Indian Oil Corporation signs MoU with Tezpur University for biogas promotion

The state-run Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tezpur University for the promotion of compressed biogas in the North East on 20 January.
The MoU was signed by Dr Biren Das, registrar on behalf of Tezpur University and Bijay Kumar on behalf of IOCL in a function held at the Council Hall of the University in the presence of several members of the university and delegates of an ongoing event jointly organised by DST-TEC and the IPR Cell of the University.
The MoU is intended to strengthen the industry-academia collaboration concerning renewable energy.
Debendra Chandra Baruah, Professor, Department of Energy and Director of the Centre for Multidisciplinary Research presented a brief overview of the MoU at the event.
Professor Baruah said: “Tezpur University has been engaged in promoting biogas through target-oriented research and several locally available biomasses have been identified as a promising feedstock for the generation of fuel (biogas) and organic fertiliser with assured recycling of crop nutrients. Such ongoing research and development (R&D) on biogas will boost up further to benefit the region through the signing of the MoU with Indian Oil Corporation Limited.”
The research work on biogas inside the Tezpur University campus, especially the production of biomethane and organic fertiliser using a range of plant residue biomasses and organic waste, had drawn the attention of IOCL during earlier visits of its officials to the university campus.
It culminated in the formal collaboration and signing of the MoU, said Bijay Kumar while expressing his faith that the entire NE region could receive benefit through the government of India’s SATAT (Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation) scheme, which is aimed at setting up of industrial scale Compressed Biogas (CBG) plants and make it available for use in automotive fuel.
SATAT was launched by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas in 2018 with no plant installed in NE yet.