Colloquium - 12 Dec 2024 – Prof. Vinod Kumar, Cranfield University

Title: Green Routes for Sustainable Manufacturing of Chemical Building Blocks from Agro-Industrial and Unavoidable Supply Chain Waste Streams

Time: 2024-12-12 16:00 - 17:30

Venue: Institute for Energy Research, 1517

Organizer: Institute for Energy Research

Abstract:

Chemical and allied industries rely heavily on finite and non-sustainable crude oil. Microorganisms have been exploited from many years to produce value-added products using renewable carbon sources. The microbial cell factories overproducing metabolites through the fermentative route is a potential alternative to fossil-based production of chemicals. Interestingly, the chemical building blocks can be amassed via microbial routes even using waste streams rich in renewable and fermentable carbon. Further, the bio-based products offer added advantages such as biodegradability, reusability, sustainability and contribute to a carbon neutral society. The talk will focus on waste as potential feedstock for biorefineries via microbial route with a circular economy approach. The seminar will include the motivation for my work and a few examples from my own research with the use of agro-industrial waste streams as feedstock for manufacturing platform chemicals and chemical building blocks.