Biofuels and Bioenergy: Opportunities and Challenges

Dr Baskar Gurunathan is Professor of Biotechnology in St. Joseph’s College of Engineering, Chennai, India. He has published more than 150 research and review articles in National and International Journals, 15 book chapters, and 3 books. He has delivered invited lectures and chaired technical sessions in national and international conferences. His current research areas are biofuels and bioenergy, nanocatalysis, therapeutic proteins, industrial enzymes and nanomedicine. He is the editorial board member of several journals, recipient of Outstanding Reviewer Awards from various Elsevier Journals. He has received Outstanding Researcher in Renewable Energy Award from the Indian Society for Technical Education, New Delhi in 2016 and Young Scientist Award 2015 from the International Bioprocessing Association, France in 2017. Recently he received the ‘Prof S B Chincholkar Memorial Award 2019’ of the Biotech Research Society, India for his outstanding work in the area of Biofuels and Food Biotechnology.

Dr. Renganathan Sahadevan is a full Professor in the Department of Biotechnology at Anna University, Chennai, India. His research is focused on Biofuels, Bio-Nanomaterials and Environmental Biotechnology, in which he had more than 20 years of teaching and research experience. He has published 165 scientific research papers in reputed National and International Journals, 10 Book Chapters, and 1 book. He has presented more than 30 scientific research papers and delivered several invited lectures in National and International Conferences. Under his guidance, 15 research scholars have completed their Ph.D. Degree and 3 PDF Scholars have completed their research. He received the “Young Scientist Award from DST in 2012, “Active Researcher Award from the Centre for Technology and Development Transfer for his valuable contribution to the field of biofuels, and "Thiru T.M. Narayanaswamy Pillai Chemical Engineering Prize" from The Governor of Tamil Nadu.

Dr. Zainul Akmar Zakaria is Associate Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). He is Associate Chair of the School as well as heading the UTMBactec Research Group where he works on biomass valorization and microbial technology. He has published 2 authored books, 9 Edited Books and 13 Book Chapters. One of his research books was awarded the “National Book Award 2018 under the biochemistry category. He is leading or had led various national research projects with cumulative amounts of over RM1.5 million and has been involved as Lead Researcher in other projects with cumulative amounts of RM3.7 million. He has been a Consultant for LJS Environment Australia, Guest Editor for Special Issues in 3 ISI-indexed journals, Evaluator for various International Research Grants, Visiting Scientist to Argentina and Mexico, and Program Head for the UTM-CONICET, Argentina R&D Program.