institutions and industries was deemed to be instrumental in advancing research and development was highlighted in these workshops through the active participation of three PSUs including Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL) and two private industry market players Reliance and Godavari Biorefineries. These industry experts visited algal biomass production facility, a demo park created under the ambit of IMPRINT-IIA scheme (DST-SERB) between IIT Kharagpur and HPCL.

The INDO-CANADA workshop was held on 26th February 26, 2023 with the funding supports from Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI) and SPARC on the theme ‘Green/Bio-polymers as renewable and sustainable alternatives to Petro-plastics: Energy-Environment-Healthcare Nexus’ with the active involvement of Prof. Sudip Kumar Rakshit, Canada Research Chair Professor, Bioenergy & Biorefining Research Institute, Lakehead University, Canada and Prof. Satinder Kaur Brar, James & Joanne Love Chair in Environmental Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, Canada. Enthralling talks were also delivered by Dr. Santanu Dasgupta, Senior Vice President, Reliance Technology Group, Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai, India; Prof. Prashant Mishra, Former Head, Department of Biochemical Engineering & Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; Prof. Dipankar Chattopadhyay, Former Head, Department of Polymer Science & Technology, University of Calcutta, and Dr. Krishna Chattopadhyay, Jadavpur University and Anchor, DD Bangla, Doordarshan Kendra, Kolkata. Dr. Santanu Das Gupta gave virtual demonstration of their state-of-the-art biorefinery facility, highlighting the challenges and mentioning the need and scopes of Industrial-Academia collaborations.

Pic : Prof. Sen demonstrating the high-rate algal pond, one-of-its-kind facility to capture the industrial emissions and valorize towards biofuels and healthcare products.

Participants delivered oral presentations of their research work in the three day workshops where Prof. Sen’s doctoral students, Mr. Romit Mitra and Ms. Ankita Debnath presented their work on algal biorefinery and bio-cementation perspectives, respectively.

Pic : Group photo at the valedictory session on Day 3

Prof. Ramkrishna Sen, Department of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur & Convener of the workshops remarked, “All the workshops were well organized by the members of the Bioprocess & Bioproduct Development Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur which acknowledges Mr. Satyanarayana Reddy Battula, Dr. Chinmay Hazra and Dr. Debasree Kundu for their tremendous efforts and ground level coordination. Financial supports accorded by SPARC, an initiative of the Ministry of Education, GoI as well as the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI) thus, paved the platform for developing an exciting research ecosystem through cohesive academic and research collaborations was well received by the overwhelming participants. “

Input By : Prof. Ramkrishna Sen, Department of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur
Email: rksen@bt.iitkgp.ac.in

Edited By : Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

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All in days’ work

Two back-to-back workshops organized by the Bioprocess & Bioproduct Development Laboratory (PI: Prof. Ramkrishna Sen) of the Department of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur along with the collaborators from USA and Australia from January 2-5, 2020 under the Government of India’s Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) brought to students latest news on how the scientific community the world over is bracing up for a future that will see biofuels replace petroleum and green technologies being employed in a world that is seeing the steady depletion of natural resources. The bottom-line of both the workshops were the pursuit of new technologies for a sustainable future.

Prof. Seider, Prof. Tewari (Director, IITKGP), and Dr. Venkata Mohan (extreme right)

“We are presently living in a linear economy, where we ‘take, make and throw’. But this is a cradle-to-grave attitude. We have to move towards a circular economy, where producing energy from biogenic waste will play a significant role,” said the S. S. Bhatnagar awardee, Dr. S. Venkata Mohan from the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad.

In the first workshop on ‘Sustainable biorefinery for Waste Valorization, organized by Prof. Sen’s group in IIT Kharagpur jointly with the University of Pennsylvania, USA from January 2-3, 2020, the Indian and US researchers and experts discussed the challenges and breakthrough technologies that inform the search for future renewable energy sources.

Professor Warren D. Seider from the University of Pennsylvania

Prof. Sen’s US collaborator under SPARC, Prof. Warren D. Seider, a world renowned Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, who has written ground-breaking Chemical Engineering books, talked about the application of mathematical programming methods to optimize a biorefinery to make ethanol. Citing Prof. Rafigul Gani’s mathematical model, which appears in Prof. Seider’s textbook –“Product and Process Design Principles”, co-authored with several experts, including Prof. Gani, Prof. Seider showed how both India and Thailand were to gain immensely if they used their biomass-based feedstocks – wheat straw, sugarcane bagasse, hardwood chips among them – to produce ethanol products sustainably.

Prof. Ramkrishna Sen, Convenor of both the workshops and the Head of the Department of Biotechnology, talked of how his biorefinery helps in carbon-dioxide sequestration from point sources, wastewater remediation and biofuel production through strategic cultivation of green microalgae and valorization of biomass for various applications in a biorefinery model. Prof. Pinaki Bhattacharya, a well-recognized expert in Chemical Engineering and former Professor & Head, Department of Chemical Engineering, Jadavpur University and Emeritus Professor, Heritage Institute of Technology; Prof. Ranjana Chowdhury, Professor & former Head, Department of Chemical Engineering, Jadavpur University and Dr. Harshad Velankar, Senior Manager & Head Bioprocess Division, Hindustan Petroleum Green R & D Center, HPCL, Bengaluru were also the invited dignitaries of the event and delivered very interesting and insightful talks that stressed on the need for setting up of biomass based biorefineries and attempted to address the challenges in designing and operating such sustainable biorefineries.

The other speakers at the workshop were Prof. Debabrata Das, Visiting Professor, Department of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur, who has been researching into biohydrogen production processes for the last three decades, and Prof. B. C. Meikap, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, who presented his nice work on amine-based carbon capture in fluidized bed reactor operations.

Among Prof. Sen’s doctoral students, Dr. Geetanjali Yadav, who has worked with Prof. Seider in designing a commercial scale algal-to-biodiesel production plant that could produce 183 million gallons of biodiesel per year during her Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania presented her work and Mr. Romit Mitra presented his novel idea on metabolic engineering of yeast for biobutanol production in a biorefinery. A doctoral student of Prof. R. Chowdhury, Jadavpur University presented his work on bioethanol production using agro-wastes.

The Indo-Australia joint workshop on the ‘Recent Advances in Biocementation Technology’, which followed on January 4-5, too was held under the aegis of SPARC. The Australian collaborators of Prof. Ramkrishna Sen under the SPARC program from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Curtin University, Prof. Abhijit Mukherjee and Dr. Navdeep Dhami joined hands for the two day-workshop along with the experts from India, Prof. Devendra Narain Singh (Institute Chair Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay), Prof. Brajadulal Chattopadhyay (Professor, Jadavpur University) and Prof. Debasis Roy, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Kharagpur to make it a fruitful learning experience for all the participants. Prof. Sen and his research students, Piyush Nanda, Raviranjan Kumar and Ankita Debnath presented their research work in the relevant field.

Indo-Australia SPARC workshop participants

Biocementation is an emerging technology that leverages microbes and their actions for production of renewable and sustainable construction materials. The workshop aimed to give a bird’s eye view on biocementation from the perspective of biotechnologists, civil and environmental engineers.

Both the workshops were well organized by the members of the Bioprocess & Bioproduct Development Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, which thankfully acknowledges Dr. Chinmay Hazra and Dr. Debasree Kundu for their tremendous efforts and ground level coordination. The workshops, inaugurated by the Hon’ble Director of IIT Kharagpur, Prof. V. K. Tewari, Dean (CE), Prof. S. Dasgupta and Associate Dean (SRIC), Prof. R. Mukherjee were well attended by more than 50 participants from within and outside IIT Kharagpur. SPARC, an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, helps improve the research ecosystem in India by facilitating academic and research collaborations between Indian institutions and the best and selected institutions across the world’s 28 nations. As the national coordinator, IIT Kharagpur has been coordinating this flagship program with other nodal institutes of India.

Going places

Prof. Abhijit Mukherjee, Dean international South Asia and Director, Curtin-India Academy, Curtin University, has been visiting IIT Kharagpur for the past five years with a team drawn from the top faculty of Curtin University who understand, as he does, the immense potential the Curtin University-IIT Kharagpur joint PhD programme holds out for both countries in the field of education, research and the betterment of human resources. Prof. Mukherjee is a civil engineer, researcher and educator. At the School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Curtin University, he has taught structural mechanics, structural design, structural stability and finite element analysis courses. His industrial consultations are on structural assessment, structural rehabilitation and new structural materials. He loves to work on rehabilitation of heritage structures.

Prof. Mukherjee was in the IIT Kharagpur campus recently to attend the joint symposium of Curtin University-IIT Kharagpur and was mighty excited by what students, the real beneficiaries of the project, had to say about the programme at the symposium. Thrilled by the students’ accounts, he said, “The students are the best advertisement of the programme. They have made our job easy by coming out with such beautiful accounts of their experience at Curtin. “

Prof. Mukherjee talked at length about his own experiences during the promotion of the joint PhD programme and what plans Curtin University has for the future.

Could you tell us about your association with IIT Kharagpur and the program you are promoting?

“I was a PhD student of IIT Kharapur from 1984-87 and have possibly come to IIT KGP every year after that… if not multiple times then at least once a year. But now it’s more of an official engagement where my present university, Curtin, has been working with IIT KGP for research partnership, especially the joint PhD programme. I am happy with the way the programme has developed. I would go on record in saying that IIT KGP students have great reputation on Curtin campus.”

Why is that?

In this case, it is a combination of academically superior quality but also the willingness to work hard. The students who come to us from IIT KGP spend about a year. The way they contribute to our research is fantastic. But at the same time, I have asked the students and they are extremely happy with what they gain from their experience in Curtin. It’s a win-win situation. Some of them have told me that they have learnt a completely different style of doing research… first grade way of doing research ethically and safely. These are some of the big takeaways. Students are wonderful raw materials and they get a very good polish when they go to Curtin.

When can we expect Curtin students to come here?

This is a joint degree programme and students can travel both ways. The first student in the programme came from Curtin to IIT KGP and not the other way around. Unfortunately, we have not been able to expand on that. No we have more students going to Curtin from IIT KGP. We are mindful of that imbalance and imbalance is something that Curtin University as a policy does not want to have. So we are taking a few measures so that more students come from Curtin to IIT KGP. One measure is to expand the programme from just PhD to other areas. We have signed an agreement to increase student mobility. Which means that now IIT KGP students can go to Curtin University without paying fees to Curtin and our students can come to IIT KGP without paying fees since they have paid to Curtin already at the time of registration.

The other programme is that IIT KGP’s top professors will go to Curtin and hold a workshop there. Once the students know the quality of research that happens at IIT KGP, they will automatically choose to come.

The other project still at the discussion level is that Curtin wants to start a global PhD where students will compulsorily go and work in other universities to do research. It happens in undergraduate level, we want it to happen in PhD programmes as well. And we feel that India is a wonderful destination. Remember Australia is a country of 25 million people. You cannot have the same impact that you have on 25 million on 1.3 billion people. (Laughs) That is why I, personally, as a researcher send my students regularly to India and China among many other countries.