Shoubhik Das
Research such as this helps it transform from an environmental liability into a valuable industrial resource, supporting the development of a more circular and sustainable economy,” said Das, who is currently in the city to attend scientific conferences across India and Asia. Scientists said the approach addresses two major challenges simultaneously: reducing the environmental footprint of chemical manufacturing and finding productive uses for captured carbon dioxide. Kolkata: A Bengal scientist, Shoubhik Das, is leading research at University of Bayreuth in Germany that shows that carbon dioxide (CO2) — widely regarded as the principal greenhouse gas driving climate change — can be transformed into a chemical building block instead of being treated solely as industrial waste. An alumnus of Presidency College and IIT Kharagpur, Das hails from Payradanga village in Nadia. He had been working on another research project for generating green hydrogen directly from seawater using sunlight, research that is redefining how the world may produce fuel in a water-stressed future. Das is leading an international team of researchers who have demonstrated a new method of using CO2 as a raw material for manufacturing medicines and other high-value chemicals, a breakthrough that could pave the way for cleaner, safer and more sustainable industrial production. “Govts and industries around the world are investing billions of dollars in technologies that capture CO2 before it reaches the atmosphere. However, capturing the gas is only part of the solution. It is equally important to find practical ways to reuse it. The publication of the findings in ‘Science’ — one of the world’s most selective scientific journals — underscores the significance of the research. The work has also been highlighted by Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) and Chemistry World, reflecting strong international interest in the discovery.