Agricultural Waste to Value-Added Products: Bioproducts and Its Applications

This book provides awareness about utilizing the agricultural waste to assist sustainable development goals (SDGs) through the adaptation of such waste-to-energy technologies. It discusses the synthesis, characterization, and environmental utilization of biofuels produced from agriculture-derived wastes. The application of circular economy, insights and opportunities of recent issues, and ideas for the potential enhancement of agricultural waste-derived products are also explored.

About a third of all biomass waste is produced by agriculture, making it one of the largest contributors to global biomass waste. Different biochemical and thermochemical processes can transform this waste into a wide range of value-added products. Such biomass-to-biofuel trends have gained a prominent status in the global energy system. And the agro-waste-derived products can provide potential solutions to a wide range of environmental problems.

The primary audience shall be academicians, researchers, engineers, scientists, and managers working in the field of agricultural residue management and waste biomass to energy.

Remya Neelancherry is an associate professor at School of Infrastructure, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. She pursued her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering at National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan and M.Tech in Environmental Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India and RWTH Aachen University Germany (DAAD scholar). She has expertise in microwave for solid waste management, advanced oxidation process for water and wastewater treatment, development of novel nano-catalyst, and characterization of catalysts for bio-refractory pollutant removal. She received the Innovation Award in National Green Charcoal Hackathon, India, and Outstanding Women in Engineering Award, Women Researcher Award, among many others.

Bin Gao is the Kodak Chair Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Prior to this, he was a professor at University of Florida, a research associate at Cornell University, and a postdoctoral research associate at Yale University. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. His B.S. Chemistry and M.S. Environmental Chemistry degrees were received from Nanjing University. Professor Gao’s research mainly focuses on biochar, environmental nanotechnology, and contaminant fate and transport. He has an extensive list of publications in the field of environmental science and engineering. Prof. Gao has received several prestigious awards and professional honors such as Fulbright Distinguished Scholar, SSSA Fellow, Highly Cited Researcher, and NSF CAREER Award.

Alberto Wisniewski Jr is a professor at the Federal University of Sergipe, Brazil, and is recognized by National Council for Scientific and Technological Development as a productivity researcher level PQ-2. He did his doctorate in analytical chemistry at the Federal University of Santa Catarina. He is current actuate as a reviewer for a wide number of scientific journals and funding agencies, as well as coordinates projects on the field of energy from biomass with a focus on biochar and renewable hydrocarbons. He is the winner of the Petrobras Technology Award, 2009, in the New Products category proposing production of biofuels from the waste of fishery industry.