BACKGROUND
India and the UK face similar challenges in producing sustainable and cost-effective biofuels from lignocellulose.
Following a BBSRC/DBT sponsored Bioenergy Workshop in New Delhi (October 2011), two synergistic BBSRC
India partnership awards, concerned with the bacterial conversion of biomass-derived sugars into advanced biofuel,
were secured by Minton/Lali and Fell/Yazdani/Mukherjee. The complementary objectives of these awards, and
the principle UK and Indian partners involved, form the basis of this project, RICEFUEL.
Rice is the third biggest crop grown in the world and the major staple crop for most tropical nations.
Rice straw is produced in large quantities because tropical agriculture allows 2-4 crops per year
to be produced.
In many regions of India and elsewhere in South East Asia, millions of tons of straw are anually burned on the field for disposal, causing large scale emissions of black carbon, CO2, methane and leads to ozone generation.
