IIT Madras and ExxonMobil Join Hands for Research in Energy and Biofuel

In a bid to promote a greener and cleaner India and to reduce the carbon footprint of the country, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) has come into an agreement with ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company (EMRE). The collaboration will bring forth a 5-year Joint Research Agreement with the objective of searching for low-emission solutions in biofuels. Transport, gas conversions using data analytics.

From EMRE, The Vice President of Research and Development, Dr Vijay Swarup and Dean of Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research at IIT Madras, signed a Master Research Agreement.

During a visit to IIT Madras, Dr Swarup had conversed with Prof AK Mishra Dean of Academic Research at the Institute along with other researchers. He also took the opportunity to spread his knowledge on “Perspective on the Future of Energy, R&D’s Task and the commitment to R&D from ExxonMobil”.

During the visit, Dr Vijay Swarup emphasised on the understanding the inter-relationship between the energy utilization in an expanding Middle Class and Climate Change. He further accentuated on the need for establishing solutions at the research level.

Dr R Vinu from the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Madras has been appointed to lead a research project under the agreement, which includes developing innovative techniques for the conversion of residue biomass from Indian Agro-businesses to sugars and other high-value chemicals.

In a statement released by Dr Vinu on the objectives of his research project, he stated that there are three major objectives of the project. The first objective, he stated is to “deconstruct rice straw, bagasse and other biomass varieties of Indian origin in order to produce sugars. The sugars will then be sent off to the ExxonMobil bioconversion platform. The second objective is to convert or transform lignin from biomass to various useful phenols with the help of innovative catalysts. The third objective is to environmental and economic effects of such conversions at a large scale.

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Presently, fuels and complex chemicals are derived from non-food lignocellulosic biomass and agricultural residues, which is also known as the Second Generation Biomass. As of now, Lignocellulosic biomass is the lone renewable source of carbon that maintains carbon neutrality while also reducing the net greenhouse gas emissions in the environment.

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Statistics report that India is the 3rd largest producer of agricultural residues after China and Brazil, with over 230 million tonnes being produced every year. With the introduction of the Indian Government’s new policy of ‘New Biofuel Policy’, it is expected to grasp the full potential of the biomass residue. The Policy aims at transforming the Indian Biofuel industry to a $15.6 billion economy in the future.