Biotechnological Innovations for Environmental Bioremediation

This edited book focuses on the application and implementation of bioremediation and other strategies to create a sustainable and healthy environment. It provides a collection of approaches to environmental biotechnology for wastewater treatment, removal of soil heavy metals, degradation of pesticides, removal of dyes, waste management, and microbial conversion of environmental pollutants. This book brings to the fore contributions of certain globally important environmental biotechnologist. Bioremediation is a popular branch of biotechnology that involves the use of living organisms such as microorganisms (microbial remediation), bacteria, fungus (mycoremediation), and plants (phytoremediation) to bind, extract, and clean up contaminants, pollutants, and toxins from soil, groundwater, and other environments. This book is of interest to researchers, scientists, and academic faculty in environmental sciences. Also, it serves as additional reading and reference material for undergraduate and graduate students as well as postdocs in environmental, agriculture, ecology, and soil sciences. National and International policy makers will also find valuable information from this book. 

Dr. Sudipti Arora is an Environmental Research Scientist at Dr. B. Lal Institute of Biotechnology, Jaipur, with a specialization in wastewater treatment by Vermifiltration technology and other nature-based sanitation solutions. She is also the founder of “Prakrit: a centre of excellence in Environmental Biotechnology”. Prakrit aims to provide transformative education and innovative solutions to drive the planet towards sustainability. Prakrit is dedicated to solving the problems pertaining to the environment, particularly water, wastewater, sanitation, health and hygiene, solid waste management, energy and climate change, soil and land use, good health and well-being fulfilling sustainable development goals. She has obtained her Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, and Master’s in Environmental Engineering from Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur. She is the Assistant Director at Dr. B. Lal Institute of Biotechnology, Jaipur, with teaching and research experience of more than 10 years with various research publications of international repute. She has also been the guest faculty at Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur. She has been working on indigenous wastewater and faecal sludge treatment through Vermifiltration technology for 8 years and has expertise in integrated solid waste management through circular economy and wastewater-based epidemiology, particularly pathogens in wastewater and AMR. She is a member of the International Water Association and has been involved in WASH projects since 2010. She has been involved in SARS-CoV-2 wastewater-based xxv epidemiology research from India with other Indian and UK International partners through global challenge research funds (GCRF 2020). She is also involved in an Indo-European project titled “Identifying best available technologies for decentralized wastewater treatment and resource recovery for India (Saraswati 2.0)” funded by DST, GOI, and “Optimization of the Disinfection Process for Wastewater Treatment by Hybrid Disinfection” funded by DST, in collaboration with MNIT, Jaipur. She is also involved in an integrated technology intervention project, funded by DST, GOI, on “transforming Aandhi village in Rajasthan towards a zero waste model through green technology interventions”. She is a guest editor and reviewer of various international journals, to name a few, She has authored and co-authored important discoveries in Environmental Biotechnology in more than 20 Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) journals. She has guided the research work of 50 UG and PG students. She has been honoured by various awards including “Research Excellence Award 2020 by INSc for outstanding research work on vermifiltration technology, Dainik Bhaskar “Green Parrot Award” in 2018 for her contribution to Indigenous water treatment, Best Poster Award at IWA conference on Global Challenges: Sustainable Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery in Kathmandu in 2014, and Young Scientist Award at 8th Uttarakhand State Science and Technology Congress in Dehradun in 2013. She is also been invited to give Expert Lectures at a number of national and international venues, conferences, and workshops

Dr. Ashwani Kumar was born (1946) to Mr. Swami Dayal Tewari and Mrs. Shanti Devi Tewari in Bandikui, Rajasthan, India. He received his B.Sc. at Agra University and his M.Sc. (Botany) at the University of Rajasthan. He was awarded a gold medal for standing first in the order of merit. His Ph.D. (1971) was under the supervision of Professor H.C. Arya and postdoctoral with Professor Dr. K-H. Neumann, and later on with Professor Dr. Sven Schubert at Justus Liebig Universitat, Giessen, Germany, as Alexander von xxvi Editors and Contributors Humboldt Fellow. His botanist father Professor Swami Dayal Tewari (M.Sc. in Botany) was his first teacher. Professor Ashwani Kumar was also selected for Indian Administrative Services (IAS: IPS) (1972) but he opted a career in botany, which being his family subject. His wife Mrs Vijay R. Kumar has also been a Professor of Botany at the University of Rajasthan in her own stead. He was appointed as Asst. Professor in 1969, Associate Professor in 1985 and Full Professor from 1996 to 2007. Then he was an Adjunct Professor until 2016. He along with members of COC introduced Integrated Biotechnology, a 5-year course in Rajasthan. In recognition of his research contributions, Dr. Kumar was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for 1977–1979, with several resumption of fellowships until 2017, British Council Visitorship, UK (1986); Visiting Professorship at Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University in Japan (1999–2000); Toyama Prefectural University, Japan (2011); and INSA-DFG visiting Professorship in Germany (1997). He holds a diploma in German language and has a certificate in French language. His area of research includes photosynthesis in vitro and in vivo, biotic and abiotic resistance, ethno botany, bioenergy and presently understanding salinity resistance in maize. He has also carried out research projects granted by UGC, USDA-ICAR, MNES, CSIR, DST, DBT and FACT. He attended a large number of national and international conferences as an invited speaker and served as chair or co-chair of the International Botanical Conference, Berlin, and EU Biomass conferences. He has published 220 research papers in national and international journals and 23 books, of which 10 books are authored and 13 are edited from reputed publishers such as Springer and IK. He is a member of the editorial board of Current Trends in Biotechnology and Pharmacy. He has guided 39 research students to Ph.D. at the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India. He is an elected Fellow of Botanical Society, Fellow of Phytopathological Society, Fellow of the Indian Society of Mycology and Plant Pathology, Fellow of Mendelian Association, Fellow of Association of Biotechnology and Pharmacology and Fellow of Indian Fern Society. He received V. Puri Medal as Botanist and Teacher’s Excellence Editors and Contributors xxvii award of CEE in 2015. He has been a consultant in a World Bank Project sanctioned to SPRI-HPPI, President of Commonwealth Human Ecology Council (India chapter) and presently President of Indian Botanical Society and President of the Society for Promotion of Plant Science 2021–2022.

Dr. Shinjiro Ogita has over two decades of experience in the field of plant biotechnology. In 1992, he started his research career as a master’s student at the United Graduate School of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), Japan, and in 1997, he received his Ph.D. in agriculture (subject: sciences of resources and environment). He is an expert in the field of cell and tissue culture and transformation technologies for higher plants. He has worked at the following institutes based on projects worked: embryogenic capacity of elite coniferous trees at the Laboratory of Cell Manipulation, Division of Bio-resources Technology, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan (October 1997–September 2000). • To establish genetically modified decaffeinated coffee plants at the Laboratory of Plant Molecular Breeding, Research and Education Centre for Genetic Information, Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan (October 2000–March 2003). • To teach plant biotechnology, microbiology and molecular biology as assistant professor (2003–2006), lecturer (2006–2010) and associate professor (2010–2015) at the Laboratory of Plant and Cell Engineering, Biotechnology Research Centre and Department of Biotechnology, Toyama Prefectural University (TPU), Japan (April 2003–March 2015). He presently works as a full professor at the Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, Department of Life Sciences, Prefectural University of Hiroshima (PUH), Japan (April 2015).

Dr. Yuan -Yeu Yau obtained his master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. He worked as a postdoc and a specialist at the University of California-Berkeley and Plant Gene Expression Centre (USDA-ARS) in Albany, California, working in the areas of plant biotechnology, plant breeding, plant biochemistry and plant physiology. Dr. Yau worked on projects with grants supported by the NFS (National Science Foundation), NIH (National Institutes of Health), USDA, Cotton Incorporated, California Fresh Carrot Advisory Board and Northeastern State University. These projects include carrot breeding for fresh market, cottonseed gossypol (a toxic compound) removal and the development of clean-gene technology and of stroke drug using molecular farming. Dr. Yau joined Dr. David W. Ow’s team (UC-Berkeley) in developing an operation system for precision transgene integration, stacking (at same locus) and deletion (e.g. removal of SMG) using microbial site-specific recombination (SSR) systems. Professor Yau has authored and co-authored important discoveries in several Science Citation Index (SCI) and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) journals. Dr. Yau also serves as a reviewer for several international scientific journals. He also served as a reviewer for several book proposals for Springer Nature. He is also an editor of several Springer Nature books. He joined the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a professor in 2010 and then joined Northeastern State University of Oklahoma (USA) as a research scientist and adjunct professor in 2012. Dr. Yau in an active member of Research Gate. He mentors numerous students from all over the world on Research Gate.