Research Projects

The growing focus on sustainability, eco-efficiency, and green chemistry has led to a search for renewable and environmentally friendly resources. Biotechnological approaches for biomass conversion into biofuels could surpass fossil fuels' consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, contributing to global warming and climate change. India, for example, aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030 and increase non-fossil-based power generation to 40%. Bio-alcohols, such as ethanol and Butanol, have been of scientific interest for improving engine performance and reducing lifecycle greenhouse emissions. India has blended bioethanol with gasoline for spark-ignition engines (sIEs) in 2020, but by 2025, it aims to meet 20% blending, which would require 12 billion litres of ethanol. To meet this demand, alternative bio-alcohols to blend with gasoline directly or in addition to the alcohol are needed. This work aims to scale up the sequential route for producing bio-oil, pigment, and bioethanol using scenedesmus obliquus through optimized medium composition in a 100L outdoor stacked tubular reactor using wastewater. The obtained lipid from scenedesmus obliquus will be used for biodiesel production using a heterogeneous catalyst developed from industrial waste dolomite. The proposed bioprocess development involves large-scale cultivation of scenedesmus obliquus using the outdoor tubular vertical type reactor for enhanced production of pigments, bio-oil, and carbohydrates. Key questions include the cultivation of scenedesmus obliquus using hostel wastewater, transesterification of oil extracted from scenedesmus obliquus using a heterogeneous catalyst, fermentative production of bioethanol using deoiled dry scenedesmus obliquus, and techno-economic analysis of algal biorefinery using two different software.