cover story
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converts agricultural
waste into ethyl
alcohol, or bio-ethanol,
is superior to other
prevalent technologies
as the rate of
conversion is four
INdIA’S fIRSt
times faster than those
BIOmASS tO
available in the
EthANOl plANt & ItS international market.
COmmERCIAlIzAtION While the time taken to
The Institute of
convert biomass to
Chemical Technology
biofuel is about 4 to 7
(ICT), Mumbai, has
days with prevalent
developed India’s first technologies, the one
home grown
developed by the team
technology to convert
at DBT-ICT does the
biomass to ethanol
same in about 18-20
with speed and
hours, and produces
efficiency. The
about 300 litres of
technology, which
being conducted to
measure haemoglobin
levels in school
children administered
with non fortified
cereals.
DBT has announced a (Rs 50 crore)
mission aiming at conservation and
cultivation of endangered and threatened
endemic medicinal plants of North East
India and discovery of new botanical drugs
for unmet medical needs using the rich
traditional ethno-botanical knowledge and
biodiversity of these states.
14
BioVoiceNews | Dec 2017 - Jan 2018
ethanol per ton of
biomass. The produce
can be blended with
petrol to be used in
vehicles as fuel.
The country’s first
second-generation
(2G) Ethanol plant was
inaugurated by the
Union Minister for
Science and
Technology and Earth
Sciences, Dr. Harsh
Vardhan, at Kashipur
in Uttarakhand.
Subsequently, the
technology was
transferred to Bharat
Petroleum Corporation
Limited (BPCL) and
Hindustan Petroleum
Corporation Limited
(HPCL) to build
commercial scale
biomass ethanol plants
based on the
technology. The plants,
one at Bina in MP and
another at Bathinda in
Punjab, are scheduled