[bionet.technology.conversion] Organization Profile: RERC, Bangladesh

P2269@com.qz.se ("ENG-LEONG FOO ", MIRCEN-STOCKHOLM) (05/17/89)

The Renewable Energy Research Centre was set up in 1981 to
promote and co-ordinate activities at the University of
Dhaka in the field of renewable energy (solar, wind,
bioenergy, etc.).

Projects related to bioenergy are:
(1) Biomass Energy: Survey, Assessment and Growth
    (Contact: A.K.N. Nazrul Islam)
(2) Photobiological production of hydrogen
    (Contact: S.Z. Haider & A.J. Mahmood)
(3) Studies on micropropagation of fuelwood plants
    (Contact: A.S. Islam)
(4) Bioenergy from Agriculture
    (Contact: M.R. Khan).

In the area of microbial energy production -
(a) encouraging results have been obtained in a study on
photobiological production of hydrogen from water using
solar radiation with green leaves of water hyacinth as the
photosynthetic membrane.
(b) work concentrates on the use of water hyacinth for
biogas production as well as the use of mixed substrates (
rice straw, water hyacinth, cow dung).
(c) new strains of anaerobic bacteria (identified as
Zymomonas) have been locally isolated and used for ethanol
production

For more information on RERC activities, please contact -
        Prof. Muhtasham Hussain
        Director
        Renewable Energy Research Centre
        Faculty of Science
        University of Dhaka
        Dhaka, Bangladesh.