Refining Biomass Residues for Sustainable Energy and Bioproducts : Technology, Advances, Life Cycle Assessment, and Economics

Prof. Praveen Kumar Ramanujam is Head of the Biotechnology Department, Arunai Engineering College, Tamilnadu, India. He is also Director, Institute of Innovations, Tiruvannamalai. His area of research includes biorefineries, renewable energy from biomass and municipal waste. He has published a number of articles in peer-reviewed journals and registered for 4 patents, edited 4 books. Professor Praveen has chaired 4 International conferences and organized various national level symposiums and conferences. He is also lifetime member of several professional societies including Biotech Research Society of India (BRSI), Indian Institute of Chemical Engineering (IICHE), International Forum on Industrial Bioprocesses (IFIBiop), Biogas Forum of India (BigFin), Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), Engineers Without Borders, India (EWB-India). He is serving as Management council member in BRSI and served as Vice-President in EWB-India, Chennai chapter.

Edgard Gnansounou is Professor of modelling and planning of Energy Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) where he is Director of the Bioenergy and Energy Planning Research Group. His current research works comprise techno-economic and environmental assessment of bio-refinery schemes based on conversion of agricultural residues. He is leading research projects in that field in several countries including Brazil, Colombia and South Africa. Edgard Gnansounou is credited with numerous papers in high impact scientific journals. He is member of the editorial board of Bioresource Technology. He graduated with a M.S. in Civil Engineering and Ph.D. in Energy Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne. He was a visiting researcher at the Thayer College, Dartmouth School of Engineering with Professor Charles Wyman (USA), at Polytech of Clermont-Ferrand, University Blaise Pascal (France) and at the Center of Biofuels, the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Trivandrum (India). He was also a visiting Professor of the African University of Science of Technology (Abuja, Nigeria). He is a citizen of Benin (Africa) and Switzerland. Professor Ashok Pandey is Deputy Director at CSIR's National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology at Trivandrum and heading the Centre for Biofuels and Biotechnology Division there. Professor Pandey's research interests are on bio-based economy development (biomass-based biorefinery) for the production of fuels and chemicals. He has >1000 publications/communications, which include 14 patents & design copyright, 34 books, 100 book chapters, 380 original and review papers, etc with h index of 62 and >16,800 citation (Goggle scholar).

Dr. Jegannathan Kenthorai Raman is an expert in white biotechnology and environmental assessment field. He is a scientist at the Bioenergy and Energy Planning Research Group (BPE), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. He has versatile and varied experience of research, industry and teaching over 14 years. Dr. Raman's research interests include biofuel, wealth from waste, catalysts, bioprocess engineering and the related life cycle assessment. His research work has culminated in over 45 research publications including chapters in books, critical reviews and presentations to his credit. He is an editorial board member and reviewer of many peer-reviewed journals.

Dr Baskar Gurunathan is Professor of Biotechnology in St. Joseph's College of Engineering, Chennai, India. He has published more than 150 research and review articles in National and International Journals, 15 book chapters, and 3 books. He has delivered invited lectures and chaired technical sessions in national and international conferences. His current research areas are biofuels and bioenergy, nanocatalysis, therapeutic proteins, industrial enzymes and nanomedicine. He is the editorial board member of several journals, recipient of Outstanding Reviewer Awards from various Elsevier Journals. He has received Outstanding Researcher in Renewable Energy Award from the Indian Society for Technical Education, New Delhi in 2016 and Young Scientist Award 2015 from the International Bioprocessing Association, France in 2017. Recently he received the 'Prof S B Chincholkar Memorial Award 2019' of the Biotech Research Society, India for his outstanding work in the area of Biofuels and Food Biotechnology.