Nanotechnology Applications in Agricultural and Bioprocess Engineering: Farm to Table

This new volume looks at new research and advances in the use of nanotechnology applications in agricultural and bioprocess engineering. The first section deals with the impact of nanotechnology in agricultural engineering, looking at the role of nanomaterials in plant growth and nutrition. It goes on to discuss specific methods and processes in the development of food products, nutraceuticals, and therapeutics. This includes nanotechnological methods for iron fortification of dairy food, for processing and preservation of meat and meat products, for selective targeting of cancer, and more. The book then discusses the role of nanotechnology in bioprocessing, such as for biofuel production, for wastewater treatment, and as enzymatic nanoparticles for fabrication processes.

Megh R. Goyal, PhD, PE, is a Retired Professor in Agricultural and Biomedical Engineering from the General Engineering Department in the College of Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez Campus. He has worked as a Soil Conservation Inspector and as a Research Assistant at Haryana Agricultural University and Ohio State University. He was the first agricultural engineer to receive the professional license in Agricultural Engineering from the College of Engineers and Surveyors of Puerto Rico and was proclaimed as the Father of Irrigation Engineering in Puerto Rico for the twentieth century by the ASABE, Puerto Rico Section, for his pioneering work on micro irrigation, evapotranspiration, agroclimatology, and soil and water engineering. During his professional career of over 52 years, he has received many prestigious awards. A prolific author and editor, he has written more than 200 journal articles and several textbooks and has edited over 85 books.

Santosh Kumar Mishra, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dairy Microbiology at the College of Dairy Science and Technology at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India. He is currently working in the area of functional foods and dairy products, incorporating live probiotics and technology of functional lactic cultures for fermented and non-fermented dairy products. He has served in the dairy industry as a Quality Assurance Executive at Mother Dairy, New Delhi, India. He is handling several externally funded projects by the Indian Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Indian Ministry of Food Processing Industries, and the Indian University Grants Commission as principal investigator or co-principal investigator. He has received several awards for best paper and poster presentations. He is a recipient of junior and senior research fellowships during his master’s and doctoral programs from the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, India. Recently he received an Award of Honor at an international conference sponsored by Partap College of Education, Ludhiana, in association with the International Professionals Development Association, UK. He has published several research, review, and popular articles in national and international journals as well as several book chapters and teaching reviews in various training programs.

Lohith Kumar Dasarahally-Huligowda is pursuing his PhD degree in Bioprocess Engineering at the Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India. He has expertise in nanoemulsion design and formulation. He has worked at CSIR-CFTRI (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Central Food Technological Research Institute), Mysore, India. His current professional interests include the utilization of nanotechnology principles to develop delivery systems and enhance the properties of biofuels. Majorly he is working on the synthesis of speciality lipids that mimic dairy fat, which can be utilized for nutraceutical development, extraction of rare earth metals, production of ionic liquids with anticorrosion properties, and biolubricants preparation. He has published scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals and has authored many book chapters as well as review articles. He has published research papers and abstracts mainly on the emulsion-based delivery systems to protect flaxseed oil from oxidation process. Lohith Kumar’s BTech degree was in Food Science and Technology. With an Indian Council of Agricultural Research Junior Research Fellowship and Ministry of Human Resource Development-GATE from the Government of India, he received an MTech degree in Food Process Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India. His master’s research focused on the development of emulsion-based matrices for the protection of flaxseed oil using food grade biopolymers.