Environmental Biotechnology

Dr. Debabrata Das was a Senior Professor at IIT Kharagpur. He was also associated as the MNRE Renewable Energy Chair Professor. He has been involved actively in the research of hydrogen biotechnology for the last 20 years. He also has established thermophilic hydrogen production process for the utilization of the higher temperature industrial wastes such as distillery effluent. He has been leading the Indian Group in the Indo-Danish-sponsored research project of Department of Biotechnology, Government of India on “High rate algal biomass production for food, biochemicals and biofuels.” He organized an International Conference on “Algal Biorefinery: a Potential Source of Food, Feed, Biochemicals, Biofuels and Biofertilizers (ICAB 2013)” at IIT Kharagpur. He also explored the potentiality of microalgae in the operation of Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs). Presently, he has a Google h-index of 70 for his research work. He has 175 research publications in peer-reviewed journals and has contributed more than 35 chapters in the books published by international publishers. He is the author of Biohydrogen Production: Fundamentals and Technology Advances; Industrial Biotechnology; Fundamentals of Biofuel Production Processes published by CRC Press, New York and Biohythane: Fuel for the future published by Pan Stanford Publishing, Singapore; Biochemical Engineering: An Introductory Text Book; Biochemical Engineeering: A Laboratory Manual published by Jenny Standford Publishing Pte. Ltd., Singapore. He is the editor of Algal Biorefinery: An Integrated Approach and Microbial Fuel Cell: A Bioelectrochemical System That Converts Waste to Watts published jointly by M/s. Capital Book Publishing Ltd., New Delhi and M/s. Springer, Switzerland.Dr. Sanjukta Banerjee completed her doctoral thesis from IIT Kharagpur and is an academician with expertise in bioprocess engineering and environmental biotechnology. She has taught and conducted research at IIT Kharagpur, NIT Andhra Pradesh, and currently serves as an Assistant Professor at Parul University. Dr. Banerjee has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and contributed to several international book chapters. Her research interests include microbial cell factories, waste valorisation, and carbon sequestration. She actively mentors student-led projects focussed on waste-to-wealth conversion and sustainable biotechnological applications.Chandan Mahata is a doctoral researcher in Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA. He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the National Institute of Technology Durgapur and a master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. He has published several peer-reviewed articles on waste utilization and resource recovery. He has gained research experience at Dhampur Sugar Mills, Qatar University and Virginia Tech. He is also a scientific advisor at Ecokrishi Solutions, dedicated to green solutions for sustainable agriculture. His current research focusses on precision fermentation for high-value bioproducts and future foods.

• Introduction.- Solid and Liquid Organic Wastes.- Microorganisms Aspects of Waste Treatment Processes.- Biochemical and Bioenergetics of Aerobic and Anaerobic Waste Treatment Processes.- Wastewater Disposal Standard in Different Countries and Present State of Art.- Conventional and Non-conventional Waste Treatment Processes.- Kinetics, Modelling and Simulation of Microbial Cell Growth in Wastewater Treatment Processes.- Design of Activated Sludge Process.- Biomethanation Process for the Stabilization of Organic Wastes and Gaseous Energy Generation.- Potentiality of Organic Wastes for the Biohydrogen Production.- Treatment of Wastewater by Microalgae and Energy Generation.- Advanced Waste Treatment Processes.- Scale-up and Case Studies of Waste Treatment Processes.- Solid Wastes Handling and Prospects of Landfill Gas Generation Process.- Utilization of the Digested Materials as Biofertilizer.- Microbial Electrochemical Cells for the Wastewater Treatment and Green Fuel Generation.- Instrumentation for Effluent Water Quality Monitoring and Control.- Computerized Process Control of Waste Treatment Processes.