Catalysis for Clean Energy and Environmental Sustainability Biomass Conversion and Green Chemistry - Volume 1

This book is part of a two-volume work that offers a unique blend of information on realistic evaluations of catalyst-based synthesis processes using green chemistry principles and the environmental sustainability applications of such processes for biomass conversion, refining, and petrochemical production. The volumes provide a comprehensive resource of state-of-the-art technologies and green chemistry methodologies from researchers, academics, and chemical and manufacturing industrial scientists. The work will be of interest to professors, researchers, and practitioners in clean energy catalysis, green chemistry, chemical engineering and manufacturing, and environmental sustainability.

This volume focuses on the potentials, recent advances, and future prospects of catalysis for biomass conversion and value-added chemicals production via green catalytic routes. Readers are presented with a mechanistic framework assessing the development of product selective catalytic processes for biomass and biomass-derived feedstock conversion. The book offers a unique combination of contributions from experts working on both lab-scale and industrial catalytic processes and provides insight into the use of various catalytic materials (e.g., mineral acids, heteropolyacid, metal catalysts, zeolites, metal oxides) for clean energy production and environmental sustainability.

Chapter 1. Thermochemical conversion of biomass and upgrading of bio-products to produce fuels and chemicals.- Chapter 2. Biochemical Conversion of Residual Biomass:  An Approach to Fuel Gas and Green Fertilizers.- Chapter 3. Bio-catalytic Itaconic Acid and Bio-based Vinyl Monomer Production Processes.- Chapter 4. Biological and Environmental degradations of Polyamides, Polylactic Acid and chitin for future prospects.- Chapter 5. Plant microbial fuel cell as a biomass conversion technology for sustainable development.- Chapter 6. Catalytic and Non-Catalytic Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Microalgae.- Chapter 7. Catalytic and Non-Catalytic Methods for Biodiesel Production.- Chapter 8. Castor oil-based derivatives as a raw material for the chemical industry: A REVIEW.- Chapter 9. Sustainability of the catalytic process for biomass conversion: Recent trends and future prospects.- Chapter 10. Understanding Biomass Chemistry Using Multiscale Molecular Modeling Approach.- Chapter 11. Levulinic acid and furan-based multifunctional materials – Opportunities & Challenges.- Chapter 12. Solid Acid Catalyzed Esterification of Levulinic Acid for Production of  Value-added Chemicals.- Chapter 13. cC(sp3)–H Bond Hetero-functionalization of Aliphatic Carboxylic Acid Equivalents Enabled by Transition Metals.- Chapter 14. Carbohydrates to chemicals and fuel additives over modified polyoxometalate catalysts.- Chapter 15. Catalytic conversion of biomass derived glycerol to value added chemicals.- Chapter 16. Catalytic conversion of alcohols into value-added products.- Chapter 17. Steam Reforming of Methanol, Ethanol and Glycerol over Catalysts with Mesoporous Supports: A Comparative Study.- Chapter 18. Catalytic production of high-value chemicals from high volume non-food biomass.- Chapter 19. Efficient Nanocomposite Catalysts for Sustainable Production of Biofuels and Chemicals from Furanics.- Chapter 20. Waste Valorization of Water Hyacinth using Biorefinery Approach: A Sustainable Route.- Chapter 21. Furfural and Chemical routes for its Transformation into Various Products.- Chapter 22. A sustainable process for the synthesis of alkylpyrazines by dehydrocyclization of crude glycerol and ethylenediamine over metal chromite catalysts.- Chapter 23. The role of Group VIII metals in hydro-conversion of lignin to value added chemicals and bio-fuels.- Chapter 24. Biochar as a Catalytic Material.- Chapter 25. Biomass Conversion and Green Chemistry.- Chapter 26. Nanostructured Photocatalysts for Degradation of Environmental Pollutants.- Chapter 27. Biohydrometallurgy: A Sustainable Approach for Urban Mining of Metals and Metal Refining.

Prof. Kamal Kishore Pant is a Petrotech Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Delhi, and also Joint faculty CRDT, IIT Delhi, Adjunct Faculty at the University of Saskatchewan as well as Honorary Faculty at the University of Queensland, Australia. Prof. Pant's research contribution involves a wide range of innovative studies covering both theoretical and experimental aspects of heterogeneous catalysis for hydrocarbon conversion, CO₂ capture and conversion, coal to chemical, bioenergy, waste to wealth, and value-added chemicals. Prof. Pant has 30 years of research and teaching experience during which he published 160+ Journal articles, book chapters, and patents, having more than 8000 citations and is granted several national and international patents. Most of Prof. Pant’s research work is aligned with the internationally-focused research areas that include the development of coal to methanol process, CO₂ capture, and conversion, disposal of e-waste and precious metals recovery, waste plastic to liquid fuel technology, as well as biofuels production from residual agro biomass to thwart stubble burning. Prof. Pant is amongst the leading researchers in India working on solving the problems of accumulating electronic waste. Besides, Prof. Pant has extensively worked to develop novel catalysts for the direct conversion of Natural gas to pure hydrogen and Carbon nanotubes. Prof. Pant has also significantly contributed to developing novel catalysts for the dry reforming of methane and steam/oxidative steam reforming of Bioethanol and Bio-oil compounds, converting plastic waste and biomass to value-added chemicals which are highly appreciable in utilizing renewable sources in the country.

Dr. Sanjay Kumar Gupta is the Technical Superintendent of Environmental Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Dr. Gupta started his research carrier in 1999 at CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, India. His doctoral degree was awarded in 2010. Later, he did his post-doctoral research at Durban University, South Africa. He had been recognized three times as "One of the Top Publisher Post-Doc Fellow" in 2014, 2016, and 2017 for his active research contribution for his post-doctoral research. Dr. Gupta has co-edited three books published from Springer, Netherlands. His first book, "Algal Biofuels" is among one of the top downloaded books in the subject since 2017. Dr. Gupta has authored 81 articles in peer-reviewed journals and books, has presented 17 papers in the national and international conference. He was an Editor for the ‘Journal of Ecophysiology and Occupational Health’ and is a life member of many professional societies, including the International Society of Environmental Botanists, Society of Toxicology, Academy of Environmental Biology, and the Indian Network for Soil Contamination Research.  His research interests include ecotoxicological risk assessment, bioremediation of water and wastewater, algal biotechnology, and biofuels. 

Dr. Ejaz Ahmad is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad. Dr. Ahmad completed his master's and doctoral thesis from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.  He has also been a visiting research scholar to Fraunhofer UMSICHT, Germany, for a year as a recipient of the "German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Bi-national research grant." Moreover, he was awarded "Prime Minister Fellowship for Doctoral Research" for carrying out industrially relevant research. Dr. Ahmad has also been awarded the "Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award (GYTI)" from the honorable President of India in 2018 on biofuels production and appreciated this year (2020) on E-waste conversion. He was also awarded the "FITT Award for Best Industrially Relevant Thesis" by IIT Delhi for his work on "Understanding the Role of Catalyst Materials and Process Conditions in Biorenewable Transformations." Dr. Ahmad's research is focused on the development processes to produce alkyl levulinates as "Green Gasoline" from biorenewable resources, which are used as a fuel additive. The broad area of his research is based on the concept of "Waste to Wealth Technologies," which involves agro residue conversion, waste plastic, and e-waste conversion. His research has led to a detailed mechanistic insight into the bioprocessing of materials, experimentation, validation, and optimization of process parameters for providing optimum product yield. The conceptual insight was elaborated in a critical review published in the RSC journal “Green Chemistry,” which was highlighted on its front cover. His two other papers have also been highlighted in “Green Chemistry” and the “ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering” journal. As a recognition of his work, he hasbee