Current Developments in Biotechnology and Bioengineering: Sustainable Treatment Technologies for Per- and Poly-fluoroalkyl Substances

Dr. Sridhar Pilli presently holding the Assistant Professor in the Water and Environmental Division of the Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Warangal, India. His research interests include Water/wastewater treatment, life cycle analysis, Solid waste management, Biodiesel, Bio-plastic, Bio-flocculants production, bio-energy production from wastewater, wastewater sludge, and organic waste.

Dr. Pilli has authored several technical publications in peer reviewed Journals with high impact factor. He has more than 10 publications with citations more than 1000 that includes International journals, technical notes and conference proceedings. He has 6 books published in Elsevier’s and ASCE. He has delivered several expert talks at different technical forums organized nationally and internationally. He developed a decision support system model (based on life cost analysis) to facilitate the decision makers, policy makers, municipalities, and engineers in adjudicating a pre-treatment/treatment technology for a wastewater treatment plant. He is serving on Editorial board for various journals. He also served as Advisory Committee member for various international conferences.

Puspendu Bhunia is presently holding the Associate Professor position at the School of Infrastructure, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, India. His research interests includes sustainable natural treatment technologies of wastewater, nutrient removal, and green technologies for waste remediation.

Dr. Bhunia has authored several technical publications in SCI journals, He has more than 50 publications with h-index=20 that includes International journals, book chapters, technical notes and conference proceedings. He has delivered several expert talks at different technical forums organized nationally and internationally. Dr. Bhunia’s research achievement has been receiving many academic honors, including best practice oriented paper award, ASCE. Dr. Bhunia is principal and life member of several professional bodies and organizations including GIEES, USA. He is also serving as Associate Editor of JHTRW, ASCE apart from playing an active role of reviewer for more than 30 international peer reviewed journals.

Vinay Kumar TYAGI is a Scientist D at the Environmental Hydrology Division of the National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, India.
His research interests include biological wastewater treatment, advanced biomass pretreatment technologies, biomass to bioenergy, and health-related water microbiology.
Dr. Tyagi has published two-digit refereed articles at SCI journals in the past several years with h-index= 23. He has more than 90 publications to his credit including two full-text books entitled, “Sludge Management” (CRC Press), and “Post treatments of anaerobically treated effluents” (IWA publishing), fourteen book chapters and manuals most notably are O&M of Sewerage Works, and Operation and Maintenance Guidelines for UASB-DHS System, jointly published by Government of India and Japan. Dr. Tyagi’s research achievement has been receiving many academic honors, including (a) Outstanding Review Contribution, Elsevier; (b) research articles are enlisted among the Top 1% of highly cited papers of the academic field of Engineering worldwide, as well as few of them listed in the most downloaded articles; Dr. Tyagi is fellow and life member of several professional bodies and organizations. He is Management Committee Member of International Water Association (IWA) Sludge Management Specialist Group and represent South Asia Division. He is an active Reviewer of more than 70 International Peer-Reviewed Journals. He is editor for IWA publishing (UK), and lead edited virtual special issue for international journal including Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery (Springer).
Dr. Tyagi has extensive international research exposure of working in Taiwan, Spain, Japan, and in Singapore in various environmental research domains of wastewater (municipal & industrial) treatment, sludge pre-treatment, and biomass to bioenergy recovery.

Prof R. D. Tyagi is an internationally recognized Professor of Biochemical Engineering and Chief Scientific Officer of BOSK Bioproducts. Prior to joining BOSK, Dr. Tyagi served as Professor for 36 years and Senior Canada Research Chair on Value Added Products From Wastes for 18 years at the University of Quebec, INRS-ETE, Canada. He is a member of the Hall of Excellence of University of Québec and a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts; Academician, European Academy of Sciences & Arts. Prof. Tyagi is responsible for BOSK’s scientific vision and the establishment of its various technological initiatives. He is a global leader on developing research in water/wastewater treatment, wastewater sludge treatment/disposal, bioconversion of wastes into value added products (biopseticides, bioplastics, biodiesel, industrial enzymes). Prof. Tyagi has authored 20 books, 139 book chapters, 383 peer reviewed articles, 66 conference proceedings, 9 patents, 62 invited conferences and plenary, 252 other conference presentations, 22 research reports, 118 gene bank submissions and has chaired many sessions in national and international conferences. He also established a fermentation/bioprocessing pilot with a project cost of 10 million dollars to cater to the needs of industries and universities studying scale-up processes for various technologies. He has served on the boards of several professional organizations and on the panels of several granting agencies including the International Water Association where he served as a specialist on ‘Appropriate Technology for Developing Countries’. He is currently on the Executive Committee of the Canadian Association on Water Quality. He has also supervised 21 M.Sc. and 70 Ph.D. students. Prof. Tyagi has experience working with the pharmaceuticals industry. He has also studied scale-up of bioprocesses which include Bacillus thuriengensis based biopesticides, immobilized cell technology for ethanol production, solid state production of enzyme pectinase. He is Associate Editor of ‘‘Practice Periodical of Hazardous, Toxic & Radioactive Waste Management- Am.Soc.Civil Engineering’’ and serves on the editorial board of ‘‘Process Biochemistry’’ and Bioresource Technology. His research on bioconversion and bioprocessing to value added products has been recognized internationally and has received more than 30 National and International Awards.

Prof. Jonathan Wong is currently a Professor in the Department of Biology at the Hong Kong Baptist University, and Director of the Institute of Bioresource and Agriculture, and Sino-Forest Applied Research Centre for Pearl River Delta Environment and Hong Kong Organic Resource Centre. He is also the Executive Director of Earth Tech Consultancy Co. Ltd. and Hong Kong Organic Resource Centre Certification Ltd. Prof Wong has been working in the area of solid waste management with specialization in bioconversion of organic wastes using innovative composting and anaerobic digestion technology especially in the field of sustainable food waste treatment and conversion technologies for the production of bio-methane, compost etc. Over the years, he has received over HK$150 millions of research funding and published over 400 SCI publication and conference proceedings, 6 Books and 11 research patents with citation of > 10100 and H-index of 58. Professor Wong is an Academician of European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and fellow of Institute of Bioresource Association and Hong Kong Institute of Qualified Environmental Profession. Jonathan was bestowed with Medal of Honours by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 2011 and appointed as Justice of Peace in 2014 for his service and contribution to the Environment.