Microbial and Biochar Technology for Waste Valorization

Dr. Maulin P. Shah is an active researcher and microbial biotechnologist with diverse research interest. His primary interest is the environment, the quality of our living resources and the ways that bacteria can help to manage and degrade toxic wastes and restore environmental health. Consequently, His work has been focused to assess the impact of industrial pollution on microbial diversity of wastewater following cultivation dependant and cultivation independent analysis.Dr. Dibyajyoti Haldar is an Associate Professor in the Division of Biotechnology at Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), India. Prior to this he was Assistant Professor at Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore, India. Dr. Haldar completed his Post-Doc as an Institute Post-doctoral Fellow at Centre for the Environment of Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Biochemical Engineering from National Institute of Technology Agartala, India and M. Tech in Environmental Science and Technology from National Institute of Technology Durgapur, India. of Technology Durgapur (NITDGP), India. His research work includes conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars, enzymatic hydrolysis and kinetics, biofuels, and formation of value-added products derived from agricultural wastes and processes intensification. Dr. Haldar has published more than 50 research and review articles in various SCI-Indexed reputed international journals of high impact factors. Apart from that, Dr. Haldar is the co-author of 4 books published by Elsevier. Moreover, he has also contributed few book chapters published by international publishers. In 2023, Dr. Haldar was enlisted on the World’s Top 2% Scientist list ranked by Stanford University, USA.Priya Banerjee is currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Environmental Studies, Centre for Distance and Online Education, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, India. She completed her PhD from the Department of Environmental Science, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India. She has published numerous journal articles, book chapters and edited 8 books. She has also participated in various national and international seminars and received awards for best presentations. Her current research interests include smart waste management, resource circularity and environmental sustainability. She has been teaching for the last ten years and is presently in research collaborations with several national and international institutes.

• 1. Different types of waste biomass for biochar synthesis 2. Biochar and its impact on soil, environment, and water microbiome 3. Advantages and limitations of thermo-chemical reactions for biochar generation 4. Biochar modifications for environmental applications 5. Energy production from engineered biochar 6. Biochar applications in environmental remediation 7. Biochar for augmenting bacterial growth 8. Biochar as a microbe carrier 9. Integrated application of microorganisms and biochar for pollution remediation 10. Application of biochar in microbial fuel cells (MFC) 11. Application of biochar in microbial electrochemical cells 12. Biochar and microbes as biofertilizers 13. Biochar and microbes as biopesticides 14. Response of microbial communities to biochar-amended soils 15. Effect of biochar on the carbon-sequestering ability of microbes 16. Biochar and microbial signaling 17. Machine learning and AI for predicting biochar characteristics 18. Microbe-immobilized biochar as an approach to the circular economy (CE) 19. Modified biochar for industrial applications 20. Sustainability of modified biochar-based water treatment processes