Two young Russian scientists are at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University getting trained under the aegis of Indo-Russian Joint Research Project. Dr. Artemiy Ayusheev and Dr. Yulia Samoilovia of Boreskov Institute of Catalysis, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (BIC), Novosibirsk, are doing their project at the Biocatalysts Laboratory of the Department of Agricultural Microbiology of TNAU.

The joint project aims at developing scientific bases of integrated, highly sustainable and energy efficient bio-refinery for the local ligno cellulosic (crops/wood) feed stocks, a TNAU release said today.

Some of the key areas to be addressed in the project are novel biomass pre-treatment, use of thermophilic enzymes for biomass deconstruction, bio-fuel production, development of combined methods for production of lignin derived chemicals and fuel additives using biocatalysts and solid catalysts.

This unique adapted combination of catalytic and bio-catalytic technologies will allow to develop integrated biomass processing value chains, which results in the production of a variety of valuable products, such as fuels, chemicals and other semi-finished products essential for local and international markets; the possibility of upgrading and integrating this bio refinery into existing plants; overall improvement of process economy by reduction of costs for biomass processing, fermentation, and waste product management, Principal Investigator of the project from India, Prof. U. Shivakumar, said.

One of the main focuses of this project is to conduct joint experiments with samples
from Russia and to exchange the technology between India and Russia on bio-refinery aspects. The training was for eight days, starting November 13.

The combination of bio-catalytic processes of TNAU and catalytic processes of Russia would definitely bring out value-added commodity chemicals such as Hydroxy Methyl Furfural, Xylo-oligosaccharide, Vanillin and Benzoate, he said.

This project is initially sanctioned for three years and funded independently by Science and Technology Ministries of respective countries (Department of Biotechnology for India, and Russian Ministry of Science).