French lab mulls tie-up with NCL for petroleum substitutes

“I had an informal discussion on the possibility of joint research for developing alternatives for existing fuels with the NCL scientists and will come to some concrete conclusion in due course of time,” said Carlos Vaca-Garcia,director-elect of Laboratory of Agro-Industrial Chemistry. Garcia is presently doing research in the same laboratory and had come to NCL for a lecture last week.

He delivered a lecture on the topic “Use the by-products of bioethanol and biodiesel? Towards the integral use of agricultural crops”. It was Garcia’s first visit to the city and the country also.

“The objective of the visit was to look for partners in the area of developing biomaterials for energy purposes. The relationship can go further once the contacts are established,” he said.

“In the wake of increasing fuel prices and increasing emissions of greenhouse gases like CO2,it is necessary to develop alternatives. In the Laboratory of Agro-Industrial Chemistry in Toulouse,we have been doing exactly the same,” said Garcia.

“We have been extracting biofuels from sources such as agricultural waste or straws of crops. Though at present many of these alternatives are not economically viable,efforts are going on to develop cheaper bioproducts. Some such cheaper bioproducts do exist in France and people have started using it on mass scale too,” he said.

He said the efforts his laboratory was taking could be replicated in India. “It can be possible with joint research with Indian research institutes. Solutions suited to the Indian environment can be thought of through such joint ventures,” he said.

Garcia also said that the student exchange through various programmes could also be thought of in these areas as his institute is also a part of n+i network that has its head office in Pune.