Higher Alcohols Production Platforms: From Strain Development to Process Design

Higher Alcohols Production Platforms: From Strain Development to Process Design comprehensively covers the production of higher alcohols, from the fundamentals to the latest research. Bringing together experts from industry and academia, the book sheds light on the practical aspects of higher alcohol production and offers a roadmap for researchers to follow. In addition to the fundamentals of higher alcohol production, readers are presented with detailed information on up and downstream processes, including microbial processes and the various production pathways available. A discussion of metabolic pathways has a dedicated chapter, as do C2, C3-C8, and C4 sugar fermentation platforms.

A lifecycle assessment is also presented, addressing the energy, environmental, social and economic factors in the sustainability of higher alcohol production. Readers will find this to be a unique and comprehensive reference on the production of higher alcohols that will be of interest to students, researchers and industry professionals involved in bioenergy and renewable energy, and more.

Hamid Amiri is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering–Biotechnology at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Malaysia, with extensive academic and research experience in bioprocess design, integration, and techno-economic evaluation for waste-to-value platforms. He earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering–Biotechnology from the Isfahan University of Technology and has held senior academic and leadership roles in biotechnology and environmental research. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers, including influential works in Nature Food, Biotechnology Advances, and Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, attracting more than 3,300 citations (h-index 33, Google Scholar, August 2025). Recognised among the Web of Science Highly Cited Researchers in Engineering (Top 2% globally, 2023 and 2024), Dr Amiri is a member of the editorial board of BMC Biotechnology (Springer) and co-editor of the Elsevier book Higher Alcohols Production Platforms: From Strain Development to Process Design (Elsevier, 2023). His current research advances aquatic biorefineries for the sustainable production and property enhancement of high-value biopolymers through innovative processing strategies.

Meisam Tabatabaei is a Professor of Environmental Biotechnology at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Malaysia. From 2010 to 2019, he worked closely with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to promote waste-oriented biofuels in the developing world. Since 2016, he has been the lead collaborator of the Lancet Commission on Public Health and Climate Change (UCL, UK). He has published over 450 works, including original research papers and reviews in leading journals such as The Lancet, Progress in Energy and Combustion Sciences, Nature Food, Trends in Biotechnology, and Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. He currently serves as a Visiting Professor at Henan Agricultural University (China), Visiting Professor & Global Ambassador at the University of Saskatchewan (Canada), and Distinguished Adjunct Professor at Zhengzhou University (China). He has held top editorial roles in journals with impact factors above 30 and is currently Associate Editor of Critical Reviews in Biotechnology and an editorial board member of the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. As of June 2025, Prof. Tabatabaei has led and collaborated on 24 research projects with a focus on waste valorisation and biorefineries, sustainable aquaculture, climate change, and food security.

Abdul-Sattar Nizami has a master’s in engineering from the Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden. He has a Ph.D. in Sustainable Gaseous Biofuel from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University College Cork, Ireland. Later, he worked at the University of Toronto, Canada as a Postdoctoral Fellow on alternative fuels, life cycle studies under the Institute for Sustainable Energy. He served the Center of Excellence in Environmental Studies (CEES) of King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia, as an Assistant Professor and Head of Solid Waste Management Unit, and is currently an Associate Professor at the Sustainable Development Study Centre (SDSC), Government College University, Pakistan. He has published more than 100 papers on the topics of renewable energy, alternative fuels, waste-to-energy, catalytic pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, and resource recovery. Dr. Nizami is an Associate Editor in Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, Energy & Environment, and Frontiers in Energy Research. He is serving as an Editorial Board Member in Bioresource Technology Reports, and Energy Sources Part B.