In a world teetering on the brink of environmental collapse, Dr. Anjan Ray emerges as a trailblazing force, earning the moniker The BioFuel Man of India for his transformative vision of turning Waste to Wealth. Based in New Delhi and now affiliated with Navam Capital as a Partner, this University of Pennsylvania alumnus has redefined sustainability through his groundbreaking work at the prestigious CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun. His audacious, evidence-backed premise — that India has enough carbon embedded in its waste that we should never have to import fossil fuels – has been demonstrated by converting waste into biofuel that has powered civilian and military aircraft. He drove around for years in a sustainably-powered car, retrofitted from an end-of-life junk vehicle. His team has shown farmers how to make their own biodiesel from crops in their field and innovated a special home cooking range especially for Piped Natural Gas that saves over 25 percent of fuel compared to unsafe retrofitted LPG burners that are still being used by most city dwellers who use piped gas.
Dr Ray belies in the power of technology based in fundamental research in converting the improbable into reality. Beyond his scientific prowess, Dr. Ray is a polymath whose fluency in arts, culture, and history weaves a rich tapestry of medieval and ancient renaissance. A strategist in energy transition, ESG frameworks, and next-generation technologies, his vision illuminates not just a greener and more innovative future, but also one that seeks to involve the citizens of India in addressing climate change through consumer awareness. In this exclusive interview we explore the mind behind these maverick ideas, his remarkable achievements, and the philosophy that fuels his excellence
Q1: What inspired you to pioneer biofuels and sustainable energy solutions in India, with a focus on turning waste into wealth?
Dr. Ray: I came into the energy field about halfway through my industrial career. During my early research days, I had an Eureka moment when my Ph.D. guide, Nobel Laureate Alan MacDiarmid, repeatedly highlighted that it was the narrowness of the human mind that made us divide knowledge into disciplines. Effectively, I trained as a surface scientist, learning to see every interface between two materials as an adventure and an opportunity. So whether it is cosmetics on skin, paint on a wall or fuel flowing through an engine, the core principles began to converge in my train of thought.
My stint as a senior executive in the Jubilant Bhartia Group in the early 2000s, who built an industrial chemicals and pharmaceutical ingredients empire out of the by-products of sugarcane, opened my eyes to the untapped potential in waste. India’s vast agricultural, industrial and post-consumer residues begged for a solution. My stint at CSIR-Indian Institute or Petroleum, with its superbly committed and talented team stationed inside a pristine forest campus, envisioned a future where jets and cars could run on what we once discarded. My love for our cultural heritage, from ancient ingenuity to medieval craftsmanship, also inspired me to blend tradition with this waste-to-wealth paradigm.
Q2: Your work at CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum faced immense challenges. What was the toughest obstacle you overcame?
Dr. Ray: Convincing the scientific community and industry to back a waste-to-fuel process was an uphill battle. The breakthrough came with rigorous testing and a successful jet flight powered by our biofuel, which silenced doubters and opened new horizons. We worked with partners like SpiceJet who were willing to take bets on sustainable aviation fuel as the next big thing, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation who believed India’s time in the sustainable skies had arrived, the India Air Force who wanted their fuels to be based on Indian resources rather than imported crude oil, and the Chhattisgarh Biofuels Development Authority who marshalled several hundred tribal collectors and cultivators to provide tree borne oils as feedstock for that iconic first flight.
Q3: Creating a biofuel that powered civilian jets is a historic feat. Can you walk us through that achievement?
Dr. Ray: At CSIR-IIP, my predecessor had initiated a project to make an Indian-innovated jet fuel from our national resources back in 2009. That project demonstrated – with India’s state- owned oil companies and a Canadian aircraft engine company – that this was feasible. The scientist who developed the conversion process to convert organic matter into high-quality biofuel was keen to find a way to commercialise the technology. After years of refinement and generation of rigorous data to convince our stakeholders, we fuelled a civilian jet for a test flight in 2018, marking India’s entry into sustainable aviation and setting the stage for reducing the country’s aviation carbon footprint significantly. It felt like echoing the resourcefulness of our medieval alchemists in this waste-to-wealth journey.
Q4: Your solar-powered car built from junk is legendary. How did you bring that vision to life?
Dr. Ray: It started as a challenge to repurpose discarded materials. We retrofitted three end-of-life cars – a Maruti Alto, a Zen and an Indigo – with electric motors and batteries after taking out the engine and its associated paraphernalia. Then we set up a solar-wind-biogas hybrid charging station to provide 24×7 renewable power to charge these cars. Just goes to show that innovation can thrive on resourcefulness and a commitment to sustainability.
Q5: How did you scale these innovations to influence broader markets?
Dr. Ray: Collaboration was key, but each case was unique. My earliest commercially successfully innovations during my corporate stint were in the field of consumer and industrial chemical formulations, especially cosmetics and healthcare. Brands such as Volini and Odomos have used innovations from my lab, as also brands like Wrigley and Apollo Tyres. The main inputs in designing the solution came from our industrial customers – the brand owners – and from key vendors; but I was blessed in having enormously talented and committed colleagues at all times.
Once I moved to CSIR, which is an autonomous research, development and deployment organization that building competitive advantage for India through science and technology, policymakers and the government machinery played an important role, as did stakeholders representing consumers and various industry associations in forums like the Bureau of Indian Standards, the National Standards Body of India under Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India.
Tailoring solutions to critical local needs such as oxygen plants in hospitals for COVID-19 relief required an incredible effort in alignment of stakeholders across government ministries, local administration, small and medium scale vendors for components and assembly of the plants, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) that led the effort nationally and the Prime Minister’s relief fund that generously provided money for the entire gamut of activities involved. Hospitals cannot be trained to run these sophisticated plants at short notice so we configured them all for IoT (internet of things) and could monitor 100+ locations of oxygen supply from our laptops.
Some of the work we have done at CSIR-IIP remains invisible to the public. We have harnessed the power of tribal forest produce collectors and rural plantation farmers to produce tree-borne oils in remote Chhattisgarh to feed the pilot plant that made sustainable aviation fuel. Short-gestation crops like brassica carinata – also called Abyssinian mustard – are being grown in field in Kashipur, Uttarakhand, and converted on-site with semi-skilled labour to biodiesel for use in the tractors of the same farm. Uniquely engineered burners designed specifically for piped gas in kitchens are replacing old LPG burners with illegally retrofitted nozzles that lead to extensive LPG leakage. That causes inflated gas bills and puts the consumer at risk; PNG is also a potent greenhouse gas, at least 25 times worse that carbon dioxide – so curbing its wasteful emissions is good for the planet.
Q6: What unexpected impact has your work had on the sustainability landscape?
Dr. Ray: The enthusiasm of young engineers and startups entering the field has been a revelation. Some of our projects have sparked a movement, inspiring a new wave of green innovators across India, much like the cultural renaissances of the past fueled by resourceful transformation. For instance, a former country head of H&M, the multinational retailed, is now an environmentalist-partner who collects waste cooking oil and waste plastics across dozens of locations in Dehradun to support these efforts. In rural Champawat, which used to experience devastating forest fires, local groups of women are now collecting the pine needles that caused these fires and using them in low-smoke custom-designed chulhas.
Q7: What mantra drives your relentless pursuit of excellence in sustainable technology?
Dr. Ray: I live by the two principles articulated in the 1990s by Egyptian thinker Ismail Serageldin. The input rule – do not draw more from the planet than she can afford to give you. The output tule – do not dump more on the planet than she can absorb. “Transforming Waste into Wealth” – seeing value where others see refuse and using that to build a sustainable legacy, a principle that resonates with the artistic and historical richness of our civilization – also averts additional mining of the planet’s resources to the extent that we can reuse or recyle.
Q8: With such diverse expertise, what habits keep you at the forefront of your field?
Dr. Ray: I immerse myself in global research daily and mentor emerging as well as leadership talent in academic, corporations and startups. Exploring texts across centuries and across cultures, and the evolution of art and music over time, keeps my perspective fresh, ensuring my work remains relevant and impactful. Waste to wealth is just a small subset of sustainability – the big picture involves Economy, Ecology and Equity. You need all three for a balanced society and a sustainable planet.
Q9: For aspiring innovators, what wisdom would you share to create meaningful change?
Dr. Ray: Wisdom is too big a word. Let’s just say “insight”? Dare to experiment, learn across disciplines, and anchor your work in a purpose that benefits society. Drawing from the arts, history, and culture—be it the diplomacy of ancient India, the resilience of medieval kingdoms, the innovation and adaptation of grassroots communities or the way flora and fauna adapt to a changing environment — any of these can light the path forward in a journey towards restoring balance.
Q10: How do you see your work shaping India’s sustainability future in the next decade?
Dr. Ray: I envision India leading in the decoupling of economic growth from resource depletion, with circular economy solutions like biofuels and sustainable energy like solar, wind and geothermal powering our transport and industries in line with the nation’s global Net-Zero commitment by 2070. This renaissance will echo the cultural harmony of our past and revitalize our cities and hinterland, burdened today by the weight of a population that needs to evolve from an individual lack of civic sense to a shared and collective commitment to make our numbers count positively for society, the nation and the planet.
Q11: What legacy do you hope to leave for future generations?
Dr. Ray: I hope to leave a world where sustainability is second nature, where every piece of waste fuels progress, and every child inherits a cleaner planet enriched by the arts and history that define us, embodying the true spirit of waste to wealth.
Dr. Anjan Ray, the BioFuel Man of India (must we say this?), is a testament to the power of visionary ingenuity, seamlessly blending scientific brilliance with a deep fluency in arts, culture, and history. His mantras of Sustainability underpinned by the Input Rule and Output Rule ignites a revolution that turns garbage into riches and jets into symbols of hope, while his appreciation for heritage and cultural diversity infuses his work with timeless depth. From powering civilian flights with biofuel to crafting a battery-powered car from junk, his legacy is a blueprint for a sustainable tomorrow. In a world hungry for change, Dr. Ray shines as a pioneer, proving that innovation can light the way to a greener, culturally vibrant future.
(Note: Navam Capital is a deep tech fund; sustainability is a very small part of what they do)
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