The Department of Chemical Engineering and the Advanced Research Centre on Sustainable Energy Technologies (ARCSET) at BITS Pilani, K. K. Birla Goa Campus, successfully organized an Industrial Workshop on Biomass, Biosolids and Solid Waste Upcycling for Resource Recovery (IWBBS-2026) on 22nd–23rd January 2026. The workshop brought together the experts from academia, industry, and government to deliberate on sustainable resource recovery, circular bioeconomy, and pathways to net-zero carbon.

 The workshop was inaugurated by esteemed Chief Guest Dr. Levinson J. Martins, Chairman, Goa State Pollution Control Board, Prof. Suman Kundu, Director, BITS Pilani K. K. Birla Goa Campus, Prof. S. D. Manjare, Head, Department of Chemical Engineering, and Prof. Abhishek Sharma, Convener, IWBBS-2026. The Chief Guest addressed the gathering and presented case studies from Goa, highlighting the practical challenges and regulatory aspects of solid waste management.

The technical sessions covered diverse and emerging themes, including the new energy transition platform through bioenergy, pyrolysis of biomass as a pathway to net-zero carbon, sewage sludge management guidelines, and the concept that waste is fundamentally a design problem, where circularity converts linear losses into valuable capital. Other key discussions focused on organic waste utilization for bioenergy, advancing carbon removal pathways in biomass processing, techno-economic assessment in the bioeconomy, valorization of agricultural lignocellulosic biomass for sustainable biomaterials and bioenergy, and biopolymer production from wastewater and sewage sludge using mixed microbial cultures.

As part of the workshop, participants visited state-of-the-art facilities and chemical engineering research laboratories. The organizers acknowledged the support of the Central Sophisticated Instrumentation Facility (CSIF) and the Department of Chemical Engineering for facilitating the technical visits and demonstrations.