Sustainable Utilization of Natural Resources

Increased research is going on to explore the new cleaner options for the utilization of natural resources. This book aims to provide the scientific knowhow and orientation in the area of the emerging technologies for utilization of natural resources for sustainable development to the readers. The book includes production of energy and lifesaving drugs using natural resources as well as reduction of wastage of resources like water and energy for sustainable development in both technological as well as modeling aspects.

Dr. Prasenjit Mondal, is presently working as Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. He has worked as Process Engineer in industry i.e., Jay Shree Chemicals Ltd. and Hind Lever Chemicals Ltd.; as scientist in research lab i.e., Indian Institute of Petroleum Dehradun; as faculty member in academic institutes i.e, B. P. Technical University, National Institute of Technology Allahabad and Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. He has guided one Ph.D. and 11 M.Tech. thesis. Six Ph.D. and ten M.Tech. students are presently working under his guidance. His area of research is Energy and Environmental Engineering (Water /wastewater treatment through adsorption, electrocoagulation and biological processes, microbial fuel cells, oil from algae, energy from coal, biomass and wastes, life cycle assessment). He has introduced a subject “Waste to Energy” at M.Tech. level in the current semester. He has handled number of R&D projects sponsored by CSIR, DST, Ministry of drinking water and sanitation, MHRD, RIL, NPCIL and HPCL. He is involved in an international project under AISRF scheme with IIP Dehradun, BPCL from India and CSIRO, UoM and RMIT from Australia. He has delivered invited lectures in reputed national and international institutions/ industries including UTS, Australia, University of Saskatchewan, Canada. He has organized number of short term courses funded by CSIR, MoES and AICTE. He has published one book, more than 100 papers and five reports in his credit. Some of his papers secured position in the list of top 25 papers of the journals for a considerable period. He is a reviewer for several international journals including Environmental Progress and Sustainable Energy. He is a life member of the Indian Institute of Engineers.

Dr. Ajay K. Dalai is working as a Full Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. In 2001, he was awarded a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Bioenergy and Environmentally Friendly Chemical Processing, and Tier 1 in 2009. In 2009 until 2014, Dr. Dalai accepted the position of Associate Dean of Research and Partnerships for the College of Engineering, in addition to his professorship and supervisory role. His research focus is the novel catalyst development for gas to liquid (GTL) technologies, biodiesel productions and applications, hydrogen/syngas production from waste materials, hydroprocessing of heavy gas oil, and value-added products from biomass. He is currently working on the production and applications of activated carbon and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The worldwide impact of this research is tremendous in terms of combating pollution and finding alternate energy resources, and has generated much interest and collaborative projects with research institutes and universities around the world. Dr. Dalai has published over 300 research papers mostly in heterogeneous catalysis and catalytic processes in international journals and conference proceedings. He has submitted several patent applications. He is an active board member, reviewer, and guest editor for several international journals. He is a life member of the Indian Institute of Engineers, the Indian Catalysis Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and an active member of the American Chemical Society and the Chemical Institute of Canada. He is a Fellow of CIC, CAE, EIC, AIChE and IIChE. He is the winner of 2014 CSChE Bantrel Award in Design and Industrial Practice. He is also recently became a fellow of Royal Society of Canada.