This book discusses recent trends and concepts in the field of biorefinery. It discusses optimal and economic strategies for converting biomass to value-added products to maximize profits with minimal environmental impact with a sustainability approach. The chapters of the book are focused on the current technologies, techno-economical aspects, life cycle assessment, and case studies. The book is divided into three sections; the first section presents strategies for the production of biofuels like bioethanol, biomethane, biohydrogen, bio-oil, gasification, etc., from the biomass in a sustainable way. The second sections review the extraction of bioactive chemicals, phenolic antioxidants, enzymes, and carboxylic acid from the biomass residue. The last section examines the utilization of biomass for the production of bioactive materials, including biofertilizers, bioadsorbents, activated carbon, nano-materials, and pigments. This book explores the relation between biofuels and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) 7.
Dr. Pranav Pathak is an Associate Professor at School of Bioengineering Sciences and Research, MIT Art, Design and Technological University, Pune. He received his graduate and postgraduate degrees from the Sant Gadge baba Amaravati University, Amaravati, India and Doctoral degree from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India. His research specialization is bio-refinery, biomass and waste utilization, microbial engineering and fermentation & extraction technology. He has published more than 40 research articles in the peer-reviewed international journal and has two edited books on his credit. He has served as referee for a number of international journals, including International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, Sustainable Production and Consumption, and BMC Microbiology. He has more than 13 years of teaching experience in Fundamentals of Biochemical Engineering, metabolic engineering, Biotransport, Mass transfer, Heat Transfer, and Reaction Engineering.
Dr Sachin Mandavgane is a Professor and head of Chemical Engineering Department at the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur. His research specialization is biomass and waste utilization, bio refinery, sustainable engineering and scientific validation of traditional sciences. He is the author of around 130 publications with 3200 citations and h-index 30. He has produced 9 PhDs and has 10 patents in his name. He has developed a process of making light weight and thermal insulating construction material using paper mill waste. He designed and commissioned a potato peel biorefinery plant which is the first of its kind globally. His process of on-farm paddy straw digestion to manure has been successfully commercialized. He offers consultancy to industries to perform Life Cycle Assessment. His teaching interests include use of social media for teaching and UG research. He received FICCI’s Higher Education award for his innovativepedagogy in 2014. He offers a course ‘Innovative Design’ to nurture open and inclusive innovation. He is among the first few in India to develop a credit course on ‘Sustainable Engineering´ and ‘Biorefinery Engineering’.
