Biorefinery: A Sustainable Approach for the Production of Biomaterials, Biochemicals and Biofuels

Dr Sachin Mandavgane is a Professor and head of Chemical Engineering Department at the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur. His research specialization is biomass and waste utilization, bio refinery, sustainable engineering and scientific validation of traditional sciences. He is the author of around 130 publications with 3200 citations and h-index 30. He has produced 9 PhDs and has 10 patents in his name. He has developed a process of making light weight and thermal insulating construction material using paper mill waste. He designed and commissioned a potato peel biorefinery plant which is the first of its kind globally. His process of on-farm paddy straw digestion to manure has been successfully commercialized. He offers consultancy to industries to perform Life Cycle Assessment. His teaching interests include use of social media for teaching and UG research. He received FICCI’s Higher Education award for his innovative pedagogy in 2014. He offers a course ‘Innovative Design’ to nurture open and inclusive innovation. He is among the first few in India to develop a credit course on ‘Sustainable Engineering´ and ‘Biorefinery Engineering’.