ABSTRACT:
Rapid industrial development and urbanization of society have created a huge necessity for sustainability and pollution prevention through clean technologies. Resource recovery through waste valorization by circular economy would play an important role in the future global energy and materials system. Biomass pretreatment and downstream processing are important steps to consider in achieving maximal process efficiency. This presentation will discuss:

• New/advanced pretreatment methodologies for the efficient biomass conversion
• Sustainability aspects of waste valorization through circular economy cascade will be discussed
• Various industrial examples of bioproducts generation would be discussed
• Case Study- SCG valorization

Norway placed in the top 2 consumers of coffee in the world. So, it generates a huge amount of SCG (Spent Coffee grounds), which most of the time ends up in Landfill/MSW treatment facilities. SCG has numerous valuable and prominent renewable carbon sources that could be converted to value-added products such as polymers, feed sources, and energy. The proposed integrated biorefinery scheme of SCG valorization could be directed towards sustainable waste management and entrepreneurship. Some of the Industrial implementations of the circular economy for bioproducts from waste biomass will be highlighted.

Dr. Gopalakrishnan Kumar serves as Professor in Institute of Chemistry, Bioscience and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway. Additionally, he plays the role as “specially appointed Associate Professor” concentrating on research in School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University, South Korea. Prior to these positions he worked as a KRF fellow School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University & Research Professor-Department of Environmental Engineering, Daegu University, South Korea. He has received his PhD from Feng Chia University, Taiwan. He was the recipient of prestigious JSPS post-doctoral fellowships (JSPS, Japan) and Emilio Rosenblueth Fellowship (Mexico) for his post-doctoral studies. He is also visiting faculty in many universities around Europe (Hungary, Czech, Poland), India, Vietnam, China, and Turkey. He has extensively published more than 300 SCI papers in highly prestigious Journals (including 7 cover image articles, 8 high cited/hot articles and 1 key scientific article), with total citations of > 10300 & h-index of 55. He also contributed to more than 20 book chapters and edited/editing 5 books. His major research interest includes biofuel/biochemical production from lignocellulose/waste/wastewater and algal biomass via biorefinery and valorization schemes and Microbial fuel/electrolysis cell (MFC&MEC) technologies. Additionally, he is working on application of green synthesized activated carbon and Nanoparticles for various environmental remediation applications. He also delivered more than 90 speeches (keynote/invited) in various conferences, seminars, and workshops. Besides his academic contribution, he also works as consultant/expert for various international academic/research projects in various universities and industries (~3 million USD).