Guest editorial
Article Type:Guest Editorial From: Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Volume 27, Issue 1.
The rapid increase in population and industrialization leads to huge amount of waste discharge. On the other hand the increased use of energy creates a huge demand for renewable energy resources. Several efforts were taken by researchers to overcome this issue which can be a savior for the future generations. Even though efforts were made, they should be communicated to the co-researchers for knowledge upgradation. In line with this, Department of Biotechnology of Arunai Engineering College,Tiruvannamalai, Tamilnadu, India organized a four-day conference “2nd International Conference on Bioenergy, Environment and Sustainable Technologies (BEST2015)” during 28-31 January 2015. Several papers were presented orally in the theme of this conference, among which best papers were offered a chance to published in this special issue of Management of Environment Quality under the theme of Renewable Energy. This issue has nine peer-reviewed papers which were presented in the conference.
The first paper in this issue is about the conversion of poultry litter into class A biosolids using autothermal thermophilic aerobic digestion. The authors Sridevi Dhanarani et al. worked to effectively convert poultry litter to biosolids which has several applications in industries and even in household.
Following this, the paper by Kumaresan discusses the eco-friendly dye obtained from the Spathodea sp. and its applications. The author discusses its use on silk using the combination of mordants.
The third contribution comes from Cherian et al., who studied the utilization of agricultural waste for the production of value added products. In their study they had optimized the conditions for the production of cellulase and studied its application in production of ethanol which can be used as a renewable fuel blend.
The next paper deals with the cooling of cogeneration plant. In this Shankar and Srinivas investigate the potential of aqua-ammonia-based solar cooling cogeneration plant.
Gurunathan et al. performed studies in removal of congo red dye from effluents. They had used magnetic nanocomposites of activated charcoal for removal. The equilibrium and kinetic model has also been done which can help the scaling up of this processes.
Subsequently Gnanasundaram et al. studied the adsorption of Ni++ ions from aqueous solution onto microwave-irradiated Sterculia foetida fruit shells, which may find application in removal of nickel from industrial effluents.
In the next paper Jayaraman and Gautham studied about the production of D-Tagatose which is a rare sugar. They had developed kinetics for this production by using Arthrobacter globiformis as a biocatalyst.
Thirumal valavan et al. studied the emission characteristics of single-cylinder four-stroke SI engine using cobalt scrubber. In this paper the authors studied the mission characteristics of various fuels.
In the last paper the authors Aranganathan and Rajasree present a report on Bioconversion of marine trash fish into organic liquid fertilizer. They suggest that this will be an effective method for solid waste management. The authors used this organic fertilizer and studied efficacy on growth of tomato.
Assistant Professor Praveen Kumar Ramanujam
Department of Biotechnology, Arunai Engineering College, Tiruvannamalai, India
About the Guest Editor
Assistant Professor Praveen Kumar Ramanujam is an Undergraduate in Chemical Engineering and Post Graduate in Industrial Biotechnology. His area of research includes synthesis of value added products and renewable energy from biomass and municipal waste, phytochemical analysis of medicinal plants, purification and extraction of phytochemical compounds. He has published 28 research papers in renowned journals and one book, he has done provisional registration for one Indian patent. He was the Chair for 1st International Conference on Bioenergy, Environment and Sustainable Technologies (BEST2013) and organized various national level symposiums and conferences. He is also the Chair for 2nd International Conference (BEST2015 – 28-31 January 2015). He is a life member in various professional societies which includes Biotech Research Society of India (BRSI), Indian Institute of Chemical Engineering(IICHE), International Forum on Industrial Bioprocesses (IFIBiop), Biogas Forum of India (BigFin), Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), Engineers Without Borders, India (EWBIndia). Currently he is serving as Management Council Member in Biotech Research Society of India (BRSI). He was awarded with “Outstanding Young Investigator Award” for excellence in research and teaching in a rural setting, awarded by Raise.Rural. Assistant Professor Praveen Kumar Ramanujam can be contacted at: praveenramanujam@gmail.com
