Tag: Jadavpur University

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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Simple and viable

Careers360 Jagran Josh

Supply of clean drinking water is considered to be the hallmark of a truly developed and integrated society. Owing to the largescale agriculture and anthropogenic stress, improving drinking water quality has become a nationwide issue and tackling it depends on the young generation of students who can draw upon their creativity to provide simple and effective solutions which may be readily adopted by the rural communities. A rural drinking water technology hackathon was conceptualised by the IIT Kharagpur Director, Prof Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, who has been mentoring the Design Innovation Centre (DIC) ever since its inception.

Debdas Chowdhury (left) and Priyabrata Mondal from Jadavpur University

The two-day event was planned as part of international workshop on Rural Water Quality and Management. Two teams of postgraduate students and research scholars from the School of Water Resources, Jadavpur University (Debdas Chowdhury, Saurabh Kumar Basak and Priyabrata Mandal) emerged winners of the Rural Drinking Water Technology Hackathon organized by the Design Innovation Centre of IIT Kharagpur.

They advocated the use of rusted nails for the adsorption of arsenic at minimal cost. They also showed the use of the dual filter media of anionic resin and activated alumina for removal of arsenic and fluoride from water.

The University of Endinburgh team talking to participants

The aim of the Hackathon was to explore cost-effective and innovative solutions to address the challenges related to drinking water problems in rural India. While giving out prizes to the winners, Prof. Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya, Deputy Director, IIT Kharagpur, reminded the teams that besides evolving technologies that were “simple and economically viable”, they also needed to remember that removed pollutants should not go back to the water source/supply.

Usha Kumari from IITKGP

As many as 13 teams from premier engineering institutes from eastern India participated in the Hackathon sponsored by the Design Innovation Centre at IIT Kharagpur that was set up recently under the government of India’s “National Initiative for Design Innovation”.

The second prize was lifted by Usha Kumari, a Chemical Engineering student of IIT Kharagpur who devised a way to remove fluoride from water with alumina activated by sulphuric acid. The third prize was jointly shared by Siddharth T from NIT Warangal, who showed how plants can be used for ‘phytoremediation’, and a Neelanjan Dutta from IIEST Shibpur, who showed how electrocoagulation can be used to remove arsenic from water.

Siddharth T (left) from NIT Warangal

The winning technologies at the Hackathon were discussed at the workshop on ‘Rural Water Quality and Management’, organized by Prof. B.C. Meikap and Prof. P. Mishra, that began on May 14-16 at IIT Kharagpur. The workshop is being held jointly with the University of Edinburgh. The winning teams of the Hackathon will have their projects funded by the DIC and can work in association with IIT Kharagpur to further develop their ideas.

A team from the University of Edinburgh judged the Hackathon in association with IIT Kharagpur. Prof. Kate Heal of the university said, “I was greatly impressed by the diversity of ideas –from phytoremediation, solutions of rainwater harvesting, to the number of filtration systems, some of the contestants had also thought about the economy and access to water.” Also present was Prof. Neil Robertson, whose team has been working on photocatalysts.

Neelanjan Dutta from IIEST Shibpur

The Hackathon showcased easy-to-implement technologies that made use of locally available materials like rice husk, biochar, sawdust, iron nails, gravel, the ubiquitous ‘matka’ or clay water pot. The programme was coordinated by Prof. P.B.S. Bhadoria and coordinator Aditya Bandopadhyay of IIT Kharagpur, and convened by Prof. Somnath Ghosal from the Rural Development Centre of IIT Kharagpur. The momentum set by the Hackathon will continue with the International Workshop on Rural Water Quality and Management.