Dr. Urmila Gupta, Principal Scientist (REE) joined PAU in 2005 in Department of Civil Engineering, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology as Assistant Scientist (Biogas) under All India Coordinated Research Project on Energy in Agriculture and Agro-based Industries (ICAR). Before that, she worked as Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar from 1995 to 2005.  She has been working as Head of Department of Microbiology since Nov.21st, 2023. She has proven credentials in leadership as demonstrated in successful implementation of 30 AICRP (Bioconversion Technology Component) subprojects along with DST, UGC and industry funded research projects as PI/Co-PI.  She has published 90 peer reviewed research publications, nine full research papers and twelve book chapters, four bulletins and ten popular articles. She has taught  UG and  PG courses of Microbiology and Renewable Energy Engineering to the students of COBS&H, COA, COCS and COAET. She has supervised 37 M.Sc. and 7 Ph.D. research theses till date. She also serves as a technical reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals.

Professional Accomplishments

Dr Gupta has developed technologies for pretreatment of paddy straw and enhancing biogas production, codigestion of agro-residues, value addition of biodigested slurry, bioprospecting microalgal isolates from water logged areas of Punjab for biogas and nutraceutical properties, valorization of paddy straw into industrially valuable products and preparation of bioenzymes from fruit and vegetable wastes. 

Technology recommended by Research Evaluation Committee PAU: 

1. Technology for Preparation of Bioenzyme from Kinnow Waste: A fermented Organic Cleanser
2. Technology for Silica extraction from digestate of paddy straw Biogas plants

Patent Granted:“A Fungal Consortium for Degradation of Lignin and or Silica, Process Therefor and Application Thereof” ( Patent No: 429474)developed under the project “Development of novel lignin and silica degrading microbial consortium for enhancing paddy straw digestibility and biogas generation” funded by Department of Science & Technology, New Delhi

Technology Commercialized: Memorandum of Agreement has been signed on 28.09.2023 with Pentagen Biofuels Pvt. Ltd. Pune, for commercialization of patented technology entitled, “A Fungal Consortium for Degradation of Lignin and or Silica, Process Therefor and Application Thereof” for enhancing biogas production from paddy straw

Current Research Projects 

ICAR-AICRP (All India Coordinated Research Project on Energy in Agriculture and Agro-based Industries)

• Upscaling Bioenzymes  Production from Organic Wastes and its use for Enhancing Biogas Generation from Paddy Straw

• Valorization of paddy straw based biodigested slurry through   bioenzymes

DST Project 

Centre for Innovations to Foster Full Cycle Processing of Agriculture Waste to Wealth PAWW” at Chitkara University 

CSIR project:

Metagenomic profiling of bioenzymes and their potential for composting to fulfil interlinked nutrient dependency in vegetable crops

Research Publications:

• Dar R A, Parmar M, Dar E A, Sani R K and Phutela U G (2021) Biomethanation of agricultural residues: Potential limitations and possible solutions. Renew Sust.Energ Rev .135: 1-23. (NAAS Rating 20)
• Kaur M, Bhatia S, Gupta U, Decker E,Tak Y, Bali M and Bala S (2023) Microalgal bioactive metabolites as promising implements in nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals: inspiring therapy for health benefits, Phytochem Rev 1-31. (NAAS 13.30)
• Garg D. Bala, S. and Phutela UG (2023) Microalgal nutraceuticals: unravelling solution to food-health nexus. Phytochem Rev. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11101-023-09888-7   (NAAS Rating 13.30)
• Kaur M,  Bhatia S,  Bayram I,  Decker,  EA and Phutela UG (2023) Oxidative stability of emulsions made with self-extracted oil from euryhaline microalgae Spirulina and Scenedesmus . Algal Research75 :103280 (NAAS Rating 10.60)

Sahil , Palanisamy K , Kaur R, Katyal P and Phutela UG (2023) Enhanced biogas production from rice straw through pretreatment with cellulase producing microbial consortium  Energy Nexus https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nexus.2023.100246  (8.1IF)