DST has sanctioned a Center of Excellence to VNIT in the area of Agri Waste Management with focus on F 5 : Food, Feed, Fodder, Fuel and Fertilizer for Technology D 4 :Design, Development, Demonstration and Deployment. Merino Industries Limited is the Industrial partner who has initiated Merino Innovation Center in VNIT from 2019.
The Center will be known as SWAHA : Sustainability Assessment; Waste Valorisation; Agriculture inputs; Health supplements; Awareness and training
This is a first of its kind CoE in the country with focus on creating value from agri waste like straw/stalk, horticulture waste (fruit, vegetables and flowers) and food processing industry waste.
The Objectives of the CoE are
1. Valorization of Agri Waste (Primary processing waste and On-farm residue)
a. As a Food (nutraceuticals and functional food from fruit and vegetable waste)
b. As a Feed (primary processing on-farm agro waste)
c. As a Fodder
d. As a Fertilizer
e. As a Fuel
2. Engineering Design of Agri—waste Biorefinery- Industrial Engineering Aspects
3. Sustainability Assessment and Techno-economics of the Developed Processes
4. Scale up, Replicability and Go-to-Market Strategy
5. Awareness and training related to Circularity and sustainability issues, Networking and
linkages
The multi institute CoE is sanctioned with financial outlay of 11.13 Cr for five years and Professor Sachin Mandavgane Chem Engg as a PI and Nodal officer. Professor Manish Kurhekar CSE and Professor MrsAnupama Kumar CME are the Co-PI from VNIT.
In this multi institute CoE the collaborators are
1. Professor Atul Dhok, Nagpur Veternary College, MAFSU, Nagpur
2. Professor Kuldeep Deshpande, Post Graduate Institute of Veterinary and Animal Science, Akola
3. Dr Manoj Srivastav, Indian Agriculture Research Institute, New Delhi
4. Professor Ranjan Solanki, AIIMS Nagpur
5. Professor Papi Reddy, IIM Nagpur
6. Professor Madav Govind, JNU, New Delhi
7. Mr Prakash Lohia, Chairman and MD Merino Industry