Waste Biorefinery

Dr Thallada Bhaskar, Senior Scientist, is currently heading the Thermo-catalytic Processes Area, Bio-Fuels Division (BFD) at CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, India. He received Ph D for his work at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) from Osmania University, Hyderabad in the year 1999. He carried out Postdoctoral Research at Okayama University, Okayama, Japan after which he joined as Research Assistant Professor and taught catalysis, chemical kinetics and thermodynamics for ~7 years. He has about 90 publications in journals of international repute, contributed 10 book chapters to renowned publishers (ACS, Elsevier, Woodhead Publishing, CRC Press etc) and 11 patents to his in his field of expertise in addition to 250 national and international symposia presentations.

His 20 years of research experience cover various fields of science revolving around his expertise in heterogeneous catalysis thermo-chemical conversion of biomass, waste plastics and e-waste plastics into value added hydrocarbons. He has prepared several catalysts and thrown a light on the structure activity relationships of novel catalytic materials for hydrotreatment of fossil based crudes. His contributions to the field of sustainable hydrocarbons are in the form of process knowhow and catalyst developments. His patents and publications discuss crucial points encompassing wide areas of thermo-catalytic conversion like pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction for biomass (agricultural, forest residues and aquatic biomass) and plastic waste (industrial and e-waste) conversion. In addition he worked on developing micro-channel reactors for several chemical reactions and separation processes. His other interests include utilization of non-conventional energies for the sustainable production of hydrocarbons utilizing the polymeric wastes available which will make the thermo-chemical methods of conversion more energy efficient.

In view of his expertise, he is on the editorial board of 2 international peer reviewed journals and expert member of several committees. He received the Distinguished Researcher award from AIST (2013), Japan and Most Progressive Researcher award from FSRJ, Japan (2008). He is also the Fellow of Biotech Research Society of India and member of the Governing Council. He received the Raman Research Fellowship for the year 2013-14. He was also a JSPS Visiting Scientist to Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan during 2009. He has carried out several research projects with great success with national and international collaborators. He has organized several international symposia in India and abroad in this area and visited several countries to deliver invited/ plenary lectures. Dr. Sunita Varjani is Scientific Officer at Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. Her major areas of research are Industrial and Environmental Microbiology/Biotechnology. She has worked as visiting scientist at EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland. Dr. Varjani has authored more than 110 publications, including research and review papers, books and book chapters. She has won several awards, including Young Scientist Awards from Association of Microbiologists of India, International Society for Energy, Environment and Sustainability and AFRO-ASIAN Congress on Microbes for Human and Environmental Health, New Delhi; Top Reviewer Award - 2017, Bioresource Technology, Elsevier and Best Paper Awards in national and international conferences in 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2018. She is member of editorial board of Journal of Energy and Environmental Sustainability and has served as guest editor of special issues of Bioresource Technology, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, ASCE- Journal of Environmental Engineering and others. She is Management Council Member of the BRSI (www.brsi.in). Prof. Ashok Pandey is currently Executive Director, Centre for Energy and Environmental Sustainability-India, Lucknow. His major research and technological development interests are industrial and environmental biotechnology and energy biosciences, focusing on biomass to biofuels and chemicals, waste to wealth and energy, etc.

Eldon R. Rene is Senior Lecturer at IHE-Delft, Institute of Water Education, The Netherlands. He has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras (India). Eldon's broad research interests are related to the development of biological treatment processes for wastewater and waste-gas treatment, resource recovery, and the use of artificial intelligence tools for environmental monitoring and environmental process control. He is the Managing Editor of
the journal ''Reviews in Environmental Science and Bio/Technology'', the Associate Editor of ''Journal of Environmental Engineering (ASCE)'' and the editorial board of ''Bioresource Technology Reports''. He has over 250 publications and conference communications, which include 2 books, 160 original and review papers, 26 book chapters, 10 journal special issues and 7 conference monographs. Eldon is the two time recipient of the ''Young Scientist Award'' conferred by the Challenges in Environmental Science and Engineering Conference (CESE) organizers in Sydney (Australia) and Kaohsiung (Taiwan), respectively. Previously, for his post-doctoral research stays, he was awarded the ''Juan de la Cierva'' fellowship by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (Spain), and the ''Brain Korea 20 (BK20) Fellowship''
from the South Korean government. For the years 2018 and 2019, he has recently been awarded the Research Fund for International Young Scientists by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). As a part of his educational campaign and capacity building activities on improving scientific writing skills for non-english speaking researchers, he regularly conducts scientific writing workshop at major conferences, especially, if they are held in developing countries. Since 2016, he has taught more than 700 MS, PhD students and young staff members during specialized events/workshops. He is also affiliated as a life member at the International Forum on Industrial Bioprocesses (IFIBiop).