Microbial Cell Factories in Food Waste Biorefinery

Dr. Vishal Ahuja received a Ph.D. and master’s in biotechnology from Department of Biotechnology, Himachal Pradesh University. He has >6 years of experience in developing process for waste valorization from different sources. He has expertise in fungi and bacterial cultivation, fermentation, downstream processing and characterization. He has worked at CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun, India in FTT project and currently working as Assistant Professor Research and Development at Chandigarh University India. He has >45 publications in form of research, review articles and chapters , and 1 edited book. Based on his research contribution in agricultural waste valorization he is awarded with “Young Scientist Award” by Society of Agriculture Research and Social Development, New Delhi, India.Dr. Narashasns Alok Sagar is currently serving as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biotechnology, University Centre for Research and Development at Chandigarh University in Punjab, India. He possesses expertise in several domains, including Food Microbiology, Secondary Metabolites, Waste Valorization, Molecular Biology, Nanotechnology, and New Product Development. Dr. Sagar published over 40 contributions, encompassing research papers, review articles, book chapters, and popular articles featured in esteemed national and international peer-reviewed journals from reputable publishers.Dr. Sanjeet Mehariya (PhD) is a scientist at CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CSIR-CIMAP), Lucknow, India. In addition, Dr. Mehariya holds an Assistant Professor position at the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR) in Ghaziabad, India. Also, he worked as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biosciences, Manipal University, Jaipur, India. He worked as a Post-Doc Researcher at the Algal Technology Program, Center for Sustainable Development, Qatar University, Qatar, and Umeå University, Sweden. Also, he worked as a visiting Researcher at the Department of Microbiology, Central University of Rajasthan, India. Dr. Mehariya earned his PhD from the European Project in Italy in 2020. Since 2023, he has been selected in the Top 2% Scientist list by Stanford University, USA, continuously, and he has published 90+ publications, including research, review articles, and book chapters, with high citations and an h-index of 40. Also, he has edited 7 books and 1 special issue. He has 14+ years’ experience from i) Qatar University, Qatar; ii) Umeå University, Sweden; iii) Sapienza—University of Rome, Italy; iv) University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Italy; v) Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong; vi) ENEA-Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Rome, Italy vii) Konkuk University, South Korea; and viii) CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, India. Dr. Mehariya serves as a reviewer for various funding agencies, including Horizon H2020-Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships-Europe, and a reviewer for high-impact peer review journals, including Nature Communications, Chemical Engineering Journal, and many others. He is a life member of various global scientific societies.Dr. Shashi Kant Bhatia is an Associate professor in the Department of Biological Engineering, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea, and has more than ten years’ of experience in biowaste valorization into bioenergy, biochemicals, and biomaterials. He holds an M.Sc and a Ph.D in biotechnology from Himachal Pradesh University (India). Dr. Bhatia has worked as a Brain Pool Post Doc Fellow at Konkuk University (2014–2016) and has contributed extensively to the industrial press and served as an editorial board member of Sustainability and Energies journal and associate editor of Frontier of Microbiology, Microbial Cell Factories, Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery, Bioprocess and Biosystem Engineering, Carbohydrate Technology and Applications, 3 Biotech, and PLOS One journals. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Biotechnology for Sustainable Materials journal. He has published more than 200 research and review articles on industrial biotechnology, bioenergy production, biomaterials, biotransformation, microbial fermentation, and enzyme technology in international scientific peer-reviewed journals and holds 15 international patents. He has also edited 7 books on microbial biotechnology. With more than 15000 citations with an h-index of 66 and an i10 index of 216 (As per Google Scholar), he is included in the top 2% of the Scientist List at Stanford University. Dr. Bhatia has successfully supervised and completed three projects funded by NRF Korea ($ 600,000).

• 1. Food waste generations2. Food waste collection and characterization: Technologies and challenges3. Conversion routes and commercial implications4. Upcycling of food waste5. High-efficiency food waste fermentation and bio-ethanol production6. The conversion of food waste to biogas and methane7. Food waste as a promising source for biohydrogen production8. Biopolymers production from urban food waste9. Proteins and enzymes production from food waste: A sustainable route for industrial products10. Feasibility study to valorize food grain waste as source for bioactive peptides11. Production of biofertilizers from food waste and its on-field applications12. Vermicomposting of slow degrading food waste13. Food waste management by pyrolysis14. Food waste: Sustainable strategy for circular bioeconomy15. Techno-economic analysis for process designing16. Food waste biorefinery: Sustainable developmental goals and regulations