The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has sanctioned a Centre of Excellence to Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, in the area of Agri Waste Management, with a focus on F5 – Food, Feed, Fodder, Fuel and Fertilizer, through D4 – Design, Development, Demonstration and Deployment of technologies.
Merino Industries Limited serves as the industrial partner of the Centre of Excellence and initiated the Merino Innovation Center at VNIT in 2019, which functions as a dedicated platform for structured industry–academia collaboration and translational research activities of the CoE.
The Centre is known as SWAHA – Sustainability Assessment; Waste Valorisation; Agriculture Inputs; Health Supplements; Awareness and Training.
This is a first-of-its-kind Centre of Excellence in the country, focusing on creating value from agricultural waste such as crop residues (straw/stalk), horticultural waste (fruits, vegetables, and flowers), and food processing industry waste.
The multi-institute CoE is sanctioned with a financial outlay of ₹11.13 Crore for five years.
- Valorization of Agri Waste (Primary Processing Waste & On-Farm Residue)
a. As Food (Nutraceuticals & Functional Food From Fruit & Vegetable Waste)
b. As Feed (Primary Processing & On-Farm Agro Waste)
c. As Fodder
d. As Fertilizer
e. As Fuel - Engineering Design of Agri-Waste Biorefinery – Industrial Engineering Aspects
- Sustainability Assessment and Techno-Economics of the Developed Processes
- Scale-Up, Replicability, and Go-To-Market Strategy
- Awareness and Training Related to Circularity and Sustainability Issues, Networking, and Linkages
The Centre is supported by a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional consortium comprising academicians, researchers & industry leaders from leading academic, research, healthcare, and industry institutions. The Centre functions through a structured collaborative framework that enables coordinated research, development, and implementation activities aimed at advancing sustainable agri-waste valorisation.
Principal Investigator & Nodal Officer:
Prof. Sachin Mandavgane, Department of Chemical Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology NagpurCo-Principal Investigators:
Prof. Anupama Kumar, Department of Chemistry, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology Nagpur
Dr. Manish Kurhekar, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology Nagpur
Principal Investigator from the Participating Institutions
1. Dr. Ranjan Solanki, All India Institute Of Medical Sciences Nagpur
2. Dr. Rama Papi Reddy Annapureddy, Indian Institute of Management Nagpur
3. Dr. Atul Dhok, Nagpur Veterinary College Nagpur
4. Dr. Kuldeep Deshpande, Post Graduate Institute of Veterinary and Animal Science, Akola
5. Dr. Manoj Srivastav, Indian Agricultural Research Institute New Delhi
Industry Partner:
Mr. Prakash Lohia, Chairman and Managing Director, Merino Industries Limited Hapur
Address:
SWAHA – Centre of Excellence
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT)
Nagpur – 440010, Maharashtra, India