SASTA is pleased to have secured Prof Narendra Mohan of the National Sugar Institute (NSI), India, as keynote speaker at this year’s Congress.

Prof. Mohan has a distinguished career in the sugar industry spanning four decades, including eleven years as Director of the institute, where he supervised and coordinated activities related to Sugar Technology, Sugar Engineering, Alcohol Technology, Agriculture Chemistry, Biochemistry and Instrumentation Engineering. He facilitated partnerships between the NSI, the sugar industry and other R&D institutions to attain common goals. He was also instrumental in increasing the institute’s global presence to the extent that NSI now provides services to various sugar producing countries including Austria, Switzerland, Indonesia, Nigeria, Bhutan, France, Kenya, Thailand, Egypt and Iran.

Prof Mohan has played a pivotal role in the diversification efforts of the Indian sugar industry which now produces bio-chemicals, other bio-products and bio-energy in addition to sugar. He has been involved in projects related to bagasse-based co-generation, ethanol blending in petrol and compressed biogas production from filter cake. He has formulated different models of sugar-ethanol production to suit relative economics and market demand, and was actively involved in developing technologies for production of graphene oxide, vanillin, surfactants, cosmetic ingredients, biochar and dietary fibre from bagasse. Furthermore, his passion to preserve natural resources saw many sugar factories moving to zero fresh water consumption.

He is the author of seven books, many book chapters and more than 200 scientific papers published in various reputed journals. For his contribution to improving the productivity and environmental sustainability of the Indian sugar industry, Prof Mohan has received numerous prestigious awards, including Dr Bansi Dhar Gold Medal, Industry Excellence Award, Global Education Leadership Award, Outstanding Academic Leader of the Year Award, Best Director of the Year Award, ABP News Award, ISSCT Excellence Award, Bharatiya Sugar Innovative Leader Award and Noel Deerr Gold Medal.

Prof Mohan remains a consultant to the Government of India and contributes significantly to many policy matters including price fixation mechanisms for ethanol made from different feedstocks and the minimum selling price of sugar.

We look forward to hearing about the Indian sugar industry’s diversification and sustainability journey.