At the International Conference on Bioplastics organized by the Department of Microbiology, Alagappa University in India on April 2, vice chancellor of the university Prof N. Rajendran noted that Alagappa has emerged as a centre of excellence offering world class education.

This, he said, should be a ‘launchpad’ to work towards global recognition in research. “We should compare our work with the work of universities ranking high globally to move forward,” he said.

He then pointed out that world’s 4% annual oil production of fossil fuel is used as feedstock for production of plastics. This creates energy crisis and environmental problems. Bioplastics is one of the possible solutions for above said problems. Current trends focussed attention on production of bioplastic from Microorganisms by utilising renewable raw materials. Currently several polymers are synthesized from industrial waste by microbial fermentation.
According to the vice chancellor, Alagappa’s Department of Microbiology and the Institute of Skill Development are already collaborating with CSIR, South Africa on the establishment of a collaborative setup for manufacturing bioplastics production.
Moreover, A. Arun, Associate professor in charge of Microbiology Department and Kunyu Zhang from Tianjin University in China have received a grant for the production of cost effective modified bioplastics. The university will be signing MoUs with world-ranking universities, including the Tianjin University, for making further progress, Prof Rajendran added.
As the guest of honour, Prof.Kunyu Zhang addressed the conference, saying that there is a “lot of scope for more co-operation between the two departments and even between our two universities. Research on Bioplastics has broad scope and it would provide employment opportunities to the students.”
His colleague Dong Po Song invited students, research scholars and science faculty members to Tianjin University to establish research collaboration for the betterment of both the institutions.

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