Biomass, Biofuels, Biochemicals

Hu Li is currently associate Professor at Center for R&D of Fine Chemicals, Guizhou University (GZU), China. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow with a research topic on biomass upgrading at Tohoku University (Japan) and Nanjing Agricultural University (China) under supervision of Prof. R. L. Smith and Prof. Z. Fang, respectively. His research focuses on the catalytic conversion of biomass into chemicals and biofuels with functional catalytic materials. Dr. Li has more than 60 peer-reviewed papers (H-index 16), 6 patents, 1 co-edited Springer book and 2 book chapters on biomass valorization. He is a guest editor of Current Organic Chemistry, and recently was award by the Fok Ying-Tong Education Foundation, Ministry of Education (2018). Dr. S. Saravanamurugan is currently Scientist-E at Center of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing (CIAB), Mohali, India. Formerly, he was working as Senior Researcher at Centre for Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark since 2010. He moved to Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in South Korea as Research Scientist in 2005 after obtaining his Ph.D from Anna University, Chennai in the same year. He also worked as post-doctoral fellow at Inha University, South Korea between 2006 and 2007 before moving to Denmark in January 2008. He has more than sixteen years of research experience and his main research topics include synthesis and modification of zeolite and zeotype materials, biomass transformations and ionic liquids. He has 54 peer reviewed publications; two book chapter contributions, and eight patents filed/granted with more than 2000 citations (h Index 21). He has co-authored an article in the prestigious journal Science in 2010, related to conversion of sugars to lactic acid derivatives with Lewis acid containing zeolites. He is visiting professor of Guizhou University, China. He received a DST-DAAD Fellowship during his doctoral studies in 2004. 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.Dr. Elumalai is currently a research scientist at the Center of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing (CIAB), India. He obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering discipline from the Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu. He then moved to the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) for gaining the post-doctoral experience. His current research at CIAB, Mohali focuses on the thermochemical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass materials to high-value platform molecules (bulk chemicals). The principal activities of his research work include the development of protocols for the selective isolation of biomass constituents like lignin and hemicellulose for the synthesis of low molecular weight compounds, catalytic conversion of cellulose/glucose to fructose and further to levulinic acid and its kinetic modelling. He has about 20 peer reviewed publications, three book chapter contributions, and two patents filed and one granted patent.

• I. Thermal biomass conversion1. Thermal conversion of biomass to bio-oils 2. Syngas production by biomass gasification3. Thermal upgrading of lignin to aromatic compounds4. Amination of biomass to nitrogen-containing compounds5. Production and applications of bio-charsII. Enzymatic biomass conversion6. Enzymatic hydrolysis enhanced by biomass pretreatment7. Updated technologies for sugar fermentation to bioethanol8. Techno-economic analysis of butanol biosynthesis9. Enzymatic production and purification of methane10. Recent advances in biohydrogen production and process optimization11. Enzymatic production of organic acids via anaerobic oxidation of biomassIII. Chemocatalytic biomass conversion12. Solid acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of cellulose13. Hydrodeoxygenation of biomass-derived pyrolytic oil14. Hydrogenation of biofuranics with nanocatalysts15. Direct conversion of cellulosic biomass to furanics16. Oxidation of bio-based alcohols/carbonyls17. Hydrodeoxygenation of lignin to hydrocarbonsIV. Biomass-derived materials18. Cellulose-based biosurfactants19. Carbonaceous materials from lignocellulosic biomass20. Production and application of nitrogenous carbon adsorbentsV. Green techniques developed for biomass valorization21. Photocatalysis of bio-derived lignin to simple aromatic molecules22. Upgrading of CO2 to N-formamides with low-cost catalysts23. Biomass valorization via process intensification24. Chemo-enzymatic cascades for one-pot multi-step biomass conversion25. Green solvent-mediated processing of biomass feedstocks26. Effective bioproduct separation techniques and systems