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Biswanath Bhunia

Bio: Biswanath Bhunia is an academic researcher from National Institute of Technology Agartala. The author has contributed to research in topics: Microbial fuel cell & Chemistry. The author has an hindex of 23, co-authored 75 publications receiving 1466 citations. Previous affiliations of Biswanath Bhunia include Heritage Institute of Technology & Department of Biotechnology.


Papers
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TL;DR: In this article, a review has been made critically on overall performance improvement strategies of microbial fuel cells and its application on waste water treatment along with effective power generation, where extensive research work has been carried out on microorganism selection, suitable MFC designs, appropriate electrode materials and optimum level of process parameters which would accelerate commercialization of this technology in near future.
Abstract: Due to depletion of fossil fuel and rapid industrial development there is urgent need to find environment friendly and sustainable technology for alternative energy. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are considered as a promising technology to extract energy from different sources and turn them into electricity. However, due to practical limitations, MFCs are still unsuitable for high energy demands. Since waste water contains several organic substances, therefore, production of electrical energy from waste water using MFC can offer an economical solution to the problem of environment pollution and energy crisis in near future. Therefore, the technological development for bioelectricity generation from waste water is becoming commercially worthwhile. In this review, discussion has been made critically on overall performance improvement strategies of microbial fuel cells and its application on waste water treatment along with effective power generation. The extensive research work has been carried out on microorganism selection, suitable MFC designs, appropriate electrode materials and optimum level of process parameters which would accelerate commercialization of this technology in near future. Therefore, this review has critically addressed the issues including usefulness of various cultures and their maintenance, applicability of different mode of operation and effectiveness of various MFCs to achieve sustainable power generation from waste water. In addition the various strategies for cost effective bioelectricity generation from waste water including novel reactor design as well as simultaneous treatment strategies have also been critically reviewed.

136 citations

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TL;DR: Various approaches and current state of use of PPO in the bioremediation of wastewater, as well as the benefits and disadvantages associated with the use of such enzymes have been overviewed.
Abstract: The present review emphasizes on the use of Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) enzyme in the bioremediation of phenolic contaminants from industrial wastewater. PPO is a group of enzyme that mainly exists in two forms; tyrosinase (E.C. 1.14.18.1) and laccase (E.C. 1.10.3.1) which are widely distributed among microorganisms, plants and animals. These oxidoreductive enzymes remain effective in a wide range of pH and temperature, particularly if they are immobilized on some carrier or matrices, and they can degrade a wide variety of mono and/or diphenolic compounds. However, high production costs inhibit the widespread use of these enzymes for remediation in industrial scale. Nevertheless, bench studies and field studies have shown enzymatic wastewater treatment to be feasible options for biodegradation of phenols through biological route. Nanomaterials-PPO conjugates have been also applied for removal of phenols which has successfully lower down the drawbacks of enzymatic water treatment. Therefore in this article various approaches and current state of use of PPO in the bioremediation of wastewater, as well as the benefits and disadvantages associated with the use of such enzymes have been overviewed.

118 citations

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TL;DR: The classification and mode of action of xylan enzyme including genetic regulation and strategy for robust xylanase production have been critically discussed from recent reports and various strategies for cost effective biofuel production from water hyacinth including chimeric proteins design has also been critically evaluated.

115 citations

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TL;DR: This review explains how different natural circumstances have attributed to the advancement of EPS production, thereby increasing the capacity of bioremediation to deal the issue of heavy metal contamination in both soil and water.

111 citations

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TL;DR: This review put forth the recent developments on microorganism and electrode material that are critical for the generation of bioelectricity generation to give a comprehensive insight into the characteristics, options, modifications, and evaluations of these parameters and their effects on process development of MFCs.
Abstract: There is an urgent need to find an environment friendly and sustainable technology for alternative energy due to rapid depletion of fossil fuel and industrialization. Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) have operational and functional advantages over the current technologies for energy generation from organic matter as it directly converts electricity from substrate at ambient temperature. However, MFCs are still unsuitable for high energy demands due to practical limitations. The overall performance of an MFC depends on microorganism, appropriate electrode materials, suitable MFC designs, and optimizing process parameters which would accelerate commercialization of this technology in near future. In this review, we put forth the recent developments on microorganism and electrode material that are critical for the generation of bioelectricity generation. This would give a comprehensive insight into the characteristics, options, modifications, and evaluations of these parameters and their effects on process development of MFCs.

110 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
07 May 2016
TL;DR: In this article, the efficiency of both conventional and advanced treatment methods for phenol and some common derivatives is discussed. But, the applicability of these treatments with phenol compounds is compared.
Abstract: Phenolic compounds are priority pollutants with high toxicity even at low concentrations. In this review, the efficiency of both conventional and advanced treatment methods is discussed. The applicability of these treatments with phenol and some common derivatives is compared. Conventional treatments such as distillation, absorption, extraction, chemical oxidation, and electrochemical oxidation show high efficiencies with various phenolic compounds, while advanced treatments such as Fenton processes, ozonation, wet air oxidation, and photochemical treatment use less chemicals compared to the conventional ones but have high energy costs. Compared to physico-chemical treatment, biological treatment is environmentally friendly and energy saving, but it cannot treat high concentration pollutants. Enzymatic treatment has proven to be the best way to treat various phenolic compounds under mild conditions with different enzymes such as peroxidases, laccases, and tyrosinases. This review covers papers from 2013 through January 2016.

498 citations

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TL;DR: In this article , the effects of textile dyes on water bodies, aquatic flora, and human health are discussed, with a focus on the advantages and drawbacks of these various approaches.

431 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A relation between the influence of immobilization on the improvement of the properties of selected oxidoreductases and their commercial value is presented and the role that different immobilization methods play in the reduction of enzyme inhibition during biotechnological processes is presented.
Abstract: The main objective of the immobilization of enzymes is to enhance the economics of biocatalytic processes Immobilization allows one to re-use the enzyme for an extended period of time and enables easier separation of the catalyst from the product Additionally, immobilization improves many properties of enzymes such as performance in organic solvents, pH tolerance, heat stability or the functional stability Increasing the structural rigidity of the protein and stabilization of multimeric enzymes which prevents dissociation-related inactivation In the last decade, several papers about immobilization methods have been published In our work, we present a relation between the influence of immobilization on the improvement of the properties of selected oxidoreductases and their commercial value We also present our view on the role that different immobilization methods play in the reduction of enzyme inhibition during biotechnological processes

387 citations

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TL;DR: In this paper, the development and advancements of electrode and membrane materials for increasing the microbial fuel cell performances in recent years have been discussed and reviewed and discussed the different categories of electrode (anode and cathode) materials with various structural, dimensional, compositions and integrations.

321 citations