Agriculture and industry are the two most important economic sectors for various countries around the globe, providing millions of jobs as well as being the main source of income for these countries. Nevertheless, with the increasing demand for agricultural and industrial produce, huge amounts of waste are also being produced. Without proper management, this waste (both liquid and solid) poses a serious threat to overall environmental quality, mainly due to its toxicity and slow degradation processes. Current approaches are effective but would normally require huge capital investments, are labour intensive and generate potential hazardous by-products. As such, there is a need for alternative approaches that are cheaper, easier-to-handle and have a minimum potential impact on environmental quality. This book presents up-to-date approaches using biological techniques to manage the abundance of waste generated from agricultural and industrial activities. It discusses techniques such as bioconversion, biodegradation, biotransformation, and biomonitoring as well as the utilization of these wastes. A number of chapters also include individual case studies to enhance readers' understanding of the topics. This comprehensive book is a useful resource for anyone involved in agricultural and industrial waste management, green chemistry or biotechnology. It is also recommended as a reference work for graduate students and all agriculture and biotechnology libraries.

This book discusses the bioremediation of both solid and liquid waste, including regional solutions for India as well as globally relevant applications. The topics covered include pollutant reduction through composting, solutions for petroleum refinery waste, use of microorganisms in the bioremediation of industrial waste and toxicity reduction, microbial fuel cells, and microbial depolymerisation. The book also explores the biosorption of metals and the bioremediation of leachates, especially with regard to soil and groundwater remediation. It is a valuable resource for researchers, professionals, and policy makers alike.

The world's population is expected to reach the eight billion mark very soon. As a result, there is a need for increased industrial and agricultural production to ensure human wellbeing. This in turn generates huge amounts of waste. Current waste treatment solutions are effective, but usually require huge capital investment, are labour intensive and potentially lead to hazardous by-products. This book presents the latest non-biological approaches to address issues related to the abundance of waste, offering insights into best practices in various regions around the globe. It highlights techniques such as chemical extraction, pyrolysis and ultrasonics, and a number of chapters include individual case studies to further enhance readers' understanding. This comprehensive reference resource is intended for graduate students, researchers and scientists, and is also a valuable addition to all agriculture and biotechnology libraries.

Biofuels and Bioenergy: Opportunities and Challenges is the first of two volumes that address the technological developments and challenges in the production of a broad range of biofuels and bioenergy products from renewable feedstock. The book emphasizes the opportunities and challenges involved in various processes including fermentation, transesterification, microbial fuels cells, liquefaction, gasification, and pyrolysis. These are also considered from a biorefinery perspective and discuss all common biomass feedstocks. In addition, the book presents new research on microalgae from waste water treatment, large scale production of microalgae, microbial biooil production, biogas production, computational tools for manipulation of metabolic pathway for enhanced biogas production, production of biofuel from genetically modified microalgal biomass, techno-economic analysis, environmental impact and life cycle analysis. Biofuels and Bioenergy is an ideal reference on the latest research for researchers and students working in the area of biofuels and renewable energy.

Agriculture and industry are the two most important economic sectors for various countries around the globe, providing millions of jobs as well as being the main source of income for these countries. Nevertheless, with the increasing demand for agricultural and industrial produce, huge amounts of waste are also being produced. Without proper management, this waste (both liquid and solid) poses a serious threat to overall environmental quality, mainly due to its toxicity and slow degradation processes. Current approaches are effective but would normally require huge capital investments, are labour intensive and generate potential hazardous by-products. As such, there is a need for alternative approaches that are cheaper, easier-to-handle and have a minimum potential impact on environmental quality. This book presents up-to-date approaches using biological techniques to manage the abundance of waste generated from agricultural and industrial activities. It discusses techniques such as bioconversion, biodegradation, biotransformation, and biomonitoring as well as the utilization of these wastes. A number of chapters also include individual case studies to enhance readers' understanding of the topics. This comprehensive book is a useful resource for anyone involved in agricultural and industrial waste management, green chemistry or biotechnology. It is also recommended as a reference work for graduate students and all agriculture and biotechnology libraries.

This book discusses the bioremediation of both solid and liquid waste, including regional solutions for India as well as globally relevant applications. The topics covered include pollutant reduction through composting, solutions for petroleum refinery waste, use of microorganisms in the bioremediation of industrial waste and toxicity reduction, microbial fuel cells, and microbial depolymerisation. The book also explores the biosorption of metals and the bioremediation of leachates, especially with regard to soil and groundwater remediation. It is a valuable resource for researchers, professionals, and policy makers alike.

Environmental concerns regarding continuous use of synthetic dyes saw a revival in the demand for natural dyes as natural dyes exhibit better biodegradability and generally have a higher compatibility with the environment. However, one of the limitations on the use of natural dyes or pigments is the low extraction yield factors (a few grams of pigment per kg of dried raw material). Therefore, the exploitation of other biological sources such as fungi, bacteria and cell cultures offers interesting alternative. Microbial pigments such as from bacterial origins offer the advantage in terms of production compared to pigments extracted from vegetables or animals, due to its simple cell and fast culturing technique. This book offers interesting insight into initial works carried out to demonstrate the potential use of bacterial pigment as colorant for various applications.