Tag: energy

Hult Prize 2023 for Team StrawDeshi of IIT Kharagpur secures a spot in the Global Accelerator

Ideas and creativity are the most important human resources of all. Without ideas and creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns. Creativity is thinking up new things and innovation is doing new things.  Team StrawDeshi comprising of fourth year students Ayushman Agrawal (Mechanical Engineering), Daivik Agrawal (Mechanical Engineering), Purva Agrawal (Mining) and Tanishq Mittal (Metallurgy) from IIT Kharagpur emerged as winners at the Mumbai Summit of the Hult Prize 2023. StrawDeshi competed among 40 teams in the campus round of the Hult Prize.

Team StrawDeshi’s idea was to use agro-waste rice straw as a raw material and extract its fibre to create winter jacket insulation, replacing down feathers, cotton and polyester filling materials.

The second round consisted of 12 summits worldwide, in which Team StrawDeshi won at t

 

he Mumbai Summit which had 70 teams participating from IITs, IIMs and other colleges, majorly from South Asia. Their extraordinary ideas and commitment have secured them a spot in the Global Accelerator where they would be one of 20 teams across the globe working to improve and launch their product. Finally, six teams will compete in the finals to be held in Paris. For the three consecutive years, teams from IIT Kharagpur are winning in the category of South East Asia Region.

The Hult Prize is an annual, year-long competition that crowdsources ideas from university level students after challenging them to solve a pressing social issue around topics such as food security, water access, energy, and education with a $1 million as the anchor prize. It transforms how young people envision their own possibilities as Leaders of Change in the world around them.

The 2023 Hult Prize Call to Action is about creating a for-profit social venture, in the fashion/clothing industry. Ideas from students must create a measurable positive impact on people and the planet and support the United Nations in meeting its Social Development Goals by 2030.

Inputs by : Mr. Samarth Singh, Student Vice President, Technology Students Gymkhana
Email: samarth2003@kgpian.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

Follow us on: Facebook – IIT Kharagpur; Twitter – @IITKgp;  Instagram – @iit.kgp; LinkedIn – Indian Institute of Technology
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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

Follow us on: Facebook – IIT Kharagpur; Twitter – @IITKgp;  Instagram – @iit.kgp; LinkedIn – Indian Institute of Technology
For news visit: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/ 

Microwave for Clean Fuel

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Kitchen to Cosmos Microwaves these days ring ‘n’ number of bells. IITKGP Researchers have tapped this microwave radiation to create Clean Energy from the nitrogen-rich non-food Sunn Hemp plants.

In the wake of the ongoing initiatives to control pollution, we are often made to think of the proverb ‘prevention is better than cure’. There is an urgency to replace the use of fossil fuels like petrol and diesel which are direct causes of pollution, global warming and climate change. Various clean energy technologies have been developed. Acres of land in the country have been allocated for solar and wind energy, hydel power and geothermal projects have been deployed and expanded over the decades. But India’s fossil fuel import bill still runs high due to non-availability of renewable energy sources at mass scale. Biofuels derived from high-energy non-edible plant sources such as Sunn Hemp on the other hand have the potential of making it available in large scale for replacement of fossil fuel which can find significant use in transportation sector. The main obstacle to its large scale deployment as a future fuel is its highly crystalline structure and long polymer chains, which make the fibres inaccessible to enzymatic and chemical treatments.

Researchers from IIT Kharagpur’s P K Sinha Center for Bioenergy have exacted the issue through the use of microwave radiation. The team from the Bioenergy Lab at the Dept. of Chemical Engineering has successfully converted non-edible lignocellulosic fibres of Sunn Hemp to biofuel precursors, and that too completing the entire conversion – which otherwise takes about 8-10 hours – in only 46 minutes using the microwave reactors in the lab.

“1 kilogram of Sunn hemp fibres containing 756 gram of cellulose produces 595 gram of glucose at 160°C, and 203 gram of hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) at 180°C, in 46 minutes. The glucose is separated and fermented using yeasts to produce 230 g of ethanol-based biofuel which is often used in automobiles as a biofuel additive for gasoline. The platform chemical HMF can also be hydrogenated to furanic biofuels such as dimethylfuran which can be used as a replacement for diesel” explained researcher Souvik Kumar Paul.

Sunn hemp is widely grown in the subtropics of Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Pakistan, Russia, Sri Lanka, USA, Uganda. It is grown in almost all states of India, especially Bihar, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The large scale availability of Sunn Hemp in India along with its fast rate of growth and high cellulose (75.6%) and high energy contents (2.5×109 MJ/year) are the key elements of listing it as a top choice for the biofuel industry. Sunn hemp fibres produce 2268 kg dry biomass/acre in only 9–12 weeks, with 19 megajoule of energy/kg dry biomass at a global production of 130,000 MT/year.

“Sunn hemp fibre has the unique potential of being converted to transportation biofuels rather than being merely used as bast fibre for weaving mats, etc. Our research will give its chemical composition the necessary stability for conversion and deployment as liquid biofuels, which can be used by the transportation industry in a large scale,” said Prof. Saikat Chakraborty, lead researcher and faculty at the Dept. of Chemical Engineering and P K Sinha Center for Bioenergy.

These chemical reactions are performed by the scientists at IIT Kharagpur in a large microwave digestion system that houses 16 high pressure reactors. By combining the dried Sunn hemp fibres with chemicals such as ionic liquid and metal catalysts, and water at high temperatures, they form large molecular structures in these microwave reactors. This supramolecular complex being polar in nature rotates under the microwave’s alternating polarity and rapidly dissipates the electromagnetic energy through molecular collisions across the reactors. These dipole rotations and intermolecular collisions help rapidly break the polymeric bonds in the Sunn hemp fibres and convert them to biofuel precursors in only 46 minutes.

“Biofuel production costs are minimized by recovering and recycling the ionic liquid,” added Chakraborty. “This conversion process, which can be used for a large spectrum of non-food lignocelluloses apart from Sunn hemp, is particularly suitable for commercialization because it results in a 10-fold decrease in the reaction time. A mixture of biomass can also be processed in these reactors rather than a single biomass without any further increase in the reaction time, which should make this process an attractive option for the biofuel industry.”

While the significant industry potential of this invention has led the scientists to file for a patent, their findings have also appeared in the globally renowned journal Bioresource Technology published by Elsevier.