Biography:
Dr Mukesh Pednekar is working as a Research Fellow with Prof. Ramesh Padamati at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. He received a PhD in Bioprocess Technology in 2017 from the Institute of Chemical Technology in India, for the investigation on recovery of value-added products from cereal bran and valorisation of agri-waste.
In 2017, Mukesh joined Prof. Ramesh on an industry-led project for the downstream processing of milk protein fractions. He investigated the ultrasonication and membrane separation for the removal of lactose and calcium and filed a Patent Application with Prof. Ramesh for the preparation of low-lactose milk protein concentrates/isolates.
From 2018 to 2021, he worked on the EU-funded flagship project-AgriChemWhey where he managed downstream processing and process intensification activities in an integrated biorefinery for dairy waste. He investigated pre-treatment, membrane separation, forward osmosis, and ion-exchange chromatography in developing an innovative process for the purification of lactic acid from fermentation broth.
Mukesh also participated in the SFI Plastic Challenge-SFI Future Innovator Prize-2020 and developed the novel process for the separation of plastic polymers from multilayer packaging waste. His research interest includes valorisation of agri-food waste, biorefinery, plastic waste recycling and circular economy.