Amar K. Mohanty

Amar K. Mohanty is an Indian-born Canadian material scientist and biobased material engineer, academic and author. He is a Full Professor and Distinguished Research Excellence Chair in Sustainable Biomaterials at the Ontario Agriculture College and is the Director of the Bioproducts Discovery and Development Centre at the University of Guelph.

Mohanty has received a lot of recognition for his work in the field of bioplastics, biocomposites and advanced biorefinery. He has authored over 850 publications, has been cited over 72,000 times, and has 25 patents awarded. He is also the author of 30 book chapters, and 8 edited books .

Mohanty is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Royal Society of Canada, Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE) and the Indian Chemical Society (ICS). He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Sustainable Composites, Composites Part C – Open Access.

Early life and education Mohanty was born in Odisha, India. He spent early life in Cuttack and Bubaneshwar, India. He studied at the Capital High School, Bhubaneswar. Mohanty then studied at Utkal University, and earned his bachelor's degree with Distinction in Chemistry in 1978, a Master's degree in Polymer Chemistry in 1980, and Doctoral degree in Chemistry in 1987.

Career Following his Doctoral degree, Mohanty held appointment as a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in 1987 at Government Colleges affiliated with Berhampur and Utkal University, India. From 1998 till 1999, he held brief appointments as Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at Technische Universität Berlin, and as Post-Doctoral Associate at Iowa State University. Following these appointments, he joined Michigan State University as a Visiting Research Associate in 2000, and was promoted to Visiting Associate Professor in 2001, and to associate professor in 2003. He then moved to Canada, and held his next appointment at the University of Guelph as a professor in the Department of Plant Agriculture and School of Engineering.

Research Mohanty has focused his research on engineering value-added uses of biomass wastes and industrial co-products from agro-food and biofuel industries. He has also worked extensively on sustainable polymers, circular economy, environmental sustainability, waste plastic valorization, biodegradable plastics as single-use plastic alternatives, biocarbon based composites, and 3D printing of sustainable materials.

Biocarbon composites Mohanty was the first to demonstrate that biocarbon significantly improves barrier properties when used as a filler in composite materials. He demonstrated that biocarbon acts as an oxygen scavenger to improve oxygen barrier of biodegradable polymers and blends . Furthermore, he explored the impact of poly(propylene carbonate) polyol in the context of biobased epoxy interpenetrating network .

Mohanty was among the pioneers to report the effectiveness of biocarbon as a reinforcing agent, filler, and colourant in thermoplastic composites . He explored several ways to increase the renewable content in plastic resins, developed high-quality biocarbon from a variety of non-food biomass sources, and also showed that the morphology and allotropy of renewable biocarbon can be manipulated for materials design . He was the first to use biocarbon in thermoplastic composites and demonstrate its high potential in industrial applications, to be used as a reinforcement in polymer composite materials and to substitute carbon black , mineral fillers like talc, and short glass fibre . His research regarding biocarbon-based plastic biocomposites is used by Ford Motor Company, Volkswagen, General Motors, and Tesla, while conducting their trials of automotive parts.

Biocomposites In his studies regarding bio-based plastics and bio-based fillers , Mohanty designed biocomposites to use closed-loop strategies to improve sustainability through the value-added integration of agri-food residues .

While using "waste" from reclaimed coffee bean skins with more expensive compostable plastic blends, he developed numerous commercial resins, including the world's first 100% compostable coffee pod certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) . His invention combines the advantages of biodegradable plastics, green chemistry , reactive extrusion, and process engineering, along with the integration of the industrial 'waste' product of the coffee roasting industry . Mohanty along with Manjusri Misra also developed a "green floor" formulation, based on a plant derived plastic resin, poly(lactic acid) (PLA). His innovation eliminated plasticizers containing harmful phthalates in the products .

Awards, Honours and Distinctions

Personal life Mohanty is married to Manjusri Misra.