By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 27 Aug: The 5th National Symposium on Shaping the Energy Future: Challenges and Opportunities 2021 (SEFCO-2021) was organised by the CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, here, today. It focused upon “Zero-Emission Energy Alternatives”. The symposium provided a common platform to discuss energy and allied subjects by leading scientists and technologists from industries and academics.
The highlights of the events were – Technologies Powering the Transition to Sustainable Energy and Fuels; Enhancing Sustainability of Materials and Processes in Energy Value Chains; Recent Advances in Biochemistry and Biotechnology. The scientific sessions were composed of invited talks, oral and digital poster presentations and a line-up of 15 expert speakers.
Virtual talks were given by the Chief Guest, Vartika Shukla (Director, Engineers India Ltd), and Guest of Honour Dr Purandar Chakravarty (Head, Innovation and Alternative Energy, Nayara Energy Ltd). Over 400 delegates from across the country virtually attended the event through virtual platforms, i.e., MS Teams, YouTube live and Facebook live page of CSIR-IIP.
Neha Nandal, Convener SEFCO-2021, provided the details of the scientific programme. In his welcome address, Director Dr Anjan Ray, CSIR-IIP, welcomed the dignitaries.
“The event day is special as CSIR-IIP had introduced bio-jet flight three years ago,” said Dr Ray. The Director-General, CSIR, Dr Shekhar C Mande, emphasised the importance of energy sources in life. In his message, Dr Mande stated that India has a considerable amount of challenges and equal opportunities to work in the energy sector to secure the future of humanity in general. He also appreciated the students of CSIR-IIP for organising the National Symposium–SEFCO regularly and taking it to its 5th edition.
Vartika Shukla delivered her lecture on “Zero-Emission Energy Alternatives”. She discussed the challenges being faced by the oil and gas industry. She explained the road map for Net-Zero Emission and strategies like consumer behaviour, electric mobility, green hydrogen and biomass/waste valorisation for achieving the Net-Zero Goal. Dr Purandar Chakravarty discussed various energy pathways like renewable energy, hydrogen and ammonia as alternate fuel, gas fermentation, and ethanol and green diesel to attain a sustainable future. He emphasised on development and scaling up of the technologies.
Swati Saini, Co-Convener, presented the vote of thanks. The SEFCO-2021 souvenir was released by the dignitaries on the dais.
