Bioenergy group has emanated from the erstwhile Microbiology group of Microbial Sciences Division

Anaerobic cellulolytic and methanogenic organisms from gobar gas plants were reported for the first time in India by the microbiology group of the Agharkar Research Institute. A specialized culture collection of anaerobic organisms was also established.

The current research activities of the Bioenergy group are focused on “exploring and exploiting microorganisms for sustainable energy”. Under this theme, specific research activities are as follows:

• Exploitation of microbial diversity of extreme/pristine/niche environments for sustainable energy.
• Development of biological processes for production of methane, hydrogen, butanol ethanol and other biofuels from variety of agricultural residues/wastes.
• Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR)
• Bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbons.
• Scale-up of developed processes up to field level.
• Microbial community and metabolite profiling of digesters and reactors for monitoring and enhancing process performance.