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National Seminar

National Seminar

The Sardar Patel Renewable Energy Research Institute, with the support of the Gujarat State Biotechnology Mission (GSBTM), has organized a one-day National Seminar on ” Advances in Microalgae for Carbon Capture, Biofuels and Value-Added Products,” on January 09, 2026, at SPRERI.

This seminar was attended by 129 participants from universities, institutes and industries. The National seminar was inaugurated by Prof. Dr. Indra Mani, Hon. Vice-Chancellor Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani (MS). Dr. Anasuya Bhadalkar, joint director, GSBTM, and Dr. V. K. Bhargava, Project Coordinator, AICRP on EAAI was the guest of honor. Er. Bhikhubhai B. Patel was also present as a chairman and Dr. Sandip Gangil, Project Coordinator, CRP on EA, Dr. Manish Das, Director, ICAR-DMAPR, Dr. Datta Madamwar, Adviser, CHARUSAT, Dr. A. Mahesh were the distinguished guest.

During the day, two technical sessions, a panel discussion and valedictory function was held. The technical Session-I on ‘Determining the potential of carbon capture by microalgae and Biofuels production’ was chaired by Prof. Nirupama Mallick; and Co-Chaired by Dr. Vinod K. Bhargava. During the session, the presentations was made by Prof. Kaustubha Mohanty, Dr. Sandip Gangil, Dr. S. Karthikeyan, Dr. Dinesh Kumar R. and Prof. Nirupama Mallick

The technical session II on ‘Engineering of Bio-refinery Systems and Technologies for Microalgal Bio-products’ was chaired by Prof. Kaustubha Mohanty and Co-Chaired Dr. Sandip Gangil. In this session speakers namely, Dr. Nitin Trivedi, Dr. Reena Pandit, Dr. Sanjiv Kumar Mishra, Dr. Vinod K. Bhargava and Dr. Anand Narayanasamy made their presentation. After each session question-answer session was organized in which speakers answered the questions raised by participants.

The panel discussion was chaired by Dr. Manish Das, and Co-Chaired by Dr. S. Karthikeyan. The fellow panelists were Dr. Sandip Gangil, Prof. Kaustubha Mohanty, Prof. Nirupama Mallick and Dr. Sanjiv Kumar Mishra. This discussion was moderated by Dr. Mukul Dubey. The discussion was held on ‘Harnessing of algae for climate action and bioeconomy: policy, R&D potential and pathways.’ The seminar ended with concluding remarks by Manish Das, Dr. A. Mahesh, Dr. Vinod K. Bhargava, Prof. Kaustubha Mohanty and Dr. Anil Kumar Dubey

Key recommendations from this seminar are-

  1. “Innovate, Collaborate, and Commercialize” should be the guiding mantra.
  2. Economically feasible microalgal production can only be achieved if co-products are also explored.
  3. Awareness among the people about microalgae products is needed.
  4. Make products widely accessible.
  5. Funding constraints as a major bottleneck in advancing pilot-scale innovations toward large-scale industrial deployment.
  6. It is very important to target specific products with clear market demand for successful outcomes.
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