The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, recently announced a new cohort of projects focused on scaling up biomanufacturing solutions to reduce industrial CO? emissions through carbon capture and utilisation (CCU). The initiatives, supported by DBT and its PSU arm, the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), aim to convert industrial emissions into value-added products under a circular bioeconomy framework aligned with the BioE3 Policy.

A national kick-off event-cum-workshop on ‘Biomanufacturing for Circular Bioeconomy; Carbon Capture and its Utilisation’ was organised at the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, bringing together policymakers, scientists, industry leaders, startups and academic institutions to advance lab-to-field deployable biosolutions.

Dr V K Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog, released the booklet titled Biomanufacturing for Carbon Capture and its Utilisation and formally announced the implementation of DBT–BIRAC supported CCU projects. He highlighted CCU-enabled biomanufacturing as a scalable pathway for reducing industrial emissions while creating new value chains and strengthening industrial competitiveness, supporting India’s Net Zero 2070 commitment and the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.

Dr Rajesh S. Gokhale, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology; Director General, BRIC; and Chairman, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, emphasised CCU as a foundational pillar of the BioE3 Policy. He noted that treating CO? as a valuable feedstock can enable decarbonisation, defossilisation and zero-waste industrial growth, supported by enabling frameworks such as the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme.

Industry representatives from steel, fuels and chemicals, textiles and clean-tech sectors shared insights on scale-up and deployment needs, while strategic breakout sessions focused on technology development, market strategies, policy frameworks and financing mechanisms. The deliberations underscored the need for shared pilot infrastructure, indigenous intellectual property and strengthened industry–academia collaboration to accelerate deployment of CCU-driven biomanufacturing solutions.