Lucknow: Dr. Rakesh Bhatnagar, Vice Chancellor, BHU visited the National Sugar Institute, Kanpur from where he pursued his Ph.D in seventees. He visited research laboratories in Biochemistry, Organic Chemistry, Agriculture Chemistry and Sugar Technology Divisions and showed his keen interest in the technologies developed recently by the institute, particularly, of production of dietary fibre, alkyl levulinates & graphene oxide from bagasse. The technologies developed by the institute for producing value added jaggery, fortified sugar and bakery products using liquid jaggery & dietary fibre are remarkable and are fit for establishing “start ups” or “small or medium units”. The students passing out from various courses can become entrepreneurs thus becoming “Job Creators” rather than “Job Seekers”.
Prof. Narendra Mohan, Director, National Sugar Institute, Kanpur apprised him about the technology developed by the institute for production of bio-gas from press mud, a waste produced in the sugar industry. While bio-gas can be used for heating purposes, by purifying and compressing it further, the same can be converted into Bio-methane which can be used as automotive fuel. Prof. Mohan, also presented a model of “Mini Bio-gas Plants” which can work upon press mud alone or on mixture of kitchen waste & press mud or even by using agriculture waste. A small plant processing 200 kgs of such waste may produce about 5 kg of bio-gas which may suffice cooking needs of 10 houses thus saving equivalent amount of LPG. Dr. Rakesh Bhatnagar, Vice Chancellor, BHU while complimenting the institute desired that the institute may commercialize the technology which will be of immense utility to the rural area near to the sugar factories.
The Vice Chancellor, BHU extended invitation to the Director, National Sugar Institute, Kanpur to work out possibilities on working on some mutual areas of interest e.g. development of yeast strains for enhancing fermentation efficiency during production of ethanol and enzymes for production of invert sugar syrup.
