Biofuels and Bioeconomy

Ajit has more than 35 years of experience in the petroleum refining and petrochemicals business, technology development and management. He received his PhD from the University of Delaware and MBA from Cornell University. His experience includes technical and managerial assignments in research, engineering, licensing, business, manufacturing units and corporate planning. Ajit has strong management and technical background in refining, petrochemicals processes development, catalyst development, chemical reaction engineering, optimization technologies, computer integrated manufacturing and intellectual asset management. He has experience in upstream, downstream (refining, petrochemicals, polyester, lubes) and renewable energy sectors. He has published more than 100 technical papers, one book and has more than 45 U.S. patents to his credit.

Dr. Kasiviswanathan Muthukumarappan, distinguished professor and graduate coordinator in the agricultural and biosystems engineering department at South Dakota State University, has been the principal investigator on several research projects and an advisor to undergraduate and graduate students with academic and research activities. His research work is actively involved in national and international standards development focused in food and biprocessing. He has served as PI/Co-PI in several projects funded to the total amount of about $20.0 million. He has authored or coauthored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and made more than 350 regional, national, and international presentations. K. Muthukumarappan has contributed to the revision of three ASABE standards. He has served in leadership roles on numerous Food and Process Engineering Institute (FPEI) committees and served as FPEI division representative to the Standards council. He is currently serving as associate editor of Transactions of the ASABE. A few of his awards and honors include a 2013 Distinguished Professor, 2012 ASABE Fellow Award, 2012 F.O. Butler Service Award, 2011 Griffith Faculty Research Award, 2010 International Research Award, 2009 Evelyn E. Rosentreter Standards Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions as a research leader and educator in the food and bioprocess engineering area, and in the development of international and ASABE standards, South Dakota State University F.O. Butler Research Award and CoE Outstanding Researcher award.

Dr. Lew Christopher holds a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering, Ph.D. degree in Biotechnology, and has more than 20 years of industrial and academic experience. Currently he serves as Director of the Biorefining Research Institute at Lakehead University. His research mission is to add value to the emerging bioeconomy by applying an integrated biorefinery approach to the development of renewable energy technologies. Dr. Christopher is member of the editorial board of several international biotechnology journals, advisory boards, and professional societies. He has made over 400 scientific contributions to the field of bioprocessing of lignocellulosic biomass.

Environmental and Energy Sustainability: Sustainable production of biofuels and bioenergy from renewable resources, energy reduction and integration; environmentally sustainable solutions for municipal, industrial and wastewater treatment plants, reduction of waste streams and greenhouse gas emissions; Value-Added Bioproducts: Biotechnological pathways for production of high-value biochemicals and biomaterials; turning industrial and agricultural waste into value; natural compounds with biological activities for use in a variety of pharmacological products, cost-effective integration of products and processes at the Forest Biorefinery, maximizing the fiber value of plant materials.

Dr. Wil Burns is the founding Co-Executive Director of the Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment, a scholarly initiative of the School of International Service at American University; he is based in its western office in Berkeley, California. He also serves as a Senior Research Fellow for the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and as a Research Fellow for the Center for Science, Technology and Medicine in Society at the University of California-Berkeley. He previously served as the Director of the Energy Policy & Climate program at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC. He also serves as the Co-Chair of the International Environmental Law Committee of the American Branch of the International Law Association. He is the former President of the Association for Environmental Studies & Sciences and former Co-Chair of the International Environmental Law interest group of the American Society of International Law and Chair of the International Wildlife Law Interest group of the Society. He has published over 80 articles and chapters in law, science, and policy journals and books, and has co-edited four books. He also served as founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy and Case Studies in the Environment. He holds a Ph.D. in International Environmental Law from the University of Wales-Cardiff School of Law. Prior to becoming an academic, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs for the State of Wisconsin and worked in the non-governmental sector for twenty years, including as Executive Director of the Pacific Center for International Studies, a think-tank that focused on implementation of international wildlife treaty regimes, including the Convention on Biological Diversity and International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. His current areas of research focus are: climate geoengineering; international climate change litigation; adaptation strategies to address climate change, with a focus on the potential role of microinsurance; and the effectiveness of the European Union’s Emissions Trading System.

climate geoengineering; international climate change litigation; adaptation strategies to address climate change, with a focus on the potential role of microinsurance; and the effectiveness of the European Union’s Emissions Trading System.

Dr. Sevim Z. Erhan has a B.S. and an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Istanbul, Turkey, 1980 and a Ph.D. in Organic-Polymer Chemistry from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1987. She has been with the U.S. Depadment of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service {ARS), since 1988. She was a Postdoctoral Associate, Research Scientist and Research Leader at the ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, Illinois, from 1988-2008, and then became Center Director of the ARS Eastern Regional Research Center in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, 2008-present. Her research subjects are Vegetable Oil Based Industrial Products, including printing inks, paints, coatings, lubricants, biodiesel, hydraulic oils and composites. She has authored or coauthored over 250 scientific articles, including 9 U.S. Patents, 2 books and 25 book chapters. She has been invited to present her research findings at more than 200 national and international scientific meetings. She has received several Agricultural Research Service awards and industrial awards including: Land of Lincoln Soybean Association Market Award; US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service Distinguished Service Award; Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer; United Soybean Board Outstanding Achievement Award; and Oil Technologists Association of India KT. Achaya Award; Fellow, Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers; Fellow, American Oil Chemists Society; and the Federal Laboratory Consortium Laboratory Director of the Year Award.

Dr. Sevim Z. Erhan has a B.S. and an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Istanbul, Turkey, 1980 and a Ph.D. in Organic-Polymer Chemistry from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1987. She has been with the U.S. Depadment of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service {ARS), since 1988. She was a Postdoctoral Associate, Research Scientist and Research Leader at the ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, Illinois, from 1988-2008, and then became Center Director of the ARS Eastern Regional Research Center in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, 2008-present. Her research subjects are Vegetable Oil Based Industrial Products, including printing inks, paints, coatings, lubricants, biodiesel, hydraulic oils and composites. She has authored or coauthored over 250 scientific articles, including 9 U.S. Patents, 2 books and 25 book chapters. She has been invited to present her research findings at more than 200 national and international scientific meetings. She has received several Agricultural Research Service awards and industrial awards including: Land of Lincoln Soybean Association Market Award; US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service Distinguished Service Award; Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer; United Soybean Board Outstanding Achievement Award; and Oil Technologists Association of India KT. Achaya Award; Fellow, Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers; Fellow, American Oil Chemists Society; and the Federal Laboratory Consortium Laboratory Director of the Year Award.

Dr. Timilsina is a Senior Research Economist at the Development Research Group of the World Bank, Washington, DC. He has more than 20 years’ experience across a board range of energy and climate change economics and policies at the international level. His key expertise includes biofuels, climate change policies, electricity economics and energy sector as well as general equilibrium modeling for policy analysis. Prior to joining the Bank, Dr. Timilsina was a Senior Research Director at the Canadian Energy Research Institute, Calgary, Canada. At present, he is leading a number of studies including economics of renewable energy including biofuels, modeling of carbon markets in China, sustainable urban planning in the Middle East and North Africa.

His key expertise includes biofuels, climate change policies, electricity economics and energy sector as well as general equilibrium modeling for policy analysis.

Dr. James G. Speight has doctorate degrees in Chemistry, Geological Sciences, and Petroleum Engineering and is the author of more than 60 books in petroleum science, petroleum engineering, and environmental sciences.

Dr. Speight has fifty years of experience in areas associated with (1) the properties, recovery, and refining of reservoir fluids, conventional petroleum, heavy oil, and tar sand bitumen, (2) the properties and refining of natural gas, gaseous fuels, and (3) the properties and refining of biomass, biofuels, biogas, and the generation of bioenergy. His work has also focused on safety issues, environmental effects, remediation, and safety issues associated with the production and use of fuels and biofuels. He is the author of more than 70 books in petroleum science, petroleum engineering, biomass and biofuels, environmental sciences.

Although he has always worked in private industry which focused on contract-based work, he has served as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemical and Fuels Engineering at the University of Utah and in the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Wyoming. In addition, he was a Visiting Professor in the College of Science, University of Mosul, Iraq and has also been a Visiting Professor in Chemical Engineering at the following universities: University of Missouri-Columbia, the Technical University of Denmark, and the University of Trinidad and Tobago.

Dr. Speight was elected to the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1996 and awarded the Gold Medal of Honor that same year for outstanding contributions to the field of petroleum sciences. He has also received the Scientists without Borders Medal of Honor of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2001, the Academy also awarded Dr. Speight the Einstein Medal for outstanding contributions and service in the field of Geological Sciences.

Animesh Dutta is a Professor and Director of Bio-renewable Innovation Lab, and Associate Director, Graduate studies with the School of Engineering at the University of Guelph. He is specialized in advanced energy systems and thermo-fluid science with hands-on experience in reactor design and pilot plant operation, design and performance of various tests in laboratory scale and pilot scale units, thermal design and process development. In his career, Dr. Dutta has published over 80 peer-reviewed journal papers, 3 book chapters, and has roughly 100 conference publications and reports and has been serving as editorial board members of various journals.

His current research is focussed on thermochemical conversion (gasification, combustion, torrefaction, hydrothermal carbonization and liquefaction), biochemical conversion, and characterization of agri-residue, biomass, and waste (MSW, Bio-solids) for fuel, energy, fertilizer and other value added products in the concept of Circular Economy. He is committed to developing an innovative research program on energy and other value-added products from biomass and waste materials.

Dr. Madhu Khanna is the ACES Distinguished Professor of Environmental Economics in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. She was selected as a Fellow of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, a University of Illinois Scholar, a Leopold Leadership Fellow of the Woods Institute at Stanford University and received the Paul A. Funk recognition from the College of ACES. She serves on the Science Advisory Board of the USEPA and is currently the editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.

Her research examines the incentives for clean technology adoption, the economic and environmental effects of biofuels and the effectiveness of environmental policies. She uses welfare economics to examine the costs and benefits of energy and environmental policies and the design of policy incentives that can achieve environmental targets cost-effectively.

Prof. (Dr.) Yogender Kumar Yadav received his Ph.D. in Energy Studies from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and at present he is the Director General, Sardar Swaran Singh National Institute of Bio-Energy (an Autonomous Institution of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India), Kapurthala, Punjab (India). Prof. Yadav has been actively engaged in research, teaching, consultancy, administration and management in the field of renewable energy for the last more than two decades. He developed and taught renewable energy courses to undergraduate and postgraduate students at CCS Haryana Agricultural University Hisar (India) and established the Department of Energy at Tezpur University, Assam (India) offering postgraduate programme in Renewable Energy.

During his career he has made significant contributions to the advancement of renewable energy technologies and has more than 100 research publications in the international/national journals of repute and conferences in addition to writing teaching text on Renewable Energy. Prof. Yadav has been the Project Coordinator of Haryana State for the Government of India sponsored project on Integrated Rural Energy Programme (IREP) for meeting out rural energy needs through optimum mix of conventional and renewable energy sources with special emphasis on biomass and bio-energy. He has completed several research projects including the ICAR All India Coordinated Research Project on Renewable Energy Sources as Principal Investigator.

Prof. Yadav had been the Chairman, Energy Forum at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and Associate Editor, Energy for Journal of Agricultural Engineering. Currently he serves on a large number of expert committees and national/international panels dealing with renewable energy. He Chaired the Technical Session of the World Renewable Energy Congress IV at Denver, USA and was the Member of International Steering Committee of World Renewable Energy Forum 2012. Presently, he is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biofuels and Bioenergy.

Prof. Yadav is the recipient of Distinguished Service Award of Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers for ‘Energy in Agriculture’ and has been honoured with the prestigious ‘Excellence Award 2012 for Research and Innovation in recognition of his research in the field of Renewable Energy at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Recently, Prof. Yadav has been awarded the World Renewable Energy Pioneer Award (WREN Pioneer Award 2014) by the World Renewable Energy Council/ Network for his global contributions in the field of renewable energy and the award was conferred upon him at the World Renewable Energy Congress XIII during August 3-8, 2014 at Kingston University, London, United Kingdom.