Tamilnadu Agriculture University (TNAU) in Coimbatore is hosting an international conference titled 'Sustainable utilisation of tropical plant biomass, biocatalysts, bio products and biorefinery (SutB4) which is funded by central and state government agencies. The two-day conference that is hosted at Radisson Blu Hotel in Coimbatore was inaugurated this morning. Agricultural University Chancellor K. Ramasamy is the chairman of the conference and Dr. U. Sivakumar is the organising secretary of the conference.

Depletion of fossil fuels has become a huge concern for countries around the world and emphasis has been laid on the need for alternative fuel which is also sustainable. Research on biofuels has been promoted as the alternative fuel source for the fossil fuels and a lot of research has been done all over the world for development of biofuels and technology related to the biofuel production. Biorefinery and conversion of biomass into biofuel is considered to be the alternative steps that will lead to a sustainable fuel source in future.
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The aim of the conference is to provide a scientific forum for the scientific community across the world and enable knowledge sharing in utilising tropical biomass for nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals with the focus on the involvement of biocatalysts in bioconversion of biomass. The conference also brought together various stakeholders and biomass

The theme of this conference is biomass and process engineering, biocatalysts and extremozymes, fermentation and metabolic engineering, bio-products food and pharma. Over 300 delegates from various countries like India, Srilanka, Russia, Sweden, Ireland and United Kingdom will deliver lectures in the conference. The conference also facilitates young and future researchers, policy makers and industry representatives a platform to collaborate in future by promoting interaction among them. Question and answer sessions will be held to encourage interaction among the students and the experts. In addition to the conference workshops have also been arranged on issues like feedstock, thermophyllic enzymes, biorefineryand biomass derived fuels.

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